This
lady still means business
Doug Gillon for the IAAF
8 August 2002 - After
she won her second Olympic title, at the age of 35 in Sydney, Heike Drechsler
mischievously let it be known that she had found it: "fun to tease the young
jumpers."
Last night in rainy
Munich it was the German legend's turn to be tormented as she challenged for a
record fifth successive European championship title.
They did not exactly kick sand in the face of the double Olympic and World
champion, but the matriarch of the pit received scant respect from her rivals.
She finished fifth in a contest where the winning distance was the shortest
since 1982. That was the last time the former world record-holder had not won
the crown. The poorest of her four European victories had come with a jump of
7.14m.
Her winning efforts have
been: 1986: 7.27m 1990: 7:30m 1994: 7.14m 1998: 7.16m In 1982 she had jumped
6.71, for fourth, just eight centimetres behind the Romanina, Val Ionescu.
The 25-year-old Russian Tatyana Kotova, the only other seven-metre jumper to
stand on the runaway yesterday, and the winner of world silver in Edmonton,
needed but a modest 6.85m for victory. Kotova had leapt to fifth on the world
all-time list when she won the European Cup in Annecy with 7.42m earlier this
summer, and only Drechsler in the whole Munich line-up had ever jumped further,
but that was 10 years ago.
Coming into this event the German had a best this season of 6.85m, equal third
of those in the field. Had she repeated that here, she might have had that fifth
title.
"I thought Kotova was very strong," said Drechsler, "but even Kotova was there
to be beaten. My two red-flagged jumps were both further than the 6.64 which I
finished with."
Hungary’s bronze medallist Vaszi Tunde, the double Olympic finalist, is 30, but
Britain’s Jade Johnson, who beat her on countback for silver is only 22.
Last year's European under-23 champion, Johnson leapt to personal bests of 6.72
and 6.73m. It was the first British medal in this event at these championships
since Mary Rand, the former Olympic champion and world record-holder, in 1962,
two years before Drechsler was born. "Heike was so nice and, as before the
competition started I didn't believe I would win a medal myself, I hoped that
she would win" said Johnson after the final, re-emphasizing the respect in which
the German is held.
Concepcion Montaner, who finished fourth, was born in 1981, the year Drechsler
won the European junior title and set a World junior record of 6.91m. The
Spaniard finished on 6.67m.
Drechsler improved with every jump, and was the only one of the eight finalists
to have a negative wind on every attempt, but it was negligible. Her best effort
had -0.1 metres per second, and the strongest wind with which she had to contend
was -0.6.
She had played to a
patriotic crowd who roared her Valkyrie swoops down the runway. Several
spectators could be seen lifting their hips and shoulders, in unison with her
take-off. It was much the same as fans in a soccer crowd attempting to head an
imaginary ball. For all their support, they could not get Drechsler airborne
sufficiently to ride to victory.
After her final effort, when forfeiture of her title sank in, she covered her
eyes with her hands, fingertips touching like latticed steeples across her
forehead, but by the time she left the arena she was composed and smiling as she
conducted an unprecedented series of interviews.
Conditions, she said, had dispirited her. "I missed the sunshine. It was the
headwind and the rain that got me. I was in better shape than that, though I
have not had enough competition. It is not a problem. I can handle it."
She laughed at the suggestion that she might try the triple jump: "No I'm not
doing it. I want to keep my body together.
"It was not my day today. It was a fight, and it was very difficult to jump, but
there will come a new day and a new chance."
In saying that, the
mother of a 12-year-old-son dismissed any possibility of retirement. The German
indoor and outdoor titles this year brought her tally to 33, indoors and out.
She is sure there are more to come.
"Why should I stop, as long as I can do the training, and as long as I have the
passion for it? I don't understand the view that I should give up when it's so
good. Why, in that case I should have given up in 1992. I will stop when I like
to stop, not when other people say I should. I will be at the World
Championships in Paris."
Her boyfriend, former decathlete Alain Blondel, is French, but rest assured,
Heike Drechsler will not be going to visit friends and family next summer in
Paris. . Besides, there are some disrespectful
young vixens to be put in their place.
TOP 5 in Munich -
Tatyana Kotova (RUS) 6.78, X, X, 6.81, 6.85, X = 6.85 (+0.5) Jade Johnson (GBR) 6.66, 6.72, X, 6.52, 6.73, 6.58 = 6.73 (+1.1) Tunde Vaszi (HUN) 6.47, 6.44, 6.47, X 6.73, 6.57 = 6.67 (=1.7) Concepcion Montaner (ESP) 6.52, X, 6.67, 6.56, 6.44, 6.47 = 6.67 (+0.6) Heike Drechsler (GER) 6.35, 6.49, X 6.34, 6.64, X = 6.64 (-0.1)
