The Hindu : Capel sprints to the 200m title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 31, 2003

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Capel sprints to the 200m title

By K.P. Mohan

PARIS AUG. 29. John Capel and Darvis Patton brought America back to the sprint podium in convincing fashion, but it was the bronze that Shingo Suetsugu earned in the 200 metres that had an enormous significance, at least from the Asian angle, as the ninth World athletics championships went through a thin card of three finals on the seventh day here on Friday.

In the slowest ever World championships 200m final, on a rainy, chilly night, the Americans had a one-two, with Capel winning the gold in 20.30 and Patton a hundredth of a second behind.

Suetsugu, after having looked like challenging everyone for the silver at least, as he had promised, slackened a little on the home straight and was lucky to get into the medals bracket, the first time a Japanese has achieved such a distinction in the sprints.

Suetsugu made a desperate lunge at the finish and that helped him push Briton Darren Campbell, looking out for his second medal, to the fourth spot. The Japanese clocked 20.38, with Campbell, winner of the bronze in the 100m, just a hundredth of a second behind.

Suetsugu was overjoyed. "I cannot believe it,'' said the 23-year-old Japanese, the Asian Games champion and Asian record holder. "It is simply amazing. The atmosphere of the stadium helped me a lot. I did not have a good start, but I am still happy with my performance,'' said Suetsugu.

Not since Susumu Takano made the 400m final in Tokyo in 1991 had a Japanese made a sprint final. And Takano happens to be Suetsugu's coach. The master would not have envied his pupil on this occasion. As the confirmation of the results came, the Japanese was overjoyed and then he broke into tears.

The last track medal that Japan won at the Worlds was at Edmonton when Dae Tamesue took the bronze in the men's 400m hurdles.

America had another success in the evening when Dwight Phillips, in a body suit with a hood to boot, a la Cathy Freeman at Sydney Olympics, jumped 8.32m in the fifth round to clinch the long jump gold. The 25-year-old American thus added the outdoor world title to the indoor one he already possessed.

The conditions were far from ideal for the jumpers, with a wet runway and a chilly wind, though mild, making things extremely difficult. Yet, the momentum picked up in the final rounds with the experienced Jamaican, James Beckford leading the field at one stage with a fifth-round jump of 8.28m, his best for the season.

Phillips responded with his winning jump and did a jig. Yago Lamela of Spain, silver medalist in the 1999 championships, who started the favourite in the absence of Cuban Ivan Pedroso and American Savante Stringfellow, managed only 8.22 for the bronze. Pedroso was injured at the start of the qualifying round while Stringfellow failed to qualify.

From the Asian angle, Taher Hussein Al-Sabee's 8.10 for the fifth place was not bad at all, though the Asian Games champion has a season best of 8.23m to his credit. Given the conditions and his start, a foul and 7.71, this was a praiseworthy effort by the Saudi Arabian who is being coached nowadays by world record holder Mike Powell.

Disaster struck South African Llewellyn Herbert on the last hurdle in the 400m hurdles final. He looked likely to threaten World champion Felix Sanchez or at least aim for the silver when he clipped the 10th hurdle and fell heavily.

He pumped his fist into the track in disappointment and then fell on his back, looking at the skies as though seeking an answer from the almighty how things could have gone so wrong when everything had looked so rosy moments earlier.

Sanchez proved that despite doubts expressed in certain quarters, he was still the best. By a long way. His 47.25s was world-leading and he had plenty to spare from the second-placed Joey Woody of the U.S. (48.18). Greek Periklis Iakovakis took the bronze in 48.24.

The 1999 champion Inga Babakova of Ukraine went out at the qualification stage of the women's high jump, clearing 1.88m against an automatic qualifying mark of 1.93. That mark was achieved by 10 jumpers including favourites Hestrie Cloete of South Africa, the defending champion, and Sweden's Kajsa Bergqvist, the leader this season.

China put both its high hurdlers into the final of the men's event, with 19-year-old Shi Dongping winning his heat and Liu Xiang coming second behind defending champion Allen Johnson of the U.S. in his semifinal heat. Terrence Trammell of the US won the third semifinal heat. Johnson was the fastest with a 13.19.

To go out at the semifinal stage in the men's 800m was the defending champion Andre Bucher of Switzerland. He could manage only the fifth place in a heat won by South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, in 1:46.67. Also out of the 800m final were world indoor champion David Krummenacker of the U.S. and Japheth Kimuthai of Kenya, the 1998 Commonwealth Games champion better known for ending Wilson Kipketer's winning streak.

Kipketer, incidentally, easily made it to the final, coming behind Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy. The others who qualified for the final were South African Hezekiel Sepeng, Andrea Longo of Italy, Djabir Saed-Guerni of Algeria, Justus Koech of Kenya and Osmar Barbosa dos Santos of Brazil.

The difficult conditions affected the men's javelin throwers as well. Miroslav Gudzek of the Czech Republic threw only to a distance of 77.24m and still got into the final. Since the advent of the new javelin in 1987, only that year did anyone with a mark below 78m get into the final.

German Boris Henry had an 83.43, Jan Zelezny, gunning for his fourth world title, topped his group, with an 82.88. Among the others, Russian Sergey Makarov had an 82.22, Chinese Li Rongxiang 81.76 and Briton Steve Backley 80.23.

The results:

Men's 200m: 1. John Capel (USA) 20.30s, Darvis Patton (USA) 20.31, 3. Shingo Suetsugu (Jpn) 20.38.

400m hurdles: 1. Felix Sanchez (Dom)47.25s, 2. Joey Woody (USA) 48.18, 3. Periklis Iakovakis (Gre) 48.24.

Long jump: 1. Dwight Phillips (USA) 8.32m, 2. James Beckford (Jam) 8.28, 3. Yago Lamela (Esp) 8.22.

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