Sport - Athletics

Anju finishes seventh

NEW DELHI: Anju George finished seventh in a field of eight in the Prefontaine Classic at Eugene, Oregon, U.S., on Sunday with a jump of 6.47 metres.

The star long jumper, gearing up towards the Beijing Olympics, opened with 6.47 but could not better that mark as the competition progressed. On a windy day, she had two fouls and jumps of 6.25, 6.36 and 6.40 in the series.

This was Anju’s second Grand Prix of the season and the performance turned out to be poorer than that at Doha (6.55m, fifth) and also the South Asian championships in Kochi (6.50m) where she took the gold.

Brazilian Maurren Higa Maggi won the gold with a wind-aided 7.02m, with rising American star Funmi Jimoh claiming the silver (wind-aided 6.85) and Russian veteran Tatyana Kotova (6.69m) the bronze. Reigning Olympic and World champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia finished fifth at 6.62m, while the 2005 World champion, Tianna Madison of the U.S., ended up last with just 6.04m.

Because of bereavement in the family, Anju had to miss training after Doha.

“My speed is okay, but I lack a little in power,” said Anju over phone from Eugene on Monday. “Anyway, I am heading for more competitions in the coming weeks,” she said. She planned to compete in the inter-State meet in Madurai and the Asian Grand Prix series in the last week of this month.

Husband and coach Bobby George said that the recovery (after the jet-lag) might have been insufficient. The wind variations also mattered, he said.

“Either she was taking off from behind or else committing fouls,” he added.

Looking at the performance of the others, especially that of Lebedeva and Kotova, Anju said that the Beijing competition could be “open” with no firm favourite. It is doubtful whether Lebedeva would be doubling up for long jump and triple jump as she did at Athens four years ago.

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