as Butch
Reynolds runs his last race
Alfons Juck for IAAF
28 August 2000 – Slovakia’s second biggest meeting, the NITRA 2000 on Saturday, was highlighted by Romanian World record holder Mihaela Melinte’s excellent marks in the hammer throw.
The World Champion achieved 74.32 with her first throw, the third best mark of the year and tenth all-time. She then followed her series with 72.59, 73.78 and 71.31, the last two of which were fouls.
"This shows that I’m well prepared for Sydney. Of course, my goal is to win a gold medal in the first Olympic competition of my event ever. But I also know it won’t be easy. My last two meets in Rudlingen and Nitra have showed that I am in good shape and close to the world record," she said afterwards.
Her results confirmed the excellent conditions for throwing events in Nitra, where three throwing world records have been achieved in the past. The 25th anniversary of the meet was also the farewell for Slovak Olympians before Sydney, and the most promising performances came from the shot putters. Milan Haborák won in 19.98 and 1998 World Junior Champion Mikulas Konopka was second with 19.92, his second best mark ever.
The traditional throwing match was won by home men’s team and the Polish women’s team.
Strong winds did not help too much in sprints, where one hero of the past performed the last race of his career. The former 400m world record holder Harry "Butch" Reynolds (USA) finished only sixth in 47.63.
"This was the last race of my career. I did not expect to close the book in Slovakia. But that's the way it's happened. Many years in athletics is great inspiration. Maybe I should write a book about it."
Results
men
100 m A-race (+2,9): 1. Seun Ogunkoya,NGR 10.29, 2. Kevin
Braunskill,USA 10.32, 3. Laszlo Babaly,HUN 10.33, 4. Gentry Bradley,USA 10.37, 5. Martin
Brinarsky,SVK 10.45
100m B-race (+3.7): 1. Viktor Kovacs,HUN 10.53, 2. Roman Zubek,CZE 10.56
100m C-race (+2.4): 1. Balazs Kovacs,HUN 10.57
200m (+3.6): 1. Braunskill 20.61, 2. Bradley 20.69, 3. Brinarsky 20.73
400m:1. Milton Campbell,USA 46.27, 2. Stefan Balosak,SVK 46.43, 3. Marcel Lopuchovsky,SVK
46.81, 4. Alexander Kaydash,UKR 46.89, 5. Stepan Tesarik,CZE 47.37, 6. Butch Reynolds,USA
47.63
1500m: 1. Lukas Vydra,CZE 3:47.99
110mH (+1,7): 1. Levente Csillag,HUN 13.79, 2. Igor Kovac,SVK 13.81, 3. Balasz Kovacs,HUN
13.91
400m Hurdles: 1. Torrance Zellner,USA 49.86, 2. Jiri Muzik,CZE 51.06, 3. Andrey
Vinnitskiy,UKR 51.26, 4. Radoslav Holubek,SVK 51.28, 5. Josef Rous,CZE 51.46
HJ: 1. Jan Janku,CZE 221, 2. Oleg Prokopov,BLR 218, 3. Tomas Janku,CZE 218
LJ: 1:Milan Kovar,CZE 787 (+1.8), 2. Anis Gelali, TUN 750 (+2.5)
SP: 1. Milan Haborak,SVK 19.98, 2. Mikulas Konopka,SVK 19.92, 3. Joachim Olsen,DEN 19.91,
4. Ralf Bartels,GER 18.92, 5. Leszek Sliwa,POL 18.76, 6. Pavel Pankuch,SVK 18.65
DT: 1. Robert Fazekas,HUN 65.08, 2. Gabor Mate,HUN 64.50, 3. Roland Varga,HUN 63.94, 4.
