Jackson
lays down the law in Vienna as Spanish armada dominates the medals table
sw-j for the IAAF
2 March 2002 – Veteran British hurdler Colin Jackson showed that having 35 years under
your belt still doesn’t stop you competing with the best and coming out on tops, as he won
the 60 metre hurdles final here this afternoon in a world leading time of 7.40 seconds.
Despite getting off to an uncharacteristically slow start, Jackson managed to claw back the lead built up by Austria’s Elmar Lichtenegger, draw level with him at the fourth hurdle and win the sprint off the final hurdle to take gold. Bronze went to the other favoured competitor, Yevgeniy Pechonkin of Russia in 7.50.
This was Jackson's fourth European indoor title, in 1994 he won both 60 metre hurdles and 60 metre on the flat and 1989 was gold medallist in the 60 metre hurdles.
"I am very pleased. I came to Vienna as the fastest in the world and I leave Austria as the fastest in the world. The race was perfect, everything was fantastic." Jackson said after the race.
Spain continued to pull in the medals as Spanish athletes took gold and silver in the long jump and silver in the 1500.
Yago Lamela, who won world silver indoors and outdoors in 1999 added another silver to his collection here, as his compatriot Raul Fernandez took the gold with a personal best of 8.22 metres.
Lamela jumped the same distance as bronze medallist Petar Datchev of Bulgaria, with both athletes measured at 8.17, but the Spaniard was given the silver medal with his second best jump bettering Datchev's by one centimetre.
In the men’s 1500, favourite Rui Silva of Portugal, who recently set a world best that took him to sixth in the IAAF World Rankings, can expect his placing to further improve after winning today with a time of 3:49.93. Juan Higuero from Spain timed 3.50.08 at the finish after making the running throughout the race, to be overtaken by Silva in the final metres. Great Britain’s Michael East was third in 3:50.08.
Defending champion Christian Malcolm from Great Britain saw his hopes of a successful title defence dashed when Poland's Marcin Urbas beat him at the line with 20.64 to Malcolm's 20.65. Another Pole, Robert Mackowiack took bronze behind Malcolm in 20.77.
Malcolm said afterwards that he had a problem with his hamstring as they entered the home straight: "AQs I cam off the final bend I felt my left hamstring tighten but I thought that I would still have enough strength to take me to the line. I lifted my knees higher to try to power away and it was only as I dipped to the line that I realised how close the Pole was to me."
Urbas was ecstatic: "I gave everything that I could. It was a very hard fight. At the end I wanted to be first but also have a good time. Fortunately I have a good finish.
"I owe 80% of my success to my coach. This is a really good end to the winter season. I hope I can repeat this success in the summer."
In a closely contested heptathlon, Roman Sebrle from Czech Republic took the honours from his compatriot Tomas Dvorak with a score of 6,280 points to Dvorak's 6,165. Third place went to Erki Nool, who as always was supported in Vienna by the ubiquitous Erki Nool fan club, who follow the popular Estonian to all of his competitions.
