News23 Jul 2005


A chill wind could blow Cuban Javelin chances off course in Helsinki

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Osleidys Menendez of Cuba wins gold in the women's javelin (© Getty Images)

The temperature of women’s Javelin throwing in Cuba is bubbling hot this season. Sonia Bisset heads the world list with 67.67m, thanks to her defeat of her more illustrious compatriot, Olympic champion and World record holder Osleidys Menéndez in Salamanca, Spain on 6 July. The IAAF World Ranked number one has a 2005 best of 66.02m, when finishing second on that occasion, the second longest performance in the world this season.

Central role in celebrations

Both these Cuban talents along with their training partner Nora Bicet (59.20m season’s best) will compete in tomorrow’s Javelin contest (24 July) in Eläintarha stadium, Helsinki, which forms part of the GE Money Grand Prix, whose main programme of IAAF Grand Prix competition will be played out on Monday night (25) in the neighbouring Olympic stadium.

The women’s Javelin Throw is being held a day early as the centre piece of celebrations to mark the re-opening of Eläintarha, the venue in which Paavo Nurmi on 19 June 1924, famously set 1500m and 5000m World records in the same afternoon, in preparation for his ultimately successful Olympic double in that year in Paris.
 
Over a dozen World records have been set in Eläintarha during its distinguished history, but since the opening of the Olympic stadium in the 1930s it has played the role of surely the world’s most illustrious warm-up venue.

The picturesque tree lined stadium has been refurbished for next month’s 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, and it is now resplendent with a new eight-lane track and modern surfaces for all field events.

World class in all respects

The quality of the three Cuban throwers very much matches the world class stature of the arena. All three were Olympic finalists in Athens, with Bisset and Bicet taking 5th (63.54) and 7th (62.51) places respectively behind Menendez’s 71.53 throw which secured the gold medal. This effort was tantalizingly only a centimetre away from her own World record.

This trio also dominates the current IAAF World Ranking for the event, Menendez in top position, Bisset in second, and Bicet in sixth.

The summer cold

Hot though their throwing form certainly is, all the talk today from Cubans was how hard they were finding it to adapt to Finland’s relatively chilly conditions. While back home, Havana is sweltering in 33c of heat, the Finnish capital today could muster only 18c, a chilly wind and the odd shower of rain.

“This climate makes us all a little bit nervous,” confirmed Menendez. “We are feeling the cold, and are finding it hard to get our muscles working properly. We are afraid of risking an injury.”

Menendez, the World champion in 2001, a final in which Bisset also took bronze, must be particularly concerned because she has already suffered a delayed start to the summer due to an injury she sustained during the autumn after her Olympic win.

Along with many of their team mates from other events, the Javelin throwers are now based at a pre-Worlds training camp at Vierumäki, one of Finland’s national sports institutes. The Helsinki Grand Prix will be their last competition before the Championships.

“We can’t find enough warm clothes to wear, and this is Summer (in Helsinki),” exclaimed the Olympic champion. “But that is the only reason why we are at all sceptical about our preparations for the World Championships and tomorrow’s competition. We have prepared well and are in good mood”

But “other than the weather we adore this country (Finland) and know of its great throwing traditions, and are sure we will face good competitors.”

Leading opponents

Leading the opposition at the Grand Prix is Germany’s fast improving Christina Obergföll, who at 23 years of age, stands fourth on the season’s world list with 64.59m. At the World Championships, along with her team-mate Steffi Nerius, the Olympic silver medallist (65.84m – third best throw of 2005) the German squad should pose the most potent challenge to Cuban medal ambitions.

The Finnish tradition will be upheld tomorrow by the best of the current crop Mikaela Ingberg, the double European and former World bronze medallist, who is recovering well from back and shoulder injuries. Her season’s best is 60.45m.

Menendez and her colleagues will go back to Vierumäki after the competition, and will return to Helsinki on 1 August for final preparations before the World Championships.

“There will be no time for any amusements, just resting and training,” said a focused Menendez, who also confirmed that as part of their detailed preparations for the World Championships, the trio would visit the Olympic stadium this weekend to see where they will be competing for honours in August.

But perhaps an equally important excursion should be a visit to one of Helsinki’s many department stores to buy a few more sweatshirts. If a chill wind can occasionally blow no good, their medal chances could depend upon it.

Chris Turner
IAAF Editorial Manager

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