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| Sunday, 17 August 2003 |
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Ukraine's Zhanna main challenger to Susanthika in women's sprints Dinesh Weerawansa reporting from France PARIS, Aug. 16 - Ukraine's Zhanna Pintusevick-Block could well be Sri Lankan track queen Susanthika Jayasinghe's main challenger in women's sprint events at the 9th IAAF World Championships which begins at Saint Dennis Stadium here later this week. The absence of Olympic triple medallist Marion Jones, who is having a break off the track after giving berth to her first child last month, has made women's 100m and 200m wide open. Block has not been fortunate enough to win any of her last few faces but she has come out with some encouraging timings. Block will fight hard to defend her surprise 2001 World title despite an injury, which damped her training schedule this summer. "Four races in seven days and not one win. That is not something I am very happy with. What I am happy with is that I was better at the end than at the start and really did not feel tired at all. This proves that my fitness level is good but that I need to sharpen up to have a chance to defend my title," says the Ukrainian lass who shattered Jayasinghe's gold medal hopes in 1997. When Jayasinghe won the IAAF World Championship women's 200m silver in Athens six years ago, it was Block who pushed the Lankan lass to the second place. Ever since, both Block and Jayasinghe have gone from strength to strength but now in Paris, the two celebrated woman sprinters are bound to settle their scores. Block has been able to beat Jayasinghe in all top international meets ever since though she could not match the super power of 2000 Sydney Olympic triple gold medallist Jones. But the absence of the elite American track queen from this year's World Championships has given fresh hopes to Block. But Block expects a greater challenge, though Jones would not come under starter's orders. "As for Paris it is very clear that the women's 100m is going to be as hard as ever as I said at the beginning of the season. Kelli White is on fire and Chandra, although loosing in Berlin, is not far off. Christine Arron has shown she is in form and there are several others including Torry Edwards and Jayasinghe that can step up and be dangerous," the Ukrainian explains the tough task ahead. With only a few days to go for the world's best athletic extravaganza behind the Olympics, the likely composition of the medal recipients for the sprint events surely couldn't be any more open. Apart from the two 400m sprints in which Mexican Ana Guevara and American Tyree Washington look set to be just a notch above their rivals, the rest of the women's or the men's sprint races have never been more open. Still both one-lap races could offer unexpected surprises in Paris. Guevara has been in an amazing winning streak of 18 races since 2001 Edmonton's final, in which she finished with only a bronze. But the Golden League Jackpot winner, Grand Prix Final and World Cup winner from last year, whose race tonight in Zurich will be her first European appearance of the season, leads the world season lists with an impressive 49.34 (24 May), almost four tenths of a second faster than Jamaican Lorraine Fenton's Lausanne winning time of 49.71. Fenton who was second at the 2000 Olympics and 2001 Worlds might well be tired of running for silver and offer the toughest challenge in Paris. Defending champion Thiam, who had to deal with injuries since her surprising title two years ago, is certainly on the right track back to her best shape. She set a personal season's best of 50.67 in Berlin last Sunday when finishing second behind Fenton. Look out also for the fast finishing Russian trio of Svetlana Pospelova, Natalya Nazarova and Olesya Zykina. In the men's 400m World Championships finals the USA have won five of the eight titles in the history of the championships. Edmonton 2001 was certainly an upset in these terms, since Bahamas' Avard Moncur took the title ahead of Ingo Schultz (Germany) and Greg Haughton (Jamaica) with 1991 World champion Antonio Pettigrew the only American athlete to qualify for that final (4th). |
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