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News18 Oct 2000


Men's 100m final

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Men’s 100m final
Steven Downes for the IAAF

18 October 2000 – Mark Lewis-Francis has been described by the last two Olympic 100 metres champions as the most impressive sprinting prospect they have ever seen, and here on Wednesday the schoolboy from the Midlands of England confirmed that judgement as he scorched to the gold medal at the 8th IAAF World Junior Championships in 10.12sec.

The 18-year-old from Darlaston won by 0.26sec - a record winning margin at the event - from Salem Mubarak Al-Yami, of Saudi Arabia. The bronze medal went to Trinidad's Marc Burns, who clocked a lifetime best 10.40, the same time as his 16-year-old team mate, Darrel Brown, who was placed fourth.

Lewis-Francis's first reaction as he crossed the line was to look across at the in-field digital clock, and there was a hint of anti-climax that he had not managed to better the 10.06sec world junior record held by his compatriot, Dwain Chambers.

But Lewis-Francis's time equalled the championship record set two years ago by another young British sprinter, Christian Malcolm (it is the sixth time in eight World Juniors that a Briton has placed among the men’s 100m medals).

"Today was all about winning gold. Times didn't matter," Lewis-Francis said.

Lewis-Francis had turned down Olympic selection for Britain. "I've no regrets at all," he said.

"I wanted this gold medal so badly, I gave up the Olympics for it.

"I don't want to rush things. I'm glad I came out here, it was the right decision."

Lewis-Francis plans to step up his training this winter – from two days each week to three days out of seven.

"I have another year as a junior. I want to be able to run 10.1sec consistently.

"But the first thing I’m going to do when I get back home is take some driving lessons and get a car – I’m fed up with taking the bus to training."

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