OSLO, 6 August 2003 — Norwegian javelin thrower Paal Arne Fagernes, who finished fourth in the 1999 world championships, died in a car crash this week.
“It is with great grief that we have received notice that a versatile and talented athlete has passed away,” the Norwegian Athletic Association said yesterday.
Hailed as a multitalented athlete and Norway’s biggest hope in track and field, Fagernes was ninth in the 2000 Olympic final having set a national record of 86.74 meters in qualifying.
“His death is terribly sad for his friends and family, and it’s also tragic for Norwegian sport,” said Bjoerge Stensboel, chief of Norwegian elite athletes.
“He managed power, strength, reaction, speed and perseverance. That’s quite uncommon,” Stensboel said. “Fagernes could have gone far in any sport. He was also a great cross-country skier.”
He took up professional boxing earlier this year, winning his first bout in Benidorm, Spain when he knocked his opponent out after 25 seconds. But the 29-year-old courted controversy and was sentenced to 18 days in jail for disturbing the peace shortly before the Olympics in Sydney. He was left out of the 2001 world championships in Edmonton, Canada after showing up drunk for an interview and was also fined for taking cocaine and amphetamines. He had yet to reach the qualifying distance for this month’s world championships in Paris. “Everyone knew his weak sides, but he was still a great guy,” said Per-Oyvind Moerk, former director at the Athletic Association and a friend of Fagernes. “When you are working with a man like Paal Arne you get to know all parts of his life.” Police said the fatal crash in south east Norway on Monday happened when Fagernes collided head-on with a truck carrying granite rocks.
Triple Jumper Hansen Out of World Championships
In London, Britain’s Ashia Hansen, the Commonwealth and European women’s triple jump champion, has been forced out of this month’s world championships in Paris after aggravating an Achilles injury.
“It was an incredibly difficult decision but now that I have made it I feel relieved and can focus all my efforts on returning to peak condition in preparation for the Olympics next year,” Hansen said in a statement yesterday.
