Markov vaults to a new meet high

By K.P. Mohan

EDMONTON, AUG. 9.One failure away from elimination, Dmitri Markov held his nerves, cleared his opening height of 5.75 metres and then went onto reach a personal best and a championship record of 6.05 metres in an absorbing pole vault competition at the Commonwealth Stadium here on Thursday.

Day seven of the World athletic championships would have been a big yawn but for the efforts of the pole vaulters and an outstanding victory by high hurdler Allen Johnson, his third in the Worlds, in a season-leading 13.04 seconds.

To have the 20km walk as the lone women's final on this day when there were just four finals, was surely not the way to go about attracting crowds. The lack of capacity crowds was explained by the IAAF and the organising committee at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, but such a scheduling will only make matters worse.

The crowd was kept on its toes by Markov whose entry at 5.75 metres in pole vault, looked a foolish decision when the Belarus- born former Russian athlete, now representing Australia, failed twice. He cleared on his third attempt and then cleared 5.90 and 5.95 on his first attempts to be the lone man in contention for the gold.

Eleven athletes cleared or passed 5.75 and that in itself showed the high level of the competition. Only four of them, Olympic champion Nick Hysong of the U.S., German Michael Stolle, Frenchman Romain Mesnil, and Israeli Aleksandr Averbukh cleared the next height of 5.85.

Markov passed that height. He knew that on a countback at that height, he was going to figure nowhere since he had taken three attempts to clear 5.75m. His best chance was to pull off a 5.90 and when he did that, he was straightaway the favourite for the gold.

Everyone else failed at that height. Averbukh reserved two of his jumps for the next height of 5.95 and failed there, too. Now, Markov was alone. He sailed over 6.05 metres on his second attempt to be only the third man behind Sergey Bubka and Maksim Tarasov of Russia to have reached that height.

``It is really a great day in my life. I never expected to jump over six metres before the competition started, but I am very proud to have cleared 6.05. Coming in, I was a little worried because my foot was sore. I spent 10 hours yesterday and three hours today just icing it, but after what I did today it feels much better,'' said Markov.

Markov and Allen Johnson apart, the day's other gold medals were claimed by Greek Konstadinos Kederis, who showed that his Olympic victory in the 200 metres was no fluke, and Russian walker Olimpiada Ivanova.

Allen Johnson rattled timber right through and yet manage to clock a world-leading 13.04s in the high hurdles. He had said in the run-up that he was injury free for the first time in many years and was ready to regain the title.

Johnson did that despite a stiff challenge from Olympic champion Anier Garcia of Cuba. Though both were credited with the same reaction time of 0.150s, Johnson looked to have clearly gained at the start. By the first hurdle itself he was in the lead and though he clipped seven hurdles on the way, he maintained the edge to finish three-hundredth of a second ahead of Garcia.

The bronze went to Haiti's Dudley Dorival who had the best start of among the medal winners, a 0.134 reaction time. Dorival said that he was happy that he got lane 8 since ``no one could bother me''. Olimpiada Ivanova broke away early and never looked back while scoring an effortless victory in the women's 20km walk. With top stars being disqualified at regular intervals, Ivanova was left with modest opposition which never managed to reach anywhere near her.

For the better part she was pursued by her Russian team-mate, Yelena Nikolayeva, but the latter was disqualified around the half-way stage.

Other top contenders to be eliminated through disqualifications were defending champion Liu Hongyu of China, Australian Kerry Saxby-Junna, Chinese Sun Chunfang, Susana Feitor of Portugal, and Jane Saville of Australia, who, we all remember led up to the road into the stadium at the Sydney Olympics and was then shown the red card. She was in tears then, and on Thursday, too, she was in tears.

Kederis wins men's 200m

Kederis outclassed the men's 200 metres field with his fine spurt over the last 20 metres. The Greek was off to a poor start and trailed Jamaican Christopher Williams coming off the bend. Once into the straight, Kederis's power was all too evident. He was simply unstoppable over the final stretch and as he finished more than a stride ahead of the rest who were involved in a blanket finish, Sydney was recalled.

Behind Kederis, three men clocked the same timing of 20.20, Williams, Kim Collins of St. Kitts and American Shawn Crawford. Williams was adjudged the silver winner while Collins and Crawford were awarded bronze medals.

Yegorova cleared

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Thursday cleared Russian middle distance runner Olga Yegorova of any drug suspicion following negative reports about 10 of the 11 samples that were referred for final urine testing for EPO at the IOC-accredited laboratory in Lausanne.

The IAAF Secretary-General, Mr. Istvan Gyulai, said that the lone positive test was that of an athlete who had already participated here and was not scheduled to take part any further. The athlete had not won a medal and was not from the host nation, he added in answer to a query.

By referring to the athlete as `he', Mr. Gyulai did let one secret out. The rest, he said would be known after the concerned national federation and the athlete were informed, the athlete given a chance to explain and then the `B' sample tested for confirmation.

Yegorova was in the clear. Mr. Gyulai said that the scientists had assured the IAAF that even if someone had taken EPO earlier, a clear reference to Yegorova, there would be no advantage at this stage.

It was not known who were the others whose urine samples were tested after blood tests showed abnormal levels of red blood cells. That could have been caused by other factors also and hence the urine test to conclusively prove that it was because of EPO.

Yegorova has tested positive for EPO at the Paris Golden League meeting in July, but the IAAF could not pursue the case further since accepted protocols were not followed. Her blood test was never taken and as per the IOC's approved testing for EPO a combination of blood and urine testing was required.

Following a threat by Romanian Gabriela Szabo, the IAAF then pressed forward for early results of its own testing programme. But, experts opined that the urine testing was bound to turn up negative since the EPO would not remain in the urine for more than two or three days. Yegorova and others were tested well after the Paris meeting under the IAAF's anti-EPO drive.

Even before the final decision on the testing was made known, Szabo announced that she would be competing in the heats of the 5000 metres and abide by the decision of the IAAF.

Curiously, she was drawn in the same heat as Yegorova in Thursday's 5000m preliminaries. The Russian finished ahead of the Romanian while qualifying for Saturday's final. Marta Dominguez of Spain won that heat, followed by Yegorova, team-mate Tatyana Tomoshova and Szabo.

The results:

Men's 200m: 1. Konstadinos Kederis (Gre) 20.04s, 2. Christopher Williams (Jam) 20.20, 3. Kim Collins (SKN) 20.20 and Shawn Crawford (U.S.) 20.20.

Men's 110m hurdles: 1. Allen Johnson (US) 13.04s, 2. Anier Garcia (Cub) 13.07, 3. Dudley Dorival (Hai) 13.25.

Men's pole vault: 1. Dmitri Markov (Aus) 6.05 (meet record, old 6.02), 2. Aleksandr Averbukh (Isr) 5.85, 3. Nick Hysong (US) 5.85.

Women's 20km walk: 1. Olimpiada Ivanova (Rus) 1:27:48 (meet record, old 1:30:50), 2. Valentina Tsybulskaya (Blr) 1:28:49, 3. Elisabetta Perrone (Ita) 1:28:56.

* * *

Saturday's finals

Women's discus

Women's 5,000m

Men's long jump

Men's 50 km walk

Women's 100m hurdles

Women's 4 x 100m relay

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