HELSINKI, Finland, 13 August 2005 — For serial world record breaker Yelena Isinbayeva, the counting never stops. Without even running, the gold-medal count stopped at two for Justin Gatlin.
Isinbayeva set her 18th pole vault record with a jump of 5.01 meters yesterday to take gold at the world athletics championships.
The US relay squad dropped the baton in its heat, robbing the 100 and 200 meter gold medalist of a chance to get a sprint triple.
Gatlin’s close friend Allyson Felix immediately got the US team going again, however, winning the 200 ahead of teammate Rachel Boone-Smith, leaving France’s Christine Arron with bronze. The US relay team botched the first handover when Mardy Scales got the baton to Leonard Scott, who subsequently dropped it. “I put all the blame on myself,” Scott said.
“I was trying to pull for it and it slipped out of my hand. That was my fault.”
It ruined the chance for Gatlin to duplicate the feat of Maurice Greene, who clinched a triple at the 1999 world championships. Greene was ready to run the anchor leg in the heat, handing over that spot to Gatlin in case the team made the final.
Isinbayeva doesn’t have to rely on anyone to be one of the sport’s biggest stars.
The Russian didn’t miss a single height before she won gold at 4.70. She then cleared 5.01 on her second attempt, winning US$160,000 for the victory and record combined.
She celebrated increasing her mark by one centimeter before the near capacity crowd at the 40,000 Olympic Stadium, deliriously pumping her fists in the air before doing a backward summersault.
In the 110 hurdles, Ladji Doucoure of France won the gold medal in 13.07 seconds, beating Olympic champion Liu Xiang of China and Allen Johnson, who was seeking his fifth title.
At 19, Felix didn’t let the disappointment for Gatlin upset her during the final. The Olympic silver medalist came from behind to beat Arron in the closing stages and win in 22.16 seconds.
“I could not believe that the US team dropped the baton. But these things happen and I was just trying to focus on my race,” Felix said.
Gatlin had led a US sweep of the top four places in the 200 meters on Thursday, and had left the chase for his third gold medal to his teammates yesterday.
It didn’t diminish his trademark grin during the 200 medal ceremony yesterday.
Felix made sure the disappointment was a momentary blip. With two medals in the 200, the United States shot up to 10 gold medals and 17 overall, compared to second-place Russia, which has three gold and 11 overall.
Sergey Kirdyapkin and Aleksey Voyevodin took the top two places in the 50-kilometer walk. After finishing as the top medal nation in Paris just ahead of the Americans, Russia is not even close this time. In the 800 meters, the 1,500 champion Rashid Ramzi kept his challenge for a double going, qualifying for the final along with Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy.
Partly sunny skies replaced three days of horrendous weather at the Olympic Stadium and the wind dropped somewhat, setting perfect conditions for Isinbayeva record run.
US athletes continued to do well in other events, however.
Defending and Olympic champion Dwight Phillips easily qualified for the long jump final with a wind-aided 8.59 meters, another favorite to add more US gold during tomorrow’s final.
In the first issue involving doping, the IAAF was investigating whether Czech decathlon silver medalist Roman Sebrle and a teammate illegally received an intravenous infusion during the 10-event competition. The Czech team said the substance in question was nothing more than glucose, which they needed to recover. Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner was a favorite to add the world title in the 400 yesterday, and with two other Americans in the race it is likely to bulge the US medal haul even further.
