Iwan
Thomas a shadow of his 1998 self
Bob Frank for the IAAF
10
July 2002 -
European
and
Commonwealth 400m champion Iwan Thomas gave a damning verdict of his performance
in Monday
night’s Welsh
Games, just three week’s before he defends the first of the major international
titles he won in a golden 1998.
Four years ago the former BMX bike racer could do nothing wrong, winning the European Championships, Commonwealth Games, and IAAF World Cup, as well as defeating Michael Johnson in the Bislett Games. That was in stark contrast to a cold and rainy Cardiff last night where the UK record-holder laboured to a 47.17 clocking for sixth place.
It has been a frustrating injury-ravaged four years since Thomas was at his peak and he didn’t let himself off lightly after his disappointing show in front of an expectant Welsh crowd. “That was rubbish,” he said. “On that evidence defending my Commonwealth title isn’t very realistic.”
The race didn’t start well for Thomas when his blocks slipped and the starter ordered a restart. At the second time of asking, Thomas never looked his old self and down the home straight he had no more gears as Australia’s Patrick Dwyer took victory in 46.60.
Du’aine Ladejo, the man Thomas replaced as European champion, was among those ahead of the home favourite, who admits he needs more races under his belt to sharpen up ahead of Manchester. This weekend he will run the AAA Championships in the hope he can snatch a place in Britain’s team for the European Championships in Munich.
Although his time was slow, Thomas can perhaps take a grain of comfort from the fact all times in the race were much slower than would normally be expected, with conditions less than ideal – wet and windy. Tactically, it was also run differently to how he expected as he said: “I wanted to go off quite hard and I thought Calvin Harrison (fourth in 46.69) would go out a bit harder than he did. At the weekend I ran 46.4 and felt relaxed so I expected to run faster than I did tonight. I was looking for low 46s but the good thing is I am not injured.
“I just need to get more fitness in the legs and lungs and I’ll keep plugging away. The fact is I don’t need to get back to my best to win things again because the event hasn’t moved on while I’ve been injured. If Mark Richardson and I can get back to 80 per cent of the form we were in that will be enough to win medals at major championships.
“I’m running out of time for this year but I take inspiration from Roger Black. It took him 10 years to run his PB and I’ve got a good four or five years left in me. I’m not young, but I’m not old either, and if I didn’t think I could get back to my best I wouldn’t still be doing it.”
Four years ago in the Commonwealth Games semi finals, Thomas and fellow Welshman Jamie Baulch blasted round the first 300m then ran the final straight talking and sticking their tongues out at each other – which probably cost Thomas an improvement of his UK record and Baulch a PB. Yesterday wasn’t a good day for either, Baulch withdrawing from the 200m at late notice, believed to be with a hamstring niggle.
But while Thomas was downhearted, he retained his sense of humour. As he was conducting a post-race TV interview, former girlfriend Emma Davies was improving her 400m PB. “Iwan, I did a PB,” she called, just after he’d finished his interview. “What time did you do?” he asked. On learning the 1998 Commonwealth 800m finalist had run 55.03, he joked: “Well done, you’d nearly have beaten me!”
Like Thomas, former world 100/200m champion Christian Malcolm has been troubled by injury niggles and more recently a stomach bug which laid him low for five weeks, but he was satisfied with two second places in the sprints. American Ken Brokkenburr defeated him in the shorter sprint and Dominic Demerite of the Bahamas got the better of him over 200m, but Malcolm remained upbeat.
The host nation, despite the absence of world 110m hurdles record-holder Colin Jackson who was running in Zagreb narrowly won the match although Australia provided several winners – including two Welsh all-comers’ records.
Bridgid Isworth improved the record in the pole vault with a 4.15m clearance to add 3cm to Janine Whitlock’s mark, while Nicoloe Mladenis added almost a metre to Evette Finikin’s triple jump all-comers’ record.
Double world junior record-holder Jana Pittman was another convincing Australian winner, taking the opening track meeting of the night, the one lap hurdles.
UK record-holder Susan Jones and Jade Johnson were England’s only victors on a night when more big names were anticipated as a warm-up for the Commonwealth Games.
