News08 Jul 2003


Capacity Croatian crowd worships at Vlasic’s temple

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Blanka Vlasic salutes the crowd at the 2003 World Indoor Championships (© Getty Images)

Zagreb, CroatiaOrganizers of the Monday's 53rd Hanzekovic Memorial IAAF Grand Prix in Zagreb could not have been more pleased.  An ideal summer evening emerged from threatening early afternoon skies, a capacity crowd of vociferous fans filled every nook of the Sport Stadium Mladost, and Croatia's brightest star, high jumper Blanka Vlasic, was on hand just days after her upset win in the Paris Golden League meeting.
 
Exhibiting composure beyond her 19 years, Vlasic came through with perhaps the most memorable performance in the meeting's 53 years with her final attempt clearance of 2.00m to become the latest member of the still exclusive 2 metres club. The joyous roar of the crowd was outdone --albeit briefly-- only by the fireworks on hand for the occasion.

It mattered little, if at all, that reigning World Champion Hestrie Cloete won the competition on the countback. The night clearly belonged to Vlasic, and the South African was among the first to congratulate the young jumper from the Adriatic seaside resort town of Split. 

"I think last year I did tell all the people in the press that Blanka is a piece of gold and that you really need to look after her," said Cloete, "and that she's going to jump at two metres very early. And it happened a year later."

After two frustratingly close efforts, the two-time World Junior champion knew that the heavy psychological barrier posed by the two metres mark would soon be wiped away. 

"I always seem to perform best when I'm under that kind of pressure, that all-or-nothing kind of situation." 

Lying on the landing bed after her clearance, Vlasic relished the ovation, with tears of joy escaping her usually composed demeanour.

“I just thought about all the questions I'm always asked about jumping two metres, about all the near misses, about all the times the bar shook and fell off.  Now it's behind me."

The product of a sporting family - her father still holds the national Decathlon record and her mother was a Yugoslav national cross country skiing champion - Vlasic finished fifth in the Edmonton World Championships the year between winning her World Junior titles, and after her fourth place finish at this year's World Indoor Championships, is now poised as a medal threat in Paris.

"The focus this season has always been the World Championships, and jumping two metres was one step towards that."

Minutes before the start of the women's 400m Hurdles, the stars of the meet --from World Indoor Long Jump champion Dwight Phillips to European steeplechase co-record holder Simon Vroeman -- were paraded in front of the enthusiastic crowd in two lavish horse drawn carriages.  One of the horses in the second carriage, was, apparently, caught up in the excitement as well, and left his mark in lane five.  After a brief clean-up delay, Natasha Danvers lined up in that same lane and left a mark of her own with a strong finishing surge over the final two hurdles en route to a personal best 54.32 win, the fifth fastest time in 2003.

"Maybe that gave an edge," the Los Angeles-based Briton said, laughing. "I actually noticed where they watered it down, and I thought, 'let me get through that as quickly as possible.' "

Before the race, Danvers said she was nervous because ‘she wasn't in the least bit nervous’, a welcome change from last weekend's environment at the Stade de France, allowing her to run a much more relaxed race.  

"I knew my PB would come once I actually got my step pattern right. I changed my mentality coming off of eight and it worked." The 25 year-old London native wouldn't make predictions about the rest of the season, but her upbeat attitude after her win led to a positive prognosis. "I'll go as fast as these legs will take me, which I believe is faster than I went today."

Up next for the 2001 World University Games champion is the 100m hurdles race in Gateshead on Sunday, and possibly a start in Friday's Rome Golden League race. "It's time to play it safe now, because there's plenty more weeks left. I don't think I've peaked yet. I believe I was capable of this a long time ago but it just didn't come together at the right time.

 With a field boasting most of the year's top throwers, the women's Hammer provided a glimpse at the likely world championships final.  World leader Manuela Montebrun of France won with a 73.31 toss ahead of Olympic champion Kamila Skolimowska (70.39) and Romanian Mihaela Melinte (68.55), the World record holder. Another 19 year-old Croatian, Ivana Brkljacic, the World Junior champion, reached 68.03, and finished fourth.

Shawn Crawford had a busy evening, highlighted by a 20.10 win in the 200m after being edged 10.17-10.19 by Aziz Zakari in the 100, despite clearly shutting down in the latter stage of the race.

"I felt like I could have run 19-point because my hamstring cramped up twice on the turn and I shut it down 20 meters from the finish line. I just didn't want to risk anything."  US 100m champion Bernard Williams was second in 20.49.

Jamaican Kemel Thompson's snappy 48.24 clocking beat US World Championships team member Joey Woody (48.45) in the 400 Hurdles, while in the straight hurdle races, Duane Ross powered his way to a 13.17 win in the 110m High Hurdles over Lui Xiang (13.22), while Melissa Morrison out-leaned Pole Aurelia Trywianska by one one-hundreth of a second in 12.72.

Elsewhere, Kenyan Benjamin Kipkirui (3:34.34) held off compatriot Paul Korir's (3:34.49) homestretch charge to take the 1500m, and Merlene Ottey, in the midst of intense training, overcame a slow start with a very impressive final forty meters to win the 100 in 11.42.

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