HELSINKI, 8 August 2005 — Justin Gatlin swept away opposition to win the 100 meter sprint yesterday and add the world championship title to his Olympic gold medal.
The overwhelming favorite didn’t even have to dip for the line to clock 9.88 seconds and hold a massive .17 second margin over silver medalist Michael Frater of Jamaica. Defending champion Kim Collins was third, also in 10.05.
“I had more left in the tank,” Gatlin said of his season’s best time. Now, the American will go for the 200 title and the 400 relay to emulate the feat of compatriot Maurice Greene in 1999.
Performing on a tender ankle, Olympic champion Carolina Kluft fought back to beat France’s Eunice Barber in the heptathlon and retain her world titles. The Swede, who strained her jumping ankle on the eve of the seven-event competition, capped a thrilling weekend by coming back on the final bend of the closing 800 and overtake Barber and clinch the title.
She fell to the ground and held her taped left ankle, savoring a famous victory. She won with a 6,887 points, followed by Barber with 6,824. Ghana’s Margaret Simpson took bronze.
“It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic,” Kluft said. Kluft lost badly in the first two events but overtook the 2001 champion on Sunday and crossed the finish line of the 800 to the rousing cheers of the Nordic crowd at the 40,000-capcity Olympic Stadium.
Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia set the first world record of the competition earlier yesterday, clinching $160,000 to win the 20-kilometer walk. Under a setting sun that gave the skies over the stadium a golden glow, and with the national flags hanging limp on their staffs for the first time all day, Gatlin had the ideal conditions to shine. He promised he would have broken the world record if needed, but his dominance was such that he could coast over the final meters and finish .11 seconds slower than the mark of Asafa Powell.
The absence of the injured Jamaican is the only question mark which will now hang over Gatlin’s performance. Frater tried to make up for Powell’s absence, and getting a silver for Jamaica was a major surprise.
Collins, of St. Kitts and Nevis, had been struggling all season, but he proved again he was the man for the big occasion, sneaking through for bronze.
In a Baltic battle, double Olympic and defending champion Virgilijus Alekna of Lithuania needed a championship-record throw of 70.17 meters in the discus on the last attempt of the competition to win. That bettered the mark of Estonia’s Gerd Kanter by 1.60 meters. On a good day for Jamaica, Trecia Smith won the triple jump with a leap of 15.11 meters, beating Yargelis Savigne of Cuba and Anna Pyatykh of Russia. Like the 100, the triple jump was affected by injury. Tatyana Lebedeva, the double defending champion, withdrew at the last minute because of an Achilles problem.
Ivanova dominated the walk from start to finish, and even had time to wrap herself in a Russian flag before crossing the line in 1 hour, 25 minutes, 41 seconds. It beat the old mark set two years ago by 41 seconds.
Ivanova also won the world title in 2001 and got the silver medal in Athens at last year’s Olympics. Favorites Christine Arron and Chandra Sturrup both easily qualified for Monday’s semifinals in the women’s 100, Arron clocking 11.03 while running into a headwind.
The Frenchwoman is still unbeaten in the Golden League this year but Sturrup has the fastest time.
Yuliya Nesterenko qualified second in the same quarterfinal as Arron.
The heptathlon battle between Kluft and 2001 Barber lived up to all the hype.
After Kluft overcame a painful ankle and rallied to put herself back into contention for the gold on Saturday, she swept past Barber in the long jump. Kluft jumped a season’s beat 6.87 meters, edging Barber by 12 centimeters. In the javelin, Kluft again set a season’s best with 47.20 meters. Barber was expected to do much better but only managed 48.24. It set up the thrilling 800 and extended her winning streak to 13 heptathlons. Ivanova is not expected to be the only Russian collecting the $100,000 prize for a world record. Yelena Isinbayeva will also be looking for the prize.