MATCH: 1 Wales 72; 2 Australia 67; 3 England 32; 4 South Africa 19
Men
100 (-0.3): Ken Brokkenburr (USA) 10.32; 2 Christian Malcolm (WAL) 10.39; 3 Anson Henry (CAN) 10.41
200 (1.0): 1 Dominic Demerite (BAH) 20.79; 2 Christian Malcolm (WAL) 21.02; 3 Ken Brokkenburr (USA) 21.21
400: 1 Patrick Dwyer (AUS) 46.34; 2 Clinton Hill (AUS) 46.60; 3 Du’aine Ladejo (ENG) 46.63
800: Chris McCarthy (AUS) 1:49.1; 2 Mark Rodgers (NZL) 1:50.2; 3 Ibrahim Sidie (SUD) 1:50.8
110H (0.4): 1 Ron Bramlett (USA) 13.61; 2 Tony Jarrett (ENG) 13.71; 3 Todd Matthews (USA) 13.80
400H: 1 Willie Smith (NAM) 49.95; 2 Matt Elias (WAL) 50.00; 3 Lueroy Colqhoun (JAM) 50.32
HJ: 1 Jan Janku (TCH) 2.20; 2 Tori Harris (USA) 2.15; 3 Nick Moroney (AUS) 2.15
PV: 1 Tim Thomas (WAL) 5.25; 2 Andrew Penk (WAL) 4.70; 3 Egryn Jones (WAL) 4.60
LJ: Gable Garenamotse (BOT) 7.57/1.62; 2 T Parravicini (AUS) 7.28/0.44; 3 Scott Ferrier (AUS) 7.04/0.29
4x100: 1 Australia (Tim Williams, Paula Di Bella, David Baxter, Patrick Johnson) 39.81; 2 Wales (Kevin Williams, Stephen Shalders, Jamie Henthorn, Christian Malcolm) 40.78
4x400: 1 Australia (Clinton Hill, Paul Pearce, Casey Vincent, Patrick Dwyer) 3:11.5; 2 Wales (Lee Farmer, Matt Shone, Matt Elias, Iwan Thomas) 3:13.7; 3 Wales Under-20 (Stephen Bailey, Ashley Bayliss, Iain Hunt, Joseph Maynard) 3:22.7
Women
100 (0.9): 1 Jodie Lambert (AUS) 11.71; 2 Dikeledi Moropane (RSA) 11.80; 3 Geraldine Pillay (RSA) 11.86
200 (1.1): 1 Heidi Seyerling (RSA) 23.62; 2 Sharon Cripps (AUS) 23.65; 3 Michelle Collins (USA) 23.68
400: 1 Emma Davies (WAL) 55.03; 2 Kath Sage (WAL) 55.65; 3 Lucy Parsons (WAL) 56.68
800: 1 Agnes Samaria (NAM) 2:03.5; 2 Hind Musa (SUD) 2:14.2; 3 Muna Jabir (SUD) 2:18.7
2000: 1 Claire Martin (WAL) 6:16.5; 2 Durga Mana Karamaya (SUD) 6:27.0; 3 Ceri Grech-Thomas (WAL) 6:35.9
100H (0.0): Jacqui Munro (AUS) 13.35; 2 Julie Pratt (ENG) 13.37; 3 Rachel King (WAL) 13.54
400H: Jana Pittman (AUS) 55.25; 2 Sonia Brito (AUS) 56.76; 3 Lindsey Fitzgerald (WAL) 64.50
HJ: 1 Susan Jones (ENG) 1.91; 2 Nicole Forrester (CAN) 1.91; 3 Karen Beautile (JAM) 1.88
PV: 1 Bridgid Isworth (AUS) 4.15 (Welsh all-comers’ rec); 2 Melissa Hamilton (NZL) 4.05; 3 Irie Hill (ENG) 4.05
LJ: 1 Jade Johnson (ENG) 6.22/1.36; 2 Kylie Wheeler (AUS) 5.66/-0.56; 3 Lara Richards (WAL) 5.32/0.78
TJ: 1 Nicole Mladenis (AUS) 13.10/0.27; 2 Taneisha Robinson-Scanlon (ENG) 12.72/0.15; 3 Sally Peake (WAL) 11.29/0.24
DT: 1 Philippa Roles (WAL) 56.82; 2 Emma Carpenter (ENG) 53.88; 3 Rebecca Roles (WAL) 48.05
HT: 1 Lesley Brannan (WAL) 56.65; 2 Sarah Moore (WAL) 54.98; 3 Carys Parry (WAL) 53.84
4x100: 1 Australia (Melanie Kleeberg, Jodie Lambert, Sharon Cripps, Sarah Mullan) 44.84; 2 South Africa (Geraldine Pillay, Janine Josephs, Dikeledi Maropane, Heide Seyerling) 46.48; 3 Wales (Rachel King, Angharad James, Kelly Birkin, Danielle Barker) 48.11