Hansen’s
14.86, the pinnacle of England’s golden night – Commonwealth Games
Final
Day
Matthew Brown
for the IAAF
31 July
2002 – Manchester, England - World indoor record holder Ashia Hansen won a
thrilling Commonwealth Games triple jump
with the longest jump in the
world this year
at the City of
Manchester Stadium tonight,
a competition
in which the
gold medal changed hands twice on the last two jumps. It was the pinnacle of an
amazing night for English athletes.
Having headed the competition from the first round, Hansen saw her lead eclipsed in the last round by Cameroon’s Francoise Mbango, the woman who finished second to her in 1998. Mbango, the 2001 world silver medallist, produced the then second biggest leap in the world this year with her final effort. Knowing it was now or never, she sailed out to 14.82m, a national record, and the third Games record of the competition. With only Hansen left jump, she must have thought that the title was hers.
But just as her fellow English triple jumper Jonathan Edwards had responded to pressure three nights before, Hansen too was stirred by the passionate crowd and would not let the title go. The crowd’s rhythmic clapping turned into a huge noise, which grew and grew as she powered down the runway. Hitting the board perfectly, she bounded into the sand, her landing greeted by a massive roar.
Like Edwards before her, she leapt from the pit and turned to the stands, her face exploding in surprise and joy, her arms out, even before the mark had been measured. Somehow she knew it was enough. The figures came up: 14.86m, the longest jump in the world this year. She had won by four centimetres. The last time she had jumped so far was in 1999.
Mbango was stunned. Hansen, ecstatic, set off on her lap of honour. She had set a Games record with her first round effort of 14.49m and bettered it with her second attempt, 14.66m. Mbango got close in the fifth with 14.61m, before the real drama unfolded in the last round. Trecia Smith took the bronze with a Jamaican record of 14.32m.
“I wanted it even more because she was waving to the crowd thinking she had won it,” said Hansen. “I heard the crowd on the runway, but then I went into auto pilot. Everything just fell into place.”
As it did for the 11 other English gold medal winners during these championships, for this evening alone the home nation won six out of the 13 finals.
Like Hansen, Kelly Holmes is one of England’s seasoned campaigners and, like Hansen, she has had her injury problems in recent years. Holmes regained the 1500m title she won in 1994 tonight with an impeccably controlled and dominant performance. The silver medallist four years ago, she crossed the line in 4:06.00 with a massive grin across her face and her arms spread wide, after taking 15 metres out of the rest of the field in the last 200m of the race.
British athletes secured all three medals, as Hayley Tullett came with a late run to give Wales a silver, in a season’s best 4:07.52, edging out England’s Helen Pattinson, who claimed the bronze in 4:07.62. It was Pattinson, in fact, who had made the first serious move of the race after a steady early pace. She took it on with 600m to go, as Holmes moved up from the pack to sit on her shoulder.
It remained that way at the bell, but Holmes timed her move perfectly, hitting the front 250m out. The Olympic 800m bronze medallist kicked again with 200m to go and entered the straight with a five metre lead, stretching it to 15m by the time she leapt through the line. Defending champion Jackline Maranga of Kenya was fourth in her season’s best, 4:08.47.
“There have been so many ups and downs in my career that last week I was so scared to train in case I was injured again,” said Holmes. “I wanted it so badly because of all the injuries, all the illness and all the tears over the years. I have seen my dreams dashed so many times. I could easily have given up. It was such a relief to do well here and bury those bad times.”
England’s sprinters also finally came good, in the men’s 4x100m relay, giving local boy Darren Campbell the Olympic 200m silver medallist a happy ending to a long and emotional saga. Campbell revealed after the 200m final here in Manchester, in which he won a bronze, that he had been close to suicide at the end of last year because of injuries and personal problems. He almost didn’t make it into the England team for the Games in his home town, and he almost certainly would not have been running the anchor for England’s relay team, if Dwain Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis had not both been injured in the 100m final.
But such is sporting fate. They were injured, and he ran.
When Campbell got the baton this evening he was level with Jamaica’s Asafa Powell. They ran stride for stride, straining for the line, but nothing was going to deny Campbell his fairy tale ending. They crossed the line together and Campbell threw his arms wide and his eyes up to the heavens. He was the only one in the stadium certain he had won. Minutes later it was confirmed – England had taken the gold by a fraction, but in the same time as Jamaica, 38.62m.
“It was a great way to finish the Games,” said England’s lead-off runner, Jason Gardener. “And fitting for the people of Manchester that we were led to victory by the home-town boy Darren Campbell.”
It took a photo finish to give England the sprint relay title, and it took a photo finish before they were awarded the 4x400m gold too. It was an incredible race in which four teams were still in contention as they entered the final straight of the final leg.
Jamaica’s Michael Blackwood was leading, but the world indoor champion Daniel Caines kicked for home. He seemed to have it won when Blackwood dropped the baton, allowing Matt Elias of Wales through to challenge. He and Caines strained all the way to the line, and dipped together. Elias leapt into the arms of his team-mates, thinking he had won. Caines looked to the scoreboard for confirmation that he had shaved it.
Minutes passed before the announcers declared England the gold medallists, in 3:00.40. Elias was devastated, but he helped set a Welsh record, 3:00.41, with a 44.1 leg. Caines was timed at 44.5. Jamaica’s dropped baton cost them a medal and Bahamas were given the bronze, in 3:01.35.
On an amazing night for the home country, England even managed to win a men’s middle distance title at a major outdoor championships for the first time since Peter Elliott won the Commonwealth Games 1500m gold in 1990.
