For International Track & Field, Cross Country and Road Running
By Alpheus Finlayson
The year 2002 was a fantastic year for the "Mother of All Sports" as IAAF president Lamine Diack describes our beloved sport in the 90th Year of the IAAF.
This was the very first time a World Athletic Series event came to the Caribbean and what a show it was. The IAAF World Junior Championships was held in Kingston, Jamaica, the "Land of Sprinters and Dreamers" under the theme "One Love". On the final evening there were throngs of spectators trying to get into a filled 36,000 stadium in the "Land of Sprinters and Dreamers".
At the IAAF World Cup in Madrid in September Africa won the men's competition for the fourth time and Russia won the women's competition. A week before in Paris Tim Montgomery of the United States took advantage of near perfect conditions to set a World Record in the 100m. His 9.78 seconds beat the old record of Maurice Greene by a hundredth of a second.
For this performance Montgomery beat out El Guerrouj for the Overall Grand Prix and winning an impressive $250,000 in the process ($100,000 for the World Record).
On the road Britain's Paula Radcliffe stunned the world with a fantastic performance of 2:17.18 in Chicago, her second marathon.
The Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, Great Britain, reminded us of what our great sport is about, thrilling competition.
Athletes of the Year
Lest we forget what our sport is about we had fantastic performances by athletes all over the world in 2002. When the season was just about all over Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe was named the International Athletic Foundation's Female Athlete of the Year and Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj named the Male Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo.
An international panel of journalists and statisticians nominated ten men and ten women for the Athlete of the Year Award. That evening Tim Montgomery, Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic and Hicham El Guerrouj made the finals in the men. Radcliffe, Marion Jones, and Mexico's Ana Guevara made the cut for the women.
The Rising Star Awards, celebrating the best Junior athletes of 2002 went to Jamaica's Usain Bolt and Sweden's Carolina Kluft. Bolt at 15 became the youngest athlete to win a World Junior Championships when he won the 200m. Kluft who set a World Junior Record in the Heptathlon in Kingston improved it in winning the European Championships title in Munich.
In the Caribbean and Central America Sanchez the top 400m hurdler in the world and Guevara the top 400m runner were named as Athletes of the Year during a luncheon at the Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador. Mexico was named the CAC Federation of 2002.
Sprinter Debbie Ferguson won the Overall Athlete of the Year as well as Female Athlete of the Year at the Bahamas Association of Athletics Associations Golden Anniversary Banquet. World 400m champion Avard Moncur was named the Bahamian Male Athlete of the Year.
Ferguson enjoyed a banner year becoming the first Bahamian to win an individual event in the IAAF World Cup when she won the 200m in Madrid. She also set records in both 100m and 200m at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. She also anchored the New Golden Girls to a new Games record in the 400m Relay.
For her efforts Ferguson was nominated for the IAF Athlete of the Year. She was also named Commonwealth Female Athlete of the Year as well as Food and Agriculture Organization Ambassador for the Caribbean.
The top Bahamian Junior Athletes were Shamar Sands who won a bronze medal in the 110m Hurdles at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Kingston, and Shandira Brown who won both 100 and 200m at the Carifta Games in Nassau.
Champions
Here is a list of champions in IAAF Competitions (excluding World Cup, Grand Prix Finals, and World Junior Championships).
March 23-24th 30th World Cross Country Championships- Dublin, Ireland
Long Race- Men Kenenisa Berkele, Ethiopia 34.52
Women Paula Radcliffe, Great Britain 26.55
Short Race- Men Kenenisa Berkele, Ethiopia 12.11
Women Edith Masai , Kenya 13.30
Junior Race- Men Gebre-Egziabher Gebremariam, Ethiopia 23.18
Women Viola Kibiwot, Kenya 20.13
In an amazing demonstration of talent Berkele won both Long and Short races.
May 5 World Half Marathon Championships Brussels, Belgium
Men- Paul Kosgei Kenya 1:00.39
Women- Berhane Adere Ethiopia 1:09.06
October 13-14th IAAF World Race Walking Cup Turin, Italy
Men's 20k Jefferson Perez Ecuador 1:21.26
Women's 20k Erica Alfridi Italy 1:28.55
Men's 50k Aleksey Voyevodin Russia 3:40.59
Golden League Jackpot
When it was all over four athletes won a portion of the pot of Gold provided to the athlete who remained unbeaten in Golden League competitions. Marion Jones in the 100m, Ana Guevara in the 400m, Felix Sanchez in the 400m hurdles, and Hicham El Guerrouj in the 1500m were all winners.
IAAF World Rankings
Men- Hicham El Guerrouj Morocco 1500m 1449
Tim Montgomery USA 100m 1438
Braham Boulami Morocco Steeple-Chase 1420*
* Pending resolution of Doping Infraction
CAC- 4th Felix Sanchez Dominican Republic 400m H 1414
7th Anier Garcia Cuba 110m H 1401
34th Michael Blackwood Jamaica 400m 1349
Bahamas- None
Women- Marion Jones USA 100m 1405
Svetlana Feofanova Russia PV 1403
Gail Devers USA 100m H 1400
CAC 5th Ana Guevara Mexico 400m 1395
10th Brigette Foster Jamaica 100m H 1364
16th Lorraine Graham-Fenton Jamaica 400m 1351
Bahamas 27th Debbie Ferguson 100m, 200m 1335
41st Chandra Sturrup 100m(60m) 1311
82nd Savetheda Fynes 100m(60m) 1276
Around the world there were many great competitions including the European Championships in Munich, the African Championships in Tunis, the Asian Championships in Colombo, Sri Lanka, the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, the NACAC Under 25 Championships in San Antonio, USA, and the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, El Salvador.
