Britain’s World record holder Jonathan Edwards' first jump fell apart on the runway, and it was left to USA’s Walter Davis to lead the opening round with a windy 17.05 leap. But the star of the first round was undoubtedly Australia’s Victor Christiakov (Oceania) who as a 5.90m specialist pole vaulter can be very proud with his leap of 14.82m, a brave performance which ultimately secured one point for his Area team. Now that’s what World Cup competition is all about – team spirit.
Edwards took the lead - in blustery wind conditions - in round two (17.15m), with Sweden’s European champion Christian Olsson (Europe) following with 17.05 to take second from Davis by virtue of a better secondary mark.
Round three brought consecutive fouls from all the leading competitors, Edwards, Olsson, Germany’s 1999 World champion and the defending World Cup from 1998 Charles Friedek (lying fourth by virtue of 16.91m from round 1) and Davis, respectively.
In the fourth and final round Edwards bounded down the runway to an impressive 17.34m to give some world class sparkle to what had otherwise been a lack lustre competition. Of the main players only Davis responded to this prompt, leaping out to another classy effort, 17.23m (w) for second place.
That’s how it ended, Edwards (Britain), Davis (USA), Olsson (Europe), Friedek (Germany) in that order.
Edwards had won the World Cup once before in 1992 in Havana.
