20 years on Jackie JoynerKersee closes in glory
She was just sixteen when, in 1978, Jackie Joyner won the first of four consecutive titles in the National Junior Pentathlon Championships. Twenty years on, Jackie Joyner-Kersee has triumphed in New York, in the Goodwill Games, in the last heptathlon of her spectacular career. Success came in the shape of a margin of 23 points, maintained with great effort in the 800m - the toughest event for Jackie. But the final result was exceptional: 6502 points, the world’s best performance this year, achieved with 13.29 in the 100m hurdles, 1.75m in the high jump, 15.59m in the shot put, 24.47 in the 200m, 6.73 in the long jump, 43.40m in the javelin and 2:17.61 in the 800m.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee will compete for the last time on Saturday 25 July, in the IAAF Grand Prix Meeting in Edwardsville, a suburb of East St Louis, where she was born. She will compete in the long jump, an event in which she has been Olympic and World Champion.
Giorgio Reineri has written a profile on Jackie Joyner-Kersee which may be reproduced freely by other publications subject to mention of Author and copyright (c)IAAF 1998 - web sites utilising this material must obligatorily incorporate a link to the IAAF web site home page http://www.iaaf.org/ and should email IAAF the URL of the page where the article has been posted.
