Hobbling Greene still good enough to complete hat-trick

By K. P. Mohan

EDMONTON, AUG. 6. Three false starts, a pinch on the left quad, then a twitch on the hamstring. Yet Maurice Greene came up with the third fastest time in the history of sprinting. Needless to say, World championship title No. 3, on the trot, was there for him to take on a balmy Sunday afternoon at the Commonwealth Stadium here.

Greene hobbled across the finish, almost taking a leap for his final stride to the line as he noticed, from the corner of his left eye, that Tim Montgomery was closing in fast. But then Montgomery would have been hard put to be in the race with the champion had Greene not felt something going wrong with his quad and hamstring muscles about 15 metres from the finish.

The typical stormy finish was thus missing. There was no raising of the right index finger nor the swaying of the head. Instead, Greene was grimacing. He turned around, saw the track- side timer had stopped at 9.82, hugged Ato Boldon, who had faded out to the fourth, and then slowly took an American flag and limped away for his victory lap to the cheers of around 30,000 fans.

Montgomery had 9.85s while Bernard Williams clocked a personal best 9.94s for the bronze to make it an American sweep, the first since 1991 when Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell figured in the 1-2-3 for the U.S. Then, in Tokyo, there was a world record. Here, too, many, including Marion Jones had looked forward to a world record in this final. Perhaps it might have come about had Greene not been hampered by those twitches and tugs during the final 15 metres.

``I could have clocked a 9.77. But that's only speculation,'' said Greene when asked how much the injury had affected him. He had been nursing a left knee injury for some time and wore a band to protect his patella tendon. Only he himself has clocked better, 9.80 to win in Seville two years ago, apart from his world record of 9.79s.

Montgomery was slapped with one of the three false starts, the others being on Ato Boldon and Kim Collins of St. Kitts. He felt that the false start had robbed him of the chance to win the gold and possibly a world record. Boldon felt that the false starts did not matter, while Greene opined that these were part of any major race and one had to cope with it and concentrate on running one's own race.

That is what the `Kansas Comet' did after getting off to the best start (reaction time 0.132) and then, driving off powerfully, head down, gaining over the field past the halfway mark. There was a slight slackening towards the end. Montgomery did everything he could after a modest start (reaction time 0.157) and made a desperate attempt over the final 10 metres, but in vain.

``These two guys were in another race,'' said Williams. Behind him came Boldon, who talked about something drastic next season to get out of the rut of defeats. Briton Dwain Chambers, bronze medallist two years ago, could not recover after a poor start and finished fifth in 9.99.

By winning his third 100m gold, Greene emulated Carl Lewis who won the first three from 1983. ``Carl has been a great competitor. People talk of him as the greatest sprinter. Maybe my name will be placed with that of Carl Lewis from now on,'' said Greene who had clocked a modest 10.01 earlier in the semifinals from which the local heroes, Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin did not come through. Greene said he would not be competing in the 200 metres now and only if he felt fit enough would he be running the relay also. ``When I moved to John Smith in 1997, I had said I wanted to bring America back as the No. 1 in sprinting. Today we have accomplished the top three places. What more can we ask for,'' said Greene. Incidentally, gold No. 3 for the 27-year-old Kansas sprinter was also a birthday present for coach John Smith.

It was natural only that on a day like this when Greene completed his hat-trick and Marion Jones set off for her double, the others would take a backseat. The others were Polish hammer thrower Szymon Ziolkowski and Belarus shot putter Yanina Korolchik, both of whom added the world titles to their Olympic gold medals.

Ziolkowski won the hammer throw, edging Japan's Koji Murofushi in an epic battle. Murofushi produced a fabulous series and led up to the fifth round before settling for the silver, only Japan's second in these championships over the years outside of the marathon. Yanina Korolchik of Belarus ended German Astrid Kumbernuss's reign in women's shot put with a National record of 20.61. No one else touched 20 metres.

Drechsler eliminated

In a sensational elimination, Olympic champion Heike Drechsler went out of the women's long jump qualification without a mark against her name, though a run- through on her second attempt was credited as 4.45m. That was achieved when she really did not take off after she was given medical attention following a foul on her first jump. Her right thigh was heavily strapped.

``I came to the stadium today healthy and was feeling great. During my run-ups and the first jump I felt pain in my right leg which warned me that there was something wrong. I tried to jump again but it just did not work.

``This is a familiar situation for me. I have been here before and it is surely not the end. We have the European championships next year in Munich, and then maybe the World championships in two years' time, we will see,'' said Drechsler.