World Records
The IAAF ratified the following World Records.
Junior Women-
400m hurdles 54.70 Lashinda Demus(1983, USA) Kingston, July 19th
Heptathlon 6470 Carolina Kluft(1883, SWE) Kingston, July 19&20th
6452 Carolina Kluft Munich, Aug. 9-10
Junior Men
110m Hurdles 13.12(1.6mps) Xiang Liu(1983, China), Lausanne, July 2nd
1500m 3:30.24 Cornelius Chirchir(Kenya), Monaco July 19th
400m Relay 38.92, (Ashton Collins, Wes Felix, Ivory Williams, Willie Hordge)
USA, Kingston, July 21
Senior Men
100m 9.78(2.0mps) Tim Montgomery(USA), Paris, September 14th
Senior Women
3000m Steeplechase 9:16.51 Alesya Turova(Belarus) Gdansk, July 27th
25,000m 1:27:05.9 Tegla Loroupe(Kenya) Mengerkirchen Sept.21st
Indoor Women
800m 1:55.82 Jolanda Ceplak(Slovenia), Vienna, March 3rd
Pole Vault 4.75 Svetlana Feofanova(Russia), Vienna, March 3rd
Council Decisions
Championships
2005 World Championships Awarded to Helsinki, Finland after six cities submitted bids. IAAF appointed a three person Evaluation Commission to assist in the process.
2007 World Championships Awarded to Osaka, Japan.
2004 World Half Marathon Awarded to New Delhi, India.
2005 World Half Marathon Awarded to Edmonton, Canada.
2004 World Junior Championships Awarded to Grosetto, Italy.
2006 World Cup Awarded to Los Angeles, USA.
Restructuring of IAAF Competition Circuit
Thirty-six One-Day meetings will now make up the system. Six will be Golden League; Nine will be Super Grand Prix, Ten Grand Prix, and 11 Grand prix II. There will be a World Athletics Final held in Monaco in September. Qualification to enter the Final will be based upon the New IAAF World Rankings System.
EPO Testing
The Council decided to conduct Out of Competition Tests for EPO. These tests are also to be conducted at every World Athletic Series Event.
Olympic Relay Qualification
Due to the fact that the International Olympic Committee has placed a cap of 2000 athletes for Track and Field the number of Relay Teams will be reduced to 16 for each relay. Qualification for teams will be based upon the top 16 average times of their best two competitions in the
period, beginning the first of January, 2003 and closing on the 21st of July 2004. One of the competitions must be in 2004.
New World Championships Quota System
For the Paris World Championships the IAAF will use a new system for the awarding of Quotas. This system which will include the number of athletes a country has making "A" and "B" qualification standards as well as the performance of Relay Teams.
In addition to these changes the Council has increased significantly the number of quota athletes making it more economically feasible for federations to send teams to Paris.
New CAC Leadership
The Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation held elections during the CAC Games in El Salvador. Elected were:
President- Victor Lopez, Puerto Rico
First Vice-President- Antonio Villaneuva, Mexico
Second Vice-President- Dennis Johnson, Jamaica
Third Vice-President- Keith Joseph, St. Vincent& The Grenadines
Members at Large(Vocal)- Judith Simmons, Bermuda
Alfred Emannuel, St. Lucia
Alain Pierre, Haiti
Obituaries
Many greats in our sport passed away this year. They include:
Mamo Wolde- 1960 and 1964 Olympic Marathon Champion from Ethiopia.
Bob Hayes- 1964 Olympic 100m Champion from the USA.
Willie Davenport- 1968 Olympic 110m Hurdles Champion from the USA.
Prince Alexandre de Merode- Member of the IOC from Belgium.
Kim Gallagher- 1984 Olympic silver medallist in the 800m from the USA.
Ben Plucknet- former World Record holder in the Discus from the USA.
Sir Arthur Gold Head of the UK Olympic Association.
Neftali Rojas- Secretary General of North American, Central American and
Caribbean Area Association (NACAC) from Puerto Rico.
Malcolm Hanna- Bahamas distance ace, died in Manchester, Great Britain.
The Year Ahead
The year 2003 holds much in store for our beloved sport. There are a number of world competitions including the World Championships in Athletics in Paris, the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Great Britain, the World Youth Championships in Quebec, Canada, the new World Athletic Final in Monte Carlo, the World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the World Half Marathon Championships in Portugal.
For the Caribbean and Central American area we have the Cross Country Championships in Mexico, the Carifta Games in Trinidad & Tobago, the Central American and Caribbean
Championships in Grenada, the CAC Age Group Championships in Puerto Rico, and the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic.
At the NACAC Congress in Grenada in July the decision will be made on the proposal to make the NACAC Championships an "Open" affair. NACAC lags behind the other continental areas of the world in that the first ever Area Championships was only held in 2000. If the decision is for "Open" Championships it would put our area on equal footing with the other continental areas.
In closing we remind you that January 1st marks the introduction of the controversial False Start Rule that was adopted by the Edmonton Congress in 2001. The rule allows one false start on the field. Anyone else committing a false start will be disqualified from the competition.
