Stomach
problems could sideline Denise Lewis
Steven Downes for the IAAF
2 August 2001 - Edmonton - Denise
Lewis, the Olympic heptathlon gold medallist from Britain, may be forced out of
the heptathlon at the IAAF World Championships, after she was taken ill on
Thursday.
“It is only 50-50 whether she will be able to compete on Saturday,” Charles van Commenee, the Dutchman who coached Lewis to the Olympic title in Sydney last year, said. Van Commenee said that Lewis had had stomach problems since the previous evening, and had been vomiting.
Lewis, 29, from Birmingham, England, was reckoned to be one of Great Britain’s best chances for a gold medal at the 10-day World Championships which begin on Friday.
It was expected that she would resume her rivalry here with France’s Eunice Barber, who beat Lewis to the world title in Seville two years ago, but was unable to complete the Olympic heptathlon because of injury.
Lewis had been due to give a press conference at the British team hotel on Thursday morning. In her absence, her coach faced reporters to announce that a decision on the Olympic gold medallist’s participation in the World Championships would be left until the very last minute.
“At this point, it is difficult to say what is going to happen,” van Commenee said. “We will probably decide whether Denise will compete on Saturday morning.
“Usually she gets stomach problems before a competition. Sometimes it is worse than others. She is an experienced athlete, but she’s also just human, and every now and then she has to take a day off.” Van Commenee said that Lewis had not left her bed all day on Thursday.
Asked about his assessment of Lewis’s chances of competing, van Commenee said, “I am a realist. She has to feel good enough to be in contention for the gold medal.
“She is not dead and buried yet. She has come back from problems in the past,” the coach said, referring to the injuries which Lewis overcame to take the Olympic title in Sydney. “Last year, when she won in Sydney, she was not strong at all.”
Van Commenee said that despite the illness, he had been satisfied with Lewis’s recent preparation: “She is strong in six events, but she is weak in the high jump,” he said. “Of course, you want to be great in all seven events, but it is very rare in combined events that you excel in all the events.”
