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| August 25, 2003 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 26 |
Kluft joins all-time greats
PARIS, Aug 24: Sweden’s Carolina Kluft lived up to her billing as the future of heptathlon by becoming the third best performer ever at just 20 when she won gold at the world championships on Sunday.
The effervescent blonde, who openly enjoyed herself throughout the two days of action, set six personal bests out of seven events for 7,001 points — the highest mark in 11 years.
Only American Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Russian Larisa Nikitina had broken the 7,000 barrier. No woman had gone past it since Joyner-Kersee’s 7,044 at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
Kluft could not touch Joyner-Kersee’s world record 7,291 points from 1988 nor erase the European best mark of 7,007 set by Nikitina in 1989 but took her place just behind the two women on the all-time list.
France’s Eunice Barber, the 1999 world champion, handed the host nation their first medal of the Paris festival with 6,755 points to take the silver.
Natalya Sazanovich of Belarus won the bronze with 6,524 points, beating defending champion Yelena Prokhorova of Russia into fourth place.
Olympic champion Denise Lewis of Britain, who dropped out of contention on Saturday by clearing only 1.64 metres in the high jump, finished fifth.
Lewis took time off last year to give birth to a girl and had only completed one heptathlon since her Sydney triumph before this weekend.
The fans basking in the sun at the Stade de France naturally had a soft spot for Barber but Kluft won them over with her joyful, exuberant nature.
Barber, who had been dreaming of winning gold for France, has struggled to recover from a career-threatening foot injury and seemed happy enough with silver.
Drummond disqualified
The world championships descended into farce on Sunday when former American champion Jon Drummond was disqualified amid chaotic scenes for a false start in the second round of the men’s 100 metres.—Reuters
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