Godina heaves to shot put gold

By K.P. Mohan

EDMONTON, AUG. 5. John Godina produced a big one on his opening throw, then had one more that outstripped the field and fouled the next four. But the fouls did not matter in the end, for, his first putt of 21.87 metres was beyond the reach of the rest, as it turned out, on the second day of the World athletic championships here on Saturday.

The American had the shot put gold for the third time in the World meet, having won the crown in 1995 and 1997 as well, to equal the haul of Swiss Werner Gunthor. Godina's team-mate, friend and rival, Adam Nelson claimed the silver while Olympic champion Arsi Harju of Finland took the bronze.

As track and field action began at the Commonwealth Stadium, after the marathon-dominated opening day, sparsely- filled stands, not to speak of early morning rains, greeted the athletes. The temperatures were, however, into the high 20s by the time the male walkers trooped out for the 20 km event around a course outside the stadium.

It was a Russian sweep, with Roman Rassakazov keeping that little extra for the end stages to outlast team-mates Viktor Burayev and Ilya Markov, the defending champion. Olympic champion Robert Korzeniowski of Poland was not in the fray, having decided to compete only in the 50km event.

The 22-year-old Rassakazov, a former world junior champion, had equalled a world best in the 20 km road event at the Russian championship last year, with 1:17:46, but still would have been rated behind the 18-year-old Burayev and the experienced Markov. In the end, he entered the stadium first and maintained a marginal gap from Markov and held onto it to claim the gold in 1:20:31.

Markov, fighting exhaustion during the final four kilometres and on two warnings, ended up just two seconds behind Rassakazov while Burayev was a further three seconds adrift for the bronze. Australian Nathan Deakes who threatened to break the Russian monopoly at several stages towards the end was left behind during the last 2km. He finished fourth in 1:20:55.

Among the major disqualifications were Belarus's Yevgeniy Misyula and Russian Vladimir Andreyev, bronze winner at the last Olympics who led at the half-way mark.

From bronze at the Sydney Olympics to the gold now was on expected lines for John Godina. He had been at the very top in recent years and the third-place finish in Sydney was one of those aberrations which every athlete has to go through at some point or the other.

``I was a little tired in the morning and the ball slipped a few times. That's why I was not throwing too well. That is just the way it goes sometimes, but I was happy to see that it did not affect me at all this afternoon. After all, the morning and afternoon are like two completely different track meets. It is like a rebirth after the qualification, '' said Godina.

Godina had reached 20.52 metres in the morning qualifying round compared to the top mark of 21.26m that South African Janus Roberts achieved. In the latter's case, there was a reversal for the worse in the final as he managed just 20.18 to place 12th and last.

Nelson, who won the silver at the Sydney Olympics, remained in that slot despite a spirited effort to overhaul his team-mate while Harju grabbed the bronze by just two centimetres over Spaniard Manuel Martinez and Yugoslav Dragan Peric, at 20.93.

``I was very relieved to make it through the qualifying rounds this morning in 12th position, and then come into the final and be able to start all over again.

``John Godina came and had a huge first throw which sort of hypnotised everyone in the competition, It is really tough to respond to something like that. He has been throwing great all year around and it would have taken something extra for any of us to push him. I was hoping maybe I will be able to, but I was so relieved after making the finals that my technique fell apart a little it,'' said Nelson.

Harju was happy that he had a medal. ``I had a bad session in the morning and only qualified with my last throw. We had three Finns in the final and all of us threw well. It think this is great result for all of us,'' said the Olympic champion. The other Finns, Connie Karlsson and Ville Tisanoja, finished seventh and ninth respectively.

Barber out of heptathlon

Though medals were decided only in the walk and shot put, the focus was on the track events plus the heptathlon. Quite unfortunately, Frenchwoman Eunice Barber, defending her crown, went out of the race in hepatathlon, failing to notch up a mark in shot put after having led at the end of the first two events. She was in tears immediately after fouling her final attempt in shot put and dropped out after that.

After the withdrawal of Briton Denise Lewis, it was more or less taken for granted that Barber will have a smooth progress towards the title. With her mishap and drop-out, the lead went to Natalya Szazanovich of Belarus at 3923 after the first day's events. Svetlana Kazanina, the Asian champion, also registered a `no mark', like Barber, in shot put, but she was still hanging in there in last place with 2591, behind India's Pramila Ganapathy.

Maurice Greene clocked a 9.88 in the quarterfinals. Whether that was wind-aided or not-which will never be known since there was a malfunctioning of the system - it was a fabulous timing, for he was not only easing up but looking on either side towards the finish.

``This is just the start,'' said Greene. ``Was there a message for Tim Montgomery'', someone asked. ``He just got the mssage from me,'' said the man who is gunning for a hat-trick of sprint titles.

The revelation in the women's 1500m heats was the 23- year-old Turkish woman Sureyya Ayhan whose front-running swept aside many a favourite. She held on till the end for a 4:07.97 finish. In another heat, Chinese Lan Lixin tried similar tactics but was overhauled by six others on the finishing straight. The Chinese clocked a season best 4:12.92 to go through as one of the fastest losers.

To get in as the last fastest loser in the women's 1500m was the Olympic champion, Nouria Merah-Benida. She finished eighth in her heat and looked hardly the champion that she was in Sydney. Gabriela Szabo won her heat while the Romanian who is everyone's favourite for the title, Violeta Szekely won her's though in a poor time of 4:13.19.

From the Asian angle, there was disappointment in the fact that though he qualified, Japanese hammer thrower Koji Murofushi did so after a struggle. He could reach only 78.06 which put him 10th out of 12 qualifiers. Only two, Olympic champion Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland and Hungarian Balasz Kiss cleared the automatic qualification mark of 79.50.

Another Japanese, sprinter Nobuhara Asahara made it from the quarterfinal heats in 10.06 coming behind Briton Dwain Chambers. Also through to the next round in the 400 metres was Sugath Tillakeratne of Sri Lanka who came behind Saudi Arabian Hamdan Al-Bishi (45.00) and Jamaican Michael McDonald in his heat in 45.41 secs.

The results:

Men's shot put: 1. John Godina (US) 21.87m, 2. Adam Nelson (US) 21.24, 3. Arji Harsu (Fin) 20.93.

Men's 20 km walk: 1. Roman Rassakazov (Rus) 1:20:31, 2. Ilya Markov (Rus) 1:20:33, 3. Viktor Burayev (Rus) 1:20:36.

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