Freeman
finishes fourth in comeback race
Greg Buckle (Reuters)
7 March 2003 – Melbourne, Australia
-Australia’s Olympic 400 metres champion Cathy Freeman returned to international athletics
on Thursday after an 18-month break, finishing fourth in the 200 metres at an IAAF Grand
Prix II meeting.
Freeman, who clocked 23.64, confessed she was not in top form as Lauren Hewitt won in a time of 23.20 seconds ahead of Jodi Lambert (23.53) and Sharon Cripps (23.61) in an all-Australian quartet.
“I haven’t run a personal best in the 200 (22.25) since 1994,” Freeman told reporters after her race.
“That’s the biggest hurdle I think I have to overcome right now. If I can run low 22s, the 400 will be so much easier to run faster, like possibly under 49.”
Australia women’s long jumper Bronwyn Thompson set a Commonwealth record with a leap of 7.00 metres.
The previous record was set in 1983 at the Helsinki world championships by Britain’s Beverley Kinch when she jumped 6.90 metres.
Australia’s Olympic long jump silver medallist Jai Taurima strained a hamstring in the warm-up and is in doubt for next month’s Commonwealth Games selection trials in Brisbane.
Freeman was making her comeback at the Melbourne Track Classic following her victory at the Sydney Olympics on September 25 2000.
The 29-year-old, who lit the cauldron to open the Olympics, took a year off after the Games because of the pressure of winning gold, and briefly flirted with the idea of retirement.
Freeman resumed training in November last year, weighing 65 kilograms but is now down to 54, two kilograms above her racing weight.
A winner of the 200 and 400 metres double at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and a former double world champion in the one lap race, Freeman announced this week she was keen to tackle both events at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.
Freeman, who was second in the 200 and fourth in the 100 metres at the Victorian state championships last week, said she did not enter the 400 metres on Thursday because her body was not ready for the demands of the event.
“It’s just a matter of time now before my body gets back to 100 percent,” she said.
“I’m still very rusty in my joints. I call it ‘Tin Man Syndrome’. I need oil in my joints.
“I’m really such a patient person right now. I think I can still run faster than I ever have yet. I’m thinking more about Athens.
“I definitely miss the drama about competition.”
Freeman said she was enjoying her space and that she was not under as much pressure as she was before the Sydney Olympics.
“Here in Australia we don’t have a lot of Olympic gold medallists in track and field, let alone Aboriginal ones, let alone beautiful ones. No, life’s good,” she said.
“I’m just doing it because I love it now, I don’t have to prove anything to myself or to anyone.”
Australia’s Craig Mottram, 21, warmed up for the world cross-country championships in Dublin later this month with an Australian record of 13.12.04 in second place behind Kenya’s Stephen Cherono (13:11.55) in the 5000 metres.
