Ben Johnson rockets to golden victory

Press, 26 September 1988, Page 23

Ben Johnson rockets to golden victory

NZPA-Reuter Seoul Ben Johnson rocketed to his first Olympic gold, smashed his own 100 metres world record then promised to run even faster after triumphing over his arch-rival, Carl Lewis, on the second day of the Seoul Games athletics programme on Saturday. Johnson made no contest of a race which had promised to be one of the greatest sprint confrontations ever. The Canadian was fastest out of the blocks, had a clear lead by 30 metres and finished more than a

metre clear of Lewis in 9.79 seconds. The time was 0.04 of a second faster than his world record victory over Lewis in last year's world championships and Johnson said afterwards he had eased off in the last three to four metres. “If I had gone through I would maybe have got 9.75,” he said. “But I’m saving it for next year.” Lewis, who set a personal best 9.92, had no excuses. His dream of repeating his Los Angeles quadruple gold is now over but the American said gamely: “The party is just beginning.”

Lewis was a good loser, immediately congratulating Johnson after the race. Johnson’s , electrifying performance overshadowed a second world record, set in the heptathlon by Jackie Joyner-Ker-see. The American compiled 7291 points to break her own world mark. The world’s top allround woman athlete then echoed Johnson when she said the best was still ahead. Like Johnson, JoynerKersee is looking for new worlds to conquer. Joyner-Kersee, who led the competiton from the

first event, told reporters she would like to experiment with the 400 metres hurdles, the most technically demanding track event. Joyner-Kersee’s sister-in-law, Florence Griffith Joyner, gave a hint of things to come with two blazing sprint performances, breaking the Olympic 100 metres record twice in successive races. She looked a class above any of her opponents, including the defending champion, Evelyn Ashford, and East Germany’s • world champion, Silke Moeller.

Inevitably there were casualties as well as

triumphs. The Briton, Steve Cram, failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the men’s 800 metres after a display reminiscent of his failure in the world championship 1500 metres final. Cram, who was bidding for medals in both the 800 and 1500, finished sixth in his second round heat after appearing to be admirably placed with 300 metres to run.

“I put my foot on the pedal and there was nothing there,” the Olympic 1500 metres silver medallist said. The heat was won in the most convincing fashion by Morocco’s Said

Aouita, also contending the. 800-1500 double. Aouita, racing against Cram for only the fourth time in the past five years, stayed at the back of the field for the first lap and a half. He then moved into fourth place and accelerated smoothly to take the race in the fastest time of the day. The third gold medal of the day went as expected to the Bulgarian triple jumper, Khristo Markov. Markov broke the Olympic record with his first leap of 17.61 metres and was never seriously challenged afterwards.