Tereza Marinova (Bulgaria) competing at the 2002 European Indoor Championships (© Getty Images)
Bulgaria’s Olympic women’s Triple Jump Tereza Marinova who bounced back into form with a personal season’s best of 14.40m in Athens last week is another of the World Indoor champions from Lisbon 2001 to be defending her title at the 9th World Indoor championships in Athletics in Birmingham (14 -16 March 2003).
The 25-year-old who also took the 2002 European Indoor title but in the process sustained an Achilles injury which kept her out of the entire summer season, has had two competitions this winter. She won the national championships in Sofia on 9 February with a jump of 14.20m, before finishing third at the Balkan Championships in Athens on 4 March, with her season’s best of 14.40.
“I aim to capture a medal at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham and later in the summer to win the outdoor title in Paris – as a outdoor World Championship victory is missing from my medal collection,” confirmed Marinova earlier this winter.
Greece’s European Indoor Long jump champion Niki Xanthou is included in the Greek line up for Birmingham. Xanthou jumped to a season’s best of 6.72m in Athens on Thursday night (6 March)wherfe she was beaten by Russia’s Tatyana Kotova (6.74), the continental outdoor gold medallist from Munich, who will also be competing in Birmingham.
However, at the World Indoor Championships both women will have to watch out for Xanthou’s sensational 22-year-old compatriot Stilianí Pilátou who, while finishing fifth with 6.58 on Thursday, set the current world season’s lead of 6.80m in Athens at the Balkan Championships on the 4 March.
Japan
A small team of three Japanese athletes will be competing in Birmingham, reports Ken Nakamura. They are sprinter Nobuharu Asahara, 800m runner Miho Sugimori and high jumper Yoko (Ota) Hunnicutt. Of the three, only Asahara has competed in the World Indoor Championships previously. In the last two World Indoor Championships in Maebashi (1999) and in Lisbon (2001), Asahara advanced to the semi-final at 60m. Both Asahara and (Ota) Hunnicutt have competed in Birmingham arena in 2002. Yoko even set an indoor personal best of 1.90m. However, it is Miho Sugimori who is on a roll this indoor season. With the right competitions Sugimori is ready to break 2 minutes barrier for 800m, and the right competition should be available in the World Indoor Championships.NB. Biographies of all three appear below.
Other team news –
Australia
Men
Justin Anlezark Shot Put
Daniel Batman 400m
Paul Burgess Pole Vault
Viktor Chistiakov Pole Vault
Women
Benita Johnson 3000m
Belgium
Men
Cédric Van Branteghem 400m
Jonathan Nsenga 60mH
Women
60m Kim Gevaert
Brazil
Men
Vicente de Lima 60m
Bruno Pacheco 200m
Osmar dos Santos 800m
Marcio de Souza 60mh,
Anselmo da Silva 60mh
Jadel Gregório Triple Jump
Women
Geisa Coutinho 400m
Maila Machado 60mh
Maurren Maggi Long Jump
Bulgaria
Men
Tsvetelina Kirilova 800m
Petar Dachev Long Jump
Nikolay Atanasov Long Jump
Ivaylo Rusenov Triple Jump
Tsvetelina Kirilova 800m
Spas Bukhalov Pole Vault
Women
Marina Marinova Triple Jump
PV - Tanya Koleva Pole Vault
Greece
Men
Aristotélis Gavélas 60m
Yeóryios Theodorídis 60m
Women
Yeoryía Koklóni 60m
Konstadína Efedáki 1500m
María Tsírba 3000m
Flóra Redoúmi 60m H
Stilianí Pilátou Long Jump
Níki Xánthou Long Jump
Hrisopiyí Devetzí Triple Jump
Ólga-Anastasía Vasdéki Triple Jump
Ireland
60m Mark Howard
200m Paul Brizzel
60m / 200m Gary Ryan
400m Paul McKee
400m David McCarthy
4 x 400m Relay
Paul McKee (See 400m)
Gary Ryan (See 60/200m)
David McCarthy (See 400m)
Antoine Burke
Paul Brizel (See 200m)
Daniel Tobin
Women
200m Ciara Sheehy
400m Karen Shinkins
1500m Maria Lynch
3000m Maria McCambridge
60m Hurdles Derval O'Rourke
Kenya
Men
Wilfred Bungei 800m
Joseph Mwengi Bungei 800m
Bernard Lagat 1500m
Cornelius Chirchir 1500m.