Track invariably attracts all the attention in a meet like this, but many an eye was glued towards the hammer cage where Murofushi opened with a 79.91 and showed that he had shed his `lows' that marked the qualification round.

The Japanese, son of the legendary Shigenobu Murofushi, five-time Asian Games hammer champion, produced a 82.46m on his second attempt and that looked likely to carry the day. But then, the Pole came up with 83.38 in the fifth round that bettered Sergey Litvinov's meet record (83.06) set in 1987.

Murofushi gave it all he had on his fifth, which measured 82.92m and his last try, which came up to 82.61. Murofushi held his head, shook it and then slowly walked up to Ziokowski to shake hands with him. Watching his son anxiously from the stands was father Shigenobu who must have been a touch disappointed but at the same time happy that Koji had a medal at last at the global level.

``Twice he had beaten me this season. I am happy he did not beat me a third time,'' said Ziolkowski, who agreed that he was a little lucky to have won the gold on a day when his rival produced a series of excellent throws. Murofushi's series was 79.91, 82.46, 81.95, 81.43, 82.92, 82.61.

Korolchik, favourite here, struck it rich on her third throw that practically ended the below-par women's shot put competition. Kumbernuss, winner of the three previous editions, tried till the end, but the German was not really in her element this day and finished sixth with just 19.25.

Another German, Nadine Kleinert-Schmitt, snatched the silver away from Ukrainian Vita Pavlysh through a last throw of 19.86.

Russia's Yelena Prokhorova clinched the heptathlon crown with a tally of 6694 points, her best for the season. Belarus's Natalya Sazanovich was second with 6539 after having led at the end of the fifth event, while American Sheila Burrell compiled a personal best 6472 to claim the bronze.

Pramila disappoints

India's Pramila Ganapathy finished 15th and last, with Asian champion Svetlana Kazanina of Kazakhstan giving up after five events. Kazanina and defending champion Eunice Barber had registered `no marks' in shot put yesterday and though the Frenchwoman dropped out, Kazanina continued till the javelin. Pramila had a total of 5492, well below her potential.

Marion Jones and Greek Ekaterini Thanou clocked identical 10.97s in the women's 100 metres quarterfinals as they led the qualifiers through.

Despite Thanou's timing, Jones felt that the fight for the gold and silver should be between her and Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas, while the others could be battling for the bronze.

Gabriela Szabo, who is still undecided about her participation in the 5000 metres, over the doping controversy concerning Russian Olga Yegorova, topped the qualifiers' list in the 1500 metres. She clocked a 4:07.40. American Suzy Favor- Hamilton crashed out of the semifinals.

Hot favourite Andre Bucher of Switzerland led the men's 800 metres qualifiers into the final with a performance of 1:44.47. German Nils Schumann, the Olympic champion, looked to have left things a little too late but came charging through the final 50 metres to make it, though in a modest 1:45.86.

There was an unlikely topper in the men's 400 metres semifinal heats with German Ingo Schultz clocking 44.6s. Jamaican Greg Haughton (44.83), American Antonio Pettigrew (45.00) and Avard Moncur of the Bahamas (44.89) were the other prominent qualifiers.

Asian champion Hamdan Al-Bishi of Saudi Arabia, qualified as one of the two `best losers', but Sri Lankan Sugath Tillakeratne could manage only the 22nd place among 23 finishers in three heats, with a 46.69.

The results:

Men's 100m: 1. Maurice Greene (U.S.) 9.82s, 2. Tim Montgomery (U.S.) 9.85, 3. Bernard Williams (U.S.) 9.94.

Men's hammer throw: 1. Szymon Ziolkowski (Pol) 83.38m (meet record, old 83.06), 2. Koji Murofushi (Jpn) 82.92, 3. Ilya Konovalov (Rus) 80.27.

Women's shot put: 1. Yanina Korolchik (Blr) 20.61m, 2. Nadine Kleinert-Schmitt (Ger) 19.86, 3. Vita Pavlysh (Ukr) 19.41.

Heptathlon: 1. Yelena Prokhorova (Rus) 6694 pts, 2. Natlya Sazanovich (Blr) 6539, 3. Sheila Burrell (US) 6472.

* * *

Tuesday's finals

Women's long jump Women's 1,500m Men's 800m

Women's hammer throw

Completion of decathlon

Women's 400m

Women's 10,000m

Belarussian Yanina Korolchik, winner of the women's shot put.

- AP

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