European athletics champs produced numerous outstanding performances

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 14

European athletics champs produced numerous outstanding performances

NEVIN TOPP,

a member of “The Press” staff, reviews the European

athletic championships which he watched in Stuttgart, West Germany, last month.

“Pure athletic genius” read Daley Thompson’s Tshirt at the Commonwealth Games at Edinburgh in July, but the English decathlete’s slogan applied more aptly to the competition at the European Athletics Championships at Stuttgart last month. The contrast between the two events could not have been wider. Edinburgh was dominated by events outside the competitions, but the European Athletic Champonships (E.A.C.) concentrated on sport. There was not a peep from any of the countries that South African born, Zola Budd, was competing for Britain. Budd, along with the South African born swimmer, Annette Cowley, were not allowed to compete for England at Edinburgh. For the East European countries it was the first major international competition in the West for some years. Only Rumania attended the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, and the World Cup at Canberra last year was not a priority. The East Europeans relished the competition at Stuttgart, setting two of the three world records established at the championships, which compared with two world records at Athens four years ago. No world records have been set in track and field at the last two Commonwealth Games. The competition was still strong at Edinburgh in spite of the boycott; but

it was non-stop action at Stuttgart because of the large number of qualifying events required. At times spectators were left gasping because so much was happening at once. The highlight was the decathlon battle between Daley Thomson, and his old rival, Jurgen Hingsen, of West Germany. But there was also a newcomer on the scene, Siegfried Wentz of West Germany who had beaten Hingsen this year. For Thompson, it was his worst decathlon in 10 years, and he faced defeat for the first time since being beaten by Alexander Grebenyuk, of the Soviet Union, at the E.A.C. at Prague in 1978. Yet Thompson was only 36 points short of his world record of 8847 points at the end of the 10 disciplines. This was not the relaxed Thompson of Edinburgh, but he still managed four personal bests, including the shot put, 400 m, and 110 m hurdles. His time of 10.26 s in the opening event, the 100 m, was a world decathlon best. Thompson’s face grew longer during the first day after a terrible long jump and high jump, and after five events he was only 28 points ahead of Hingsen and 47 up on Wentz, seemingly not enough to win. But he stormed out of the starting blocks in the 110 m hurdles, the first event next day, setting a personal best of 14.045, while Hingsen appeared

to clip two hurdles and reduced his chances of winning. A poor discus by Thomson allowed Hingsen to hit the lead, but the position was reversed after the pole vault. The Englishman cleared 5.10 m to the West German’s personal best of 4.60 m. Thompson was ahead by 78 points from Wentz, who had passed Hingsen, after the javelin. The English decathlete then ran a cagey 1500 m, as usual doing just enough, wearing Wentz down and closing on Hingsen to ensure he was not beaten. The crowd was looking for a West German victory, but they appreciated the effort by Thompson. Thompson produced

one of his famous T-shirts. The front, roughly translated from German, read that there were three good athletes in West Germany. The back read Boris, Bernhard and Daley. (Boris, for Becker, the tennis player, and Bernhard, for Langer, the golfer). The crowd created a great competitive atmosphere at the E.A.C., and was quick to appreciate all efforts. This applied to Juri Seydch of the Soviet Union who set a world record of 86.74, in the hammer throw, Bcm better than his previous world mark set earlier this year. Similarly, the run by Marina Stepanowa of the Soviet Union to set a world record of 53.32 s in the women’s 400 m hurdles and edge out Sabina Busch of East Germany by 0.325, was also appreciated. It was business as usual from the British firm of Whitbread, Cram and Coe. Fatima Whitbread, who had no Tessa Sanderson to contend with as at Edinburgh, set a world mark of 77.44 m qualifying for the javelin final, beating the mark of 75.44 m set by Petra Felke of East Germany last year. However, it appeared that a gold medal would a&ain elude Whitbread as Felke

led for much of the competition before the English woman produced a big throw of 72.52 m to win. Sebastian Coe, finally won the 800 m title that has eluded him. But Steve Cram appeared to have lost all the quicksilver form that he had at Edinburgh, and the Scot, Tom McKean, took second place, but still gave Britain a clean sweep of the medals. Coe’s time was imin 44.55. It was not the result that a fit Cram wanted at Edinburgh, when Coe had not run because of a throat infection, but Cram came back, in spite of a supposed calf muscle injury, to win the 1500 m from Coe, in 3min 41.095.

As expected, the East European women were dominant in most of their events. Heike Dreschler of East Germany equalled the world record of 21.71 s in the 200 m sprint, and she also won the long jump in 7.27 m. Marita Koch of East Germany was in a class of her own in the 400 m, winning in 48.22 s 1.4 s ahead of the next runner. Olga Bondarenko of the Soviet Union left Budd struggling in fourth place when she won the 3000 m in Bmin 33.995. It was left to Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway to give an exhibition of powerhouse running. Her aggressive pace shattered the 10,000 m field from the start. She lapped Elizabeth Lynch, the Scots runner who wore down New Zealand’s Anne Audain in the 10,000 m race at Edinburgh, with more than two laps to go and finished a half a lap ahead of Bondarenko in 30min 23.25 s just under 10s outside her world record. The men’s 5000 m also held a few surprises. Steve Ovett, the winner over the distance at Edinburgh for England, trailed the field for much of the race and pulled out with four laps to run. It was left to Jack Buckner to seal it for Britain in 13min 10.165, and in the process he beat such runners as Alberto Cova (Italy) and Maarti Vainio (Finland). The women’s marathon waswn all-the-way win for Rosa" Mota (Portugal) in

2hr 28min 38s. Greta Waitz (Norway) did not compete. Steve Jones (Britain) had the top marathon time for men in the field, and he set a torrid pace, going through the first 10km in 30min Us. But the undulating nature of the course spelled his downfall. Orlando Pizzolato (Italy), the winner of the last two New York marathons, continued to bring his time down, finishing in 2hr lOmin 575, but a fellow countryman, Gelindo Bordin, sprinted home to beat Pizzolato by 3s. There were disappointments at the E.A.C. The pole vault failed to live up to expectations. Sergej Bubka of the Soviet Union, the first man to clear 6m, was under little pressure, particularly when Thierry Vigneron (France) failed in his first three attempts at 5.70 m. Bubka had the bar raised from his winning height of 5.85 m to 6.05 m but this appeared to be just going through the motions. The world high jump record holder, Igor Paklin of the Soviet Union, was also under little pressure from the likes of Dietmar Mogenburg of West Germany easily winning in 2.34 m. The weather was not conducive to breaking records on the track. On three of the six evenings it rained making it tough for competitors, but a number of the British competitors still made the most of Edinburgh to produce ,ffip performances ® Stuttgart. F