Luke Kipkosgei 3000m
Leonard Mucheru 3000m
Netherlands
Patrick van Balkom 200m
Arnoud Okken 800m
Bram Som 800m
Gert-Jan Liefers 1500m
Rens Blom Pole Vault
Gregory Sedoc 60mH
Marcel van der Westen 60m H
Rutger Smith Shot
Women
Lieja Tunks-Koeman kogelstoten 18.69 meter
Monique de Wilt polsstokhoogspringen 4.45 meter
Romania
Men
Ion Vieru 400m
Marian Oprea Triple Jump
Bogdan Tarus Long Jump
Gheorghe Guset Shot
Stefan Vasilache Stefan High Jump
Women
Elena Iagar 1500m
Maria Cioncan 1500m
Cristina Grosu 3000m
Oana Pantelimon High Jump
Adelina Gavrila Triple Jump
Alina Dinu Triple Jump
Ukraine
Men
Anatoliy Dovgal 60m
Ivan Heshko 1500m
Andriy Sokolovskyy High Jump
Volodymyr Zyuskov Long Jump
Valeriy Vasylyev Long Jump
Yuriy Bilonog Shot
Women
Zhanna Block 60m
Iryna Kozhemyakina 60m
Olena Pastushenko 200m
Maryna Maydanova 200m
Antonina Yefremova 400m
Tetyana Petlyuk 800m
Iryna Lishchynska 1500m
Nelya Neporadna 1500m
Tetyana Ladovska 60 H
4x400 Natalya Makukh, Tetyana Debela, Natalya Zhuravlyova, Oleksandra Ryzhkova, Antonina Yefremova,
Inga Babakova High Jump
Iryna Mykhalchenko High Jump
Natalya Kush Pole Vault
Inessa Kravets Triple and Long Jump
Vita Pavlysh Shot
Japanese Team Biographies -
Miho Sugimori:
On February 22 in Yokohama, Miho Sugimori won the 800m with the Asian indoor record time of 2:00.78. “I am surprised by such a faster so early in a season, but I was also disappointed because I was looking to break 2 minutes barrier,” Sugimori told Akio Ishii after the race. The time, however, was not only faster than her outdoor personal best (2:03.22), it was even faster than the national outdoor record, 2:02.23. It was the second time Sugimori had set an indoor record this season, having recorded 2:02.89 in Tenjing, CHN on February 18. Having started as a sprinter in junior high school, her transformation to the middle distance runner is now complete.
Starting as a short sprinter, Sugimori moved up to 400m in her senior year in high school, and promptly won the national inter-high school championships at 400m. She twice won 400m in national junior championships. She continued to run 400m in college, and won the national inter-collegiate championships in her junior and senior yearss. However, at 400m she could not be an international caliber runner. In her two attempts (Fukuoka in 1998 and Jakarta in 2000) at 400m in the Asian Championships, she could not qualify for the final. Convinced by Kunio Omori a renowned middle distance coach in Japan, Sugimori started to concentrate on 800m after joining Kyocera track team in April of 2001. Going into 2002 season her 800m personal best stood at 2:05.55. In April, she improved it to 2:05.03, and followed it up with 2:03:56 in Osaka GP in May. In June, Sugimori set an Asian record (2:41.08) at 1000m. After winning 800m in the Asian Championships, she recorded another personal best (2:03.22) at the World Cup in Madrid.
She also has lots of experience in the international competitions. In 2001 she was a member of 4x400m relay team in Edmonton. “When I was on the track, I thought I want to be here running an individual event next time, not as a member of a relay team,” said Sugimori. In 2002, addition to winning the 800m in Asian Championships in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sugimori competed in Asian Games in Busan, and the IAAF World Cup in Madrid where she recorded the fastest time by a Japanese outside of Japan. This was in spite of missing two weeks of training after the Asian Championships because she fell and injured her ankle in the 4x400m relay.
The Japanese excel in long distance events, and perhaps because of it (talents are siphoned away to long distance events) the middle distances events are quite weak. The sub 2 minutes 800m was considered to be a pipe dream. However, because of Sugimori’s time in 600m and 1000m, her coach Kunio Omori believes that a sub 2 minutes 800m time is imminent for Sugimori.
Nobuharu Asahara:
He is the best short sprinter in Japan currently, and perhaps even one of the best in history. 30-years old Asahara certainly has longevity. A national record holder at indoor 60m (6.55 in 1997), Asahara also set three national outdoor records (10.19 in 1993, 10.14 in 1996 and 10.08 in 1997) at 100m. Three times he has advanced to the semi-final at the major global championships - at 1996 Olympic Games, 1997 World Championships and 2001 World Championships. He has won five national championships at 100m, most recently in 2002 with the championships record of 10.05. His current personal best at 100m is 10.02, which was set at 2001 Bislett Games.
He was also a national class long jumper, having won three national championships as well as finishing 12th at 1995 World Championships. Three times he has anchored a national record setting 4x100m Relay team.
However, it is not his records that set him apart from other top athletes in Japan. It is his pioneering spirit which has influenced many top Japanese athletes. Asahara is currently based in Austin Texas, and before that he was based in Stuttgart, Germany from 1995 to 2000. He was the first Japanese to regularly compete in European Grand Prix circuit. It was Asahara who made the European Grand Prix Circuit known to the Japanese.
Last year Asahara competed in Norwich Union in Birmingham and finished 7th in 6.61. He later told Monthly Track and Field “, of the six races I competed in Europe, Birmingham was the best.”
Yoko (Ota) Hunnicutt
A national junior record (1.93m) holder at High Jump, which she recorded in 1993 when she was 18, Yoko Ota (now Hunnicutt) was one of the most promising high jumper of her time. Following year in 1994, in the Asian Games in Hiroshima, nineteen years old Yoko finished fourth. In 1997, she competed in the World University Games but only finished 12th with 1.80m.
Yoko won her first major championships gold in 1998 when she won the Asian Games in Bangkok with 1.88m. In 1999, she improved her personal best for the first time in six years to 1.94m. She also competed in the World Championships for the first time, however, she failed to advance to the final. She could only managed 1.85m in the qualifying round.
Her best year was 2000. Not only did she match her personal best - cleared 1.94m in her third attempt to advance to the final - at the Olympic Games in Sydney, she nearly cleared the national record height - 1.96m.
Although 2001 was an off year for her, and she missed making a team for Edmonton, in June of 2002 Yoko won the national championships for the fourth time. A month later upon returning from European season, in Sapporo, Yoko improved her personal best for the first time in three years to 1.95m.
Although she has yet to jump this year, last winter she jumped in four indoor meets - Stockholm, Gent, Eaubonne, and Birmingham - in Europe. In Birmingham, she recorded her indoor personal best of 1.90m, after which she barely missed the national indoor record height of 1.93m.
