Carmelita Jeter - 10.70 in Eugene 2011 (© Kirby Lee)
SottevillelèsRouen, France - This season’s fastest woman Carmelita Jeter and the best men’s triple jumper Teddy Tamgho were the main attraction of the third leg of the French Pro Athlé Tour in Sotteville-lès-Rouen on Saturday (2) night. Jeter was unopposed at 200m (22.66) while Tamgho took a narrow win in 16.83.
Only a few days after an intense competition at the US championships where she won the 100m and placed second in the 200m, American Carmelita Jeter flew across the Atlantic to start her European tour. “After the Trials, Sotteville is a great meet to come to”, she said.
In lane 5, Jeter was the huge favourite, and even though she only caught Muriel Hurtis at the end of the bend, her powerful stride made the difference in the homestretch. Her time, 22.64 (+0.1m/s), was 0.41 off the personal best she set last week, but she was five metres clear off her runner-up Gloria Asumnu, 23.10. Hurtis eventually faded to fifth in 23.43.
“My first 60m was so slow motion!” complained the winner, who reacted poorly to the gun (0.22sec). “No matter what happen in the race, I always try to come out and execute”.
Jeter “can even eye for a treble in Daegu”
After having focused on the dash in the last couple of years, Jeter has made several appearances in the 200m this season. “100m or 200m, I don’t know what are my next races, I’m just following the plan designed by my coach John Smith”.
Present along the track of Jean Adret Stadium, Smith explained his strategy: “Before she came to me in the fall of 2008, she was doing both events and she used to prefer the 200m. But I convinced her she had to give the priority to the 100m, so we prepared this event and she cut off 0.3sec to her 100m personal best.”
With 10.64, Jeter became in 2009 the second fastest woman ever behind the 10.49 World record set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988. Her 10.70 set in Eugene is the World’s best this year. “Now, we agreed to include back the 200m in the preparation and get ready for both”, Smith revealed. She can even eye for a treble in Daegu with the 4x100m relay.
Indeed, one of her relay teammates, Alexandria Anderson, showed great shape during the 100m. Her time, 11.15 (+1.0m/s) didn’t reflect to true impression her running gave in Sotteville, where she was well ahead of Nigerian Damola Osayomi, a 10.99 performer this year, who placed second in 11.41.
“I get out well better than I did lately”, analysed the 1.74m and 61kg thin sprinter coached in Texas by Bev Kearney. “When I came up (out of the blocks) I felt a strong wind in my face but I managed to stay focused in my own lane”.
The men’s 100m was won by Keston Bledman in 10.25 (w-1.0). “My start was a little bit off”, said the packed 1.75m and 87kg Trinidadian, who actually had the same tactics as Anderson to win the race: “I stayed patient during the race and stayed in my lane alone”. Bledman will run several races in Europe before going back home to participate to the Trinidadian Trials in a bid to qualify for the World Championships.
Tamgho – 16.83m – “my body was tired”
Teddy Tamgho, come from the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Lausanne (30 June) where he set the world’s best triple jump of the year so far (17.91m), was not in his best shape in Sotteville, and this was obvious from the beginning of the competition with two fouls.
On Tamgho’s third attempt, he produced a measured jump (16.83), off a careful run-up and a poor landing form. “I understood that my body was tired. I had cramps in Lausanne, and I couldn’t get a massage since. So today there was not much to expect from me”, admitted the World Indoor record holder (17.92).
“Today I couldn’t hope for more than 17.20-17.30”. Nevertheless, he didn’t managed to crack the 17m barrier in his three remaining attempts (16.76, foul, 16.75).
Tamgho could console himself with the win: one centimetre over Australian Henry Frayne and two over French Benjamin Compaoré.
“For an athlete, the objective is always to never lose. But if I want to win in Birmingham next week (he will face World champion Phillips Idowu in the Samsung Diamond League meeting), I’ll have to speed up my jumps!”
Other events…
In the Long Jump, three men went over 8 metres, Australians Robbie Crowther (1st with 8.09) and Fabrice Lapierre (3rd with 8.02) and French Kafetien Gomis (8.03).
Tyron Akins (USA) with 13.35sec at 110m Hurdles beat Dwight Thomas (JAM, 13.42), while Mateusz Didenkon (5.63) and Lukasz Michalski (5.53) made it a Polish double in the Pole Vault and Belarus’ Pavel Krivitskiy won the Hammer Throw with 77.02.
P-J Vazel for the IAAF
Click here for RESULTS
