Hungarian sets pace

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 22

Hungarian sets pace

NZPA-Reuter Seoul Hungary’s Janos Martinek ran the cross-coun-try race of his life yesterday to win the Olympic modern pentathlon gold medal. The 23-year-old sports instructor overhauled Vakhtang Yagorashvili, the leader after four events, with his blistering pace over the 4000-metre course and collapsed exhausted over the finishing line. The dejected Yagorashvili finally had to settle for third place behind the silver medallist, Carlo Massullo, of Italy, who also overtook the fancied Soviet athlete in the decisive run.

Beaming and hugging his 19-year-old girlfriend,

gymnast Beator Storczer, Martinek said: “I am going to rest now and then prepare for next year’s world championships.” His coach, Jozsef Buzgo, wept with joy and told reporters: “It is his great will power that makes him a winner. He is almost masochistic.” Yagorashvili had a nine-second start on Martinek and 26 seconds over Massullo but they scorched past him on the hilly, sunlit course. Martinek totalled 5404 points, with Massullo on 5379 and Yagorashvili on 5367. Hungary also took the team gold with 15,886 points, with Italy second on 15,571 and Britain

third on 15,276. Earlier, the Australian competitor Alexander Watson, in twelfth place overnight, was thrown out of the contest and sent home after failing a drugs test, said the team leader, John Coates. Mr Coates said a random test after Tuesday’s fencing event showed the 30-year-old from Sydney had an unusually large amount of caffeine, a banned stimulant, in his urine.

Watson was the only Australian left in the event. One of his teammates is injured and the other, Andrew Keily, has been suspended from competition for two years after also failing a drug test.