Electronic Telegraph Thursday 28 September 2000 Tom Knight In the biggest shock Gail Devers, the American world champion who had looked so impressive through the qualifying rounds, pulled up before the fifth barrier in her semi-final of the 100 metres hurdles. The 33-year-old who, in 1996, became the first woman since Wyomia Tyus in 1968 to defend her 100m title successfully was expected to have swept to her first Olympic gold medal in the hurdles. But a hamstring tear sustained last month in Brussels proved one injury too many. There were no histrionics. The woman who has become as famous for her extraordinarily long fingernails as for her hurdling prowess simply accepted the title was never going to be hers. "I thought I was tough enough," said Devers. "My plan was to get in there and run until my leg fell off. I tried to give it my best shot but it wasn't good enough." Earlier in the day, Svetlana Masterkova, the Russian who secured the 800m and 1500m double four years ago, dropped out of her heat of the metric mile with a calf injury. She fell to the ground after a collision on the third lap and walked off the track, clutching the back of her leg. It was a sad end to a glorious career which also included a European title in 1998 and the World Championship gold medal last year in Seville but also major operations on her Achilles tendons in 1997 and 1999. Noureddine Morceli, the Algerian who dominated the mile and 1500m throughout the Nineties, when he won three world titles and the 1996 Olympic gold medal, also fell victim to injury. Morceli, 30, pulled up in the finishing straight of his 1500m semi-final after a tangle with Jason Pyrah of the United States and wandered across the line in last place. For Sergei Bubka, the six-time world champion from Ukraine, elimination from the pole vault qualifying competition merely underlined his fading powers because of injury. At 36, Sydney was always going to be his swansong after a career stretching back 18 years and 35 world records. For all his domination, he has, however, won only one Olympic title, in 1988. In Sydney, where the 1996 champion, Jean Galfione, was also a casualty, Bubka tried unsuccessfully to enter the contest at 5.70m, a height he used to vault as a marker. Nils Schumann, from Germany, was the winner of a scrappy 800m final in which all the main contenders paid the price for abandoning their normal tactics. With the slowest time since Steve Ovett's 1980 triumph, Schumann added the Olympic title to his European crown by winning the sprint to the line in 1min 45.08sec. Wilson Kipketer, the favourite, took the silver medal, 0.06sec behind. He said: "The race was a little crazy." The 400m hurdles went to Angelo Taylor of the US, whose winning time of 47.50sec was a personal best and the fastest in the world this year. Victory marked a significant change of fortune for the 21-year-old from Georgia, who went out in the heats of last year's World Championships. The major surprise came with the silver medal won by Hadi Souan Somalyi, the 23-year-old Saudi Arabian athlete coached in California by John Smith, the former 400m runner who looks after the careers of Maurice Greene and Ato Boldon. There was no surprise in the women's final. In only her fourth competition as a hurdler, Irina Privalova, the 1992 bronze medallist over 200m, used her superior sprint speed to good effect to run a personal best of 53.02sec. On track: Dean Macey who lies in second place in the decathlon The Russian said she switched to hurdling after constant injury problems and revealed she was racing again thanks to surgeons who gave her a new Achilles tendon which was grafted on to her leg from a dead Russian soldier. Britain's Christian Malcolm and Darren Campbell progressed into today's semi-finals of the 200m with major improvements in their personal bests. Malcolm, in particular, looked good with 20.19sec. Dean Macey finished the first day of the decathlon in second place, only eight points behind Chris Huffins of the US after personal bests in the long jump and 400m. Macey, 22, who came from nowhere to win silver at last year's World Championships, ran the 400m in 46.41sec, quicker than Jamie Baulch, Britain's world indoor champion at the distance managed in his first-round exit last week. Macey's training partner, Erki Nool of Estonia, was third after the first five events, while the world champion, Tomas Dvorak of the Czech Republic, was struggling in seventh place. Said Macey: "I should win a medal but Erki deserves the gold more than me. I'm young and I'm going to win the next two." Eamonn Condon WWW.RunnersGoal.com
