<<<<<Subject: t-and-f: Beaten Edwards fails to find the motivation >>>>
The World Championships were "probably fifth on my list of things to do" and
he couldn't even wait four hours for the medal ceremony? He must have had
quite a hectic week this week.
Why did they even bother accommodating this guy? Because he was expected to
win the Gold and it would look awful funny to have a medal ceremony with
only two on the rostrum.
He had to fly about a little over an hour from home and take all six jumps,
and he got $30,000.
I think they should be paid whatever the market will bear ... maybe even
more than they got. But, is it too much to ask, that if they are
unmotivated prima donnas that they keep it to themselves and at least put up
a good front for those that watch?
How does it look to those aspiring to that level that when you lose you say:
I was only "half-trying ... so it was really only "half-failing".
Fifth on your list THIS WEEK, Jon? Give me a break. Should be top-five for
this year.
If I had qualified for World's, I would swim over there if I needed to.
-Brian McEwen
-----Original Message-----
From: Eamonn Condon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2001 12:25 AM
To: Track & Field
Subject: t-and-f: Beaten Edwards fails to find the motivation
The Electronic Telegraph
Saturday 10 March 2001
Tom Knight
DEFEAT for Jonathan Edwards does not usually come with a smile but the
Olympic triple jump champion had nothing to blame but his own complacency
here yesterday when he was forced to accept second best at the World Indoor
Championships.
The gold medal many believed Edwards could not lose went to Paolo Camossi,
who soared to an Italian record of 17.32 metres in the fourth round.
Edwards was reduced to rescuing his reputation with a final effort of 17.26m
which lifted him from fourth to second.
Up until then, his best in the Atlantico Pavilion was 17.12m and Edwards was
forced to concede that the adrenalin usually associated with a major
championship had not been there.
He said: "Last week, this trip to Lisbon was probably fifth on my list of
things to do and maybe I was a little bit complacent. It was a good
competition but it did not stir me in the pit of my stomach.
"I've jumped well this year but I could not raise my game. At least this
shows very clearly that I cannot come into competitions and win any way I
want."
It was not too long ago that Edwards would have been distraught at such
failure but his Sydney triumph changed all that.
As world record holder and Olympic champion, Edwards has a new sense of
perspective on success and failure.
He could not remember the last time he had to take all six jumps. He was
even able to laugh at the fuss made over whether he would be in Portugal
long enough to attend a medal ceremony initially planned to take place four
hours after the event.
The ceremony was brought forward and Edwards, $30,000 (£21,300) better off,
still had time to catch his early flight home.
Camossi, a 26-year-old from Gorizia, was the first to reassure the Briton.
He said: "Jonathan has been my inspiration and I told him he was still the
best in the world."
Edwards was considered Britain's best hope for gold but on the strength of
yesterday's performances, Daniel Caines and Mark Hylton looked capable of
winning medals.
The two go into today's semi-finals of the 400m as the fastest qualifiers
from the heats. Caines, in particular, looked good value for his 46.65sec.
Christian Malcolm, 21, last year's European indoor champion, also looked
impressive in the 200m. He cruised to victory in the first of the
semi-finals in 20.76sec. He is joined in today's final by team-mate Allyn
Condon.
Earlier, Catherine Murphy sailed through her heat of the 400m and John
Mayock qualified for tomorrow's 3,000m final.
But there was disappointment for Jo Fenn on her major championship debut
when she missed qualification from the first round of the 800m by just
0.02sec after finishing fourth in her heat.
It was not a good day for Olympic champions. Stacy Dragila finished out of
the medals in the pole vault as victory went to Pavla Hamackova, of the
Czech Republic, while in the women's high jump, Inga Babakova, of Ukraine,
lost out to Sweden's Kajsa Bergqvist, who cleared 2.00m.
In the women's 60m hurdles, Olga Shishigina was fourth behind Anjanette
Kirkland, of the US, and in the men's final, Anier Garcia, of Cuba, was
edged out by America's Terrence Trammell.