Olgierd Stanski,POL 62.92, 5. Alexander Malashevich,BLR 62.52, 6. Andreas Seelig,GER
62.16, 7. Ilya Kostin, RUS 57.65
HT: 1. Sergey Kirmasov,RUS 78.10, 2. Libor Charfreitag,SVK 76.00, 3. Wojciech
Kondratowicz,POL 75.80, 4. Vadim Grabovoy,UKR 74.65, 5. Adrian Annus,HUN 74.43, 6. Andrey
Vorontsov,BLR 74.01, 7. Miloslav Konopka,SVK 73.90, 8. Vadim Kolesnik, UKR 72.61, 9.
Dmitriy Shako,BLR 72.20, 10. Holger Klose,GER 70.67
JT: 1. Grzegorz Krasinski,POL 79.50, 2. Marian Bokor,SVK 76.69, 3. Yuriy Rybin,RUS 76.45,
4. Alexander Ivanov,RUS 76.42, 5. Gergely Horvath,HUN 75.30, 6. Meher Ridane,TUN 74.93
4x100 m: 1. HUN 40.19, 2. SVK (Kovac, Vanderka, Noskovic, Brinarsky) 40.33, 3. CZE/U23
40.80
Women
100m (+1.7): 1. Shani Anderson,GBR 11.34, 2. Karen Mayr,AUT
11.64, 3. Viktoria Fomenko,UKR 11.73
400m: 1. Galina Misiruk,UKR 53.51, 2. Miriam Hrdlickova,SVK 53.68, 3. Olga Mishchenko, UKR
53.82
100m H(+0,2): 1. Lucie Skrobakova,CZE 13.85, 2. Miriam Bobkova 14.05
TJ: 1. Dana Veldaková 13.45 (+2,0), 2. Monia Jelassi,TUN 13.00 (+3.3)
PV: 1. Tanya Koleva,BUL 420, 2. Katerina Badurova,CZE 420, 3. Pavla Hamackova,CZE 415, 4.
Kristina Molnar,HUN and Zsuzsa Szabo,HUN both 410, 6. Sarka Mladkova,CZE 405, 7. Michala
Boulova,CZE and Lucie Palasova,CZE both 390
SP: 1. Lyudmila Sechko,RUS 18.58, 2. Alena Ivanenko,BLR 16.76, 3. Nadine Beckel,GER 16.49,
4. Linda Nestorsson,SWE 16.40
DT: 1. Joanna Wisniewska,POL 63,94, 2. Anna Soderberg,SWE 62.91, 3. Lyudmila
Starovoytova,BLR 62.05, 4. Natalya Ampleyeva,RUS 58.85, 5. Alice Matejkova,ESP 58.39, 6.
Monia Kari,TUN 56.63. 7. Viera Pospisilova,CZE 56.14, 8. Nadine Beckel,GER 56.11
HT: 1. Mihaela Melinte,ROM 74.32 (74.32-72.59-73.78-71.31-x-x), 2. Katalin Divos,HUN
65.72, 3. Agnieska Pogroszewska,POL 65.26, 4. Tatiana Dziomina,BLR 60.99, 5. Lucie
Vrbenská, CZE 60.88, 6. Simone Mathes,GER 60.83, 7. Anna Soderberg,SWE 58.34, 8. Barbara
Nemeth,HUN 57.41, 9. Svetlana Sherina,RUS 56.51, 10. Monika Kralovenska,SVK 54.39, 11. Eva
Charfreitagova,SVK 52.85
JT: 1. Jana Woytkowska,GER 56.24, 2. Christina Scherwig,DEN 55.84, 3. Barbara
Madejczyk,POL 55.06, 4. Lada Chernova,RUS 55.02, 5. Andrea Granitz,HUN 54.85
Throwing match
Men: 1. SVK A 27, 2. RUS 21, 3. HUN 21, 4. POL 20, 5. combined team SWE/DEN 16, 6. BLR 16, 7. GER 14, 8. SVK B 12
Women: 1. POL 23, 2. GER 23, 3. SWE/DEN 23, 4. RUS 22, 5. BLR 22, 6. HUN 18, 7. TUN 11, 8. SVK 6
