BERLIN, 11 August 2003 — Veteran Namibian sprinting great Frankie Fredericks stole the show from the younger generation here yesterday winning a thrilling 100m at the Golden League meeting.
The four-time Olympic silver medalist over 100 and 200m edged out John Capel — one of his main rivals for 200m gold at the world championships later this month — and another experienced campaigner Jon Drummond.
However Fredericks, 35, said he wasn’t certain whether he would run the 100 as well in Paris despite his victory.
“Well 10.23 seconds shouldn’t be good enough to win a medal, so I don’t think I will run it unless it is just to get me some speed practice,” he said.
“However these young guys are getting tougher,” added the 200m world champion of 1993.
Fredericks prevailed in a field that lacked the presence of world record holder Tim Montgomery, who had returned home to the United States after two disappointing performances in Europe and world and Olympic champion Maurice Greene, who opted to run just in the 4x100 relay.
Mozambique’s multi-medaled 800m runner Maria Mutola remains the only athlete still in with a chance of winning the one million dollar gold bar at the end of the series as she won and the only other runner in contention, Bahamian sprinter Chandra Sturrup, could only finish third.
Sturrup’s hopes of sharing in the million-dollar bonus disappeared as she finished behind American duo Kelli White and Chryste Gaines.
The 31-year-old looked to be on course for her fourth victory in the series until both White and Gaines came back at her to run her down and leave her bitterly disappointed.
110m hurdles great Allen Johnson was also able to see the bright side of defeat, when he too came in third behind the man most likely to pose him problems in Paris, Latvia’s Stanislas Olijars.
However the 1996 Olympic champion said he was happy with his overall form, which has seen him run the fastest time over the distance in three years — 12.97sec in Paris last month. Olijars, who Johnson listed along with Chinese talent Xiang Liu as his main rivals, said he was also in form.
Remarkable Turkish athlete Sureya Ayhan made a storming return to the Golden League meetings by posting the fastest time in the world this year in the 1500m as the European champion finished 50 meters ahead of the rest in 3min 59.58sec.
Russia’s Samitova Shatters Women’s Steeplechase Record
In Tula, Russia, Gulnara Samitova shattered the women’s 3,000 meters steeplechase world record at the Russian championships yesterday.
Samitova clocked nine minutes 08.35 seconds to shave more than eight seconds from the old mark of 9:16.51 set by Alesya Turova of Belarus on July 27, 2002 in Gdansk, Poland.
It was the second world record to fall at the national championships in the last three days after Yulia Pechyonkina bettered the women’s 400 metres hurdles mark on Friday.
Pechyonkina clocked 52.34 seconds in the final to break American Kim Batten’s mark of 52.61 set at the 1995 world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Samitova, who went out at a blistering pace from the start, maintained her stride for much of the race as she lapped some of the weaker runners on the final stretch. She finished more than 150 meters ahead of her nearest rival.
The women’s steeplechase is not a championship event this year but will make its world championship debut in 2005.
Yesterday’s victory was Samitova’s second Russian title after she won the 5,000 meters final in her first race at the distance with the time of 15:04.08 on Thursday.
The 25-year-old physical education student from Naberezhnye Chelny on the Volga River said she took up running long distances just over a year ago.
The nationals, which finished on Sunday in the industrial city of Tula some 200 km south of Moscow, served as qualifiers for the Paris world championships this month.