C J Hunter, the former world shot put champion and husband of triple Olympic
gold medallist Marion Jones, has been banned for two years after choosing
not to contest doping charges brought against him by the International
Amateur Athletic Federation and USA Track and Field.
Details
WORLD INDOOR CH'SHIPS (Lisbon).- Men, 200m semi-final (qualifiers for
today's final): Heat 1: 1, C Malcolm (GB) 20.76; 2, P van Balkom (Holland)
20.77. Heat 2: 1, S Crawford (US) 20.80; 2, A Condon (GB) 21.12. Heat 3: 1,
K Little (US) 20.73; 2, C Williams (Jamaica) 20.78.
400m (qualifiers for today's semi-final): Heat 1: 1, M Hylton (GB) 46.79; 2,
J Laursen (Sweden) 46.82; 3, B Gorban (Russia) 46.91. Heat 2: 1, D Caines
(GB) 46.65; 2, D Canal (Spain) 46.85; 3, S Bada (Nigeria) 46.91. Heat 3: 1,
D McFarlane (Jamaica) 46.90; 2, F Sanchez (Dominican Rep) 47.02. Heat 4: 1,
S Labidi (Tunisia) 46.93; 2, J Davis (US) 47.01. Heat 5: 1, M Campbell (US)
47.09; 2, D Clarke (Jamaica) 47.20.
800m (qualifiers for today's semi-final): Heat 1: 1, Y Borzakovskiy (Russia)
1-47.28; 2, T Gray (US) 1-47.59; 3, D Caulfield (Ireland) 1-47.83. Heat 2:
1, D Lelei (Kenya) 1-50.53; 2, G Dube (Botswana) 1-50.73. Heat 3: 1, B Som
(Holland) 1-49.77; 2, J Botha (S Africa) 1-49.84. Heat 4: 1, T Omey
(Belgium) 1-49.85; 2, R Parra (Spain) 1-50.12. Heat 5: 1, P Czapiewski
(Poland) 1-47.75; 2, F Lacasse (France) 1-47.82; 3, A Bucher (Switzerland)
1-47.88.
3000m (qualifiers for tomorrow's final): Heat 1: 1, H El Guerrouj (Morocco)
8-05.50; 2, M Wolde (Ethiopia) 8-06.11; 3, B Tahri (France) 8-06.13; 4, P
Bitok (Kenya) 8-06.13; 5, A Jimenez (Spain) 8-06.18. Heat 2: 1, C Mottram
(Australia) 7-50.21; 2, A Garcma (Spain) 7-50.84; 3, B Lagat (Kenya)
7-50.93; 4, M Mourhit (Belgium) 7-50.99; 5, S Berioui (Morocco) 7-51.07; 6,
J Mayock (GB) 7-51.10; 7, M Carroll (Ireland) 7-53.64.
60m hdls , final: 1, T Trammell (US) 7.51; 2, A Garcia (Cuba) 7.54; 3, S
Bownes (S Africa) 7.55; 4, R Kronberg (Sweden) 7.57; 5, Y Hernandez (Cuba)
7.58; 6, E Lichtenegger (Austria) 7.65; 7, D Dorival (Haiti) 7.73; 8, S
Olijars (Latvia) 12.77.
Triple jump, final: 1, P Camossi (Italy) 17.32; 2, J Edwards (GB) 17.26;3, A
Murphy (Australia) 17.20; 4, C M Friedek (Germany) 17.13; 5, R Dimitrov
(Bulgaria) 16.91; 6, F Donato (Italy) 16.77.
Shot, final: 1, J Godina (US) 20.82m; 2, A Nelson (US) 20.72; 3, M Martinez
(Spain) 20.67; 4, T Aaltonen (Finland) 20.24; 5, P Dal Soglio (Italy) 20.17;
6, M Menc (Czech Rep) 20.08.