The favourite for the 1500m here was Kenya’s William Chirchir, fourth in last year’s world championships, and it was he who led at the bell. England’s Anthony Whiteman was on his shoulder, and made a move 200m out. Chirchir responded but looked beaten. Whiteman began to tie up, but his compatriot Michael East was making a late run around the outside. East passed the Kenyan and Whiteman to take the gold, three metres clear, in a personal best 3:37.35.
Chirchir hung on for silver, in 3:37.70, while Australia’s Youcef Abdi sneaked through on the inside to deny Whiteman a medal.
England’s gold medal winning night was completed by Steve Backley, who took control of the men’s javelin competition with his first throw, a 86.81m effort that was never beaten. Canada’s Scott Russell was second with 78.98m and England’s Nick Neiland third with 78.63m.
“I knew that if I caught one right at the start it would be enough,” said Backley. It is his third Commonwealth gold.
They may not have won either middle distance race here, but Kenya did take the men’s 5000m. In fact, it was no surprise that they swept the medals. The only time that result looked in doubt was when the pre-race favourite, Benjamin Limo, was tripped in the first 200m. The 1999 world silver medallist was left some 20 metres behind the pack. He recovered with uncanny swiftness, catching the back runners within half a lap and installing himself at the front within 400m of his fall.
Some 12 laps later, he lost the gold in a desperate sprint to the line by just six hundredths of a second. The title went to Sammy Kipketer, who set a new Games record of 13:13.51.
“After I fell I had to put in a lot of effort to catch up with the others, and this used up a lot of energy,” said Limo later. “That’s why I felt exhausted and wasn’t able to win the sprint.”
The third Kenyan, 20 year-old Willy Kirui – brother of the 1993 World 5000m Champion Ismael Kirui – was dropped only in the last 200m, but still recorded a personal best of 13:18.02.
Despite Limo’s trip (after a clash with Zambia’s Obed Mutanya), the Kenyans controlled the entire race. Limo led the early stages, but it was Kipketer who injected the first decisive change of pace, opening a five metre lead at the 3km mark (7:58.03). He was chased down by Kirui and Limo, with Australia’s Craig Mottram and England’s John Mayock hanging on.
But Mottram and Mayock couldn’t maintain the Kenyan’s consistent pace and by 4km (10:38.06) the sweep was already certain. Kipketer added the Commonwealth title to his 2000 world cross country short course gold.
Jamaica might well have taken all three medals in the women’s 100m hurdles if the fastest woman in the field, Bridgette Foster hadn’t pulled out. As it was Jamaica’s took gold and silver through 27 year-old Lacena Golding-Clark and Vonette Dixon. Golding-Clark clocked 12.77 for the title, with Dixon producing a personal best of 12.83 for silver.
Nigeria’s Angela Atede ran a season’s best 12.98 to steal the bronze from local Trafford Harrier Diane Allahgreen of England.
The winner Golding-Clark, who only took up hurdling this year, was fourth in the long jump in 1998. “I never thought I could have won but I came here with high hopes,” she said. “It’s my first major gold.”
Australia, Cathy Freeman and all, won the women’s 4x400m after the Jamaican quartet, pre-race favourites faltered at the first exchange. Sandie Richards passed to Allison Beckford in the lead, but Beckford’s heel came free from her shoe and she stopped running. That left Freeman in the lead. She was caught by England’s Halen Karagounis at the change, but her team had Jana Pittman on the last leg, and despite Lisa Miller’s gallant efforts, England had to settle for silver.
Australia’s winning time, 3:25.63, was the 27th and final Games record to be set in Manchester, and the eighth of the day. It gave Freeman her fourth Commonwealth Games medal. England also beat the old record, recording 3:26.73, while Nigeria were third in 3:29.73.
“It’s strange, really strange because I’m not fit,” said Freeman afterwards. “To come here and win a gold medal, I never dreamed that this could happen to me.”
Freeman was timed unofficially at 51.8, while Pittman ran 50.3 (both unofficially).
Another Games record went to Justin Anlezark, who upset the form book in the men’s shot put, producing the only 20 metre plus throws of the final to beat the much-favoured South African Janus Robberts. The Australian put 20.91m in the final round, although he was already leading courtesy of a 20.29m effort in the fourth. Roberts was second with 19.97m and England’s Carl Myerscough third just six centimetres shorter.
Yet another Games record had gone earlier in the women’s 4x100m relay, which fell to the dominant Bahamas in 42.44. Jamaica were second to the ‘new golden girls’ in 42.73, while England chased them hard to take the bronze in 42.84.
Events for elite athletes with a disability are counted as full medal events at these Commonwealth Games, and Nigeria’s Adekunle Adesoji set his second world record of the Games in the men’s 100m for blind athletes. The 20 year-old from Lagos clocked 10.76, lowering the 10.83 mark he had set in the heats the day before. The silver went to Hisham Khaironi of Malaysia in a personal best 11.53.
World record holder Chantal Petitclerc of Canada won the women’s 800m wheelchair gold in 1:52.93, from Australia’s nine-time Paralympic gold medal winner Loiuise Sauvage. Petitclerc missed her world record by more than two seconds, but Sauvage, the world champion, produced a season’s best of 1:53.30. Australia’s Eliza Jane Stankovic took the bronze in 1:54.20.
England’s golden night meant the home nation leapt above Australia to the top of the athletics medal table, with 12 golds to Australia’s nine, 29 medals to Australia’s 28.
The night ended to the tune of Tina Turner’s ‘Simply the Best’, with the athletes insisting on doing a special lap of honour to thank the crowd for its fantastic support.