Women, 200m semi-final (qualifiers for today's final): Heat 1: 1, J Campbell
(Jamaica) 22.72; 2, L Jenkins (US) 23.03. Heat 2: 1, S Jayasinghe (Sri
Lanka) 23.04; 2, A Bikar (Slovenia) 23.27. Heat 3: 1, N
Vinogradova-Safronnikova (Belarus) 23.02; 2, M Hurtis (France) 23.06.
400m (qualifiers for today's semi-final): Heat 1: 1, S Richards (Jamaica)
52.11; 2, O Zykina (Russia) 52.48; 3, N Sologub (Belarus) 53.10; 4, A Pompey
(Guyana) 53.32; 5, F Williams (Canada) 53.39. Heat 2: 1, O Kotlyarova
(Russia) 52.61; 2, M Hennagan (US) 52.99. Heat 3: 1, C Murphy (GB) 52.61; 2,
S Reid (US) 52.65; 3, I Tirlea (Romania) 53.05. Heat 4: 1, S Ghosh (Germany)
52.49; 2, N Kaltouma (Chad) 52.53. Dnq: 5, K Shinkins (Ireland) 53.90.
800m (qualifiers for today's semi-finals): Heat 1: 1, I Teichmann (Germany)
2-04.47; 2, S Graf (Austria) 2-04.58. Heat 2: 1, M de Lourdes Mutola
(Mozambique) 2-04.16; 2, L Msyani John (Tanzania) 2-04.29; 3, T Lewis
(Australia) 2-04.56. Dnq: 4, J Fenn (GB) 2-05.16. Heat 3: 1, H
Dziurova-Fuchsova (Czech Rep) 2-04.58; 2, S Cherkasova (Russia) 2-04.70; 3,
C Howell Charmaine (Jamaica) 2-05.14. Heat 4: 1, J Steblovnik-Ceplak
(Slovenia) 2-02.97; 2, Y Afanasyeva (Russia) 2-03.28; 3, L Valdonado
(France) 2-04.00; 4, S Teixeira (Portugal) 2-04.18.
3,000m (qualifiers for today's final): Heat 1: 1, Y Zadorozhnaya (Russia)
9-01.04; 2, B Willis (Australia) 9-01.55; 3, M Dominguez (Spain) 9-01.62; 4,
Yanmei Dong (China) 9-02.09; 5, H Parry-Tullett (GB) 9-02.23. Heat 2: 1, S
O'Sullivan (Ireland) 8-55.79; 2, G Szabo (Romania) 8-55.84; 3, O Yegorova
(Russia) 8-55.97; 4, R Jacobs (US) 8-56.92; 5, A Leghzaoui (Morocco)
8-56.97; 6, K Butler (GB) 8-58.60; 7, W Kidane (Ethiopia) 8-59.42.
60m hdls, final: 1, A Kirkland (US) 7.85; 2, M Freeman (Jamaica) 7.92; 3, N
Ramalalanirina (France) 7.96; 4, O Shishigina (Kazakhstan) 7.96; 5, S
Laukhova (Russia) 7.99; 6, L Ferga (France) 8.06; 7, B Grant (US) 8.09; 8, L
Golding (Jamaica) 8.24.
High jump, final: 1, K Bergqvist (Sweden) 2.00; 2, I Babakova (Ukraine)
2.00; 3, V Veneva (Bulgaria) 1.96; 4, A Acuff (US) 1.96; 5, D Gyorffy
(Hungary) 1.93; 5, V Palamar (Ukraine) 1.93.
Pole vault, final: 1, P Hamackova (Czech Rep) 4.56; 2, S Feofanova (Russia)
4.51; 3, K Suttle (US) 4.51; 4, S Dragila (US) 4.51; 5, T Koleva (Bulgaria)
4.35; 6, Y Buschbaum (Germany) 4.25.
Eamonn Condon
WWW.RunnersGoal.com
