Joey Woody clears a hurdle in the 2003 US nationals (© Getty Images)
Helsinki, Finland - American Joey Woody's hard fought 400m Hurdles battle with Llewellyn Herbert of South Africa, and a 21 metres Shot Put by European champion Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine were the highlights of tonight's IAAF Grand Prix meeting on a cold damp evening at the 1952 Olympic stadium.
The temperature after a two-hour heavy rain shower just before the start of competitions was quite low: + 18 to 19C but Joey Woody of the USA made the best of the conditions to show that he cannot be counted out of the possible medallists over 400 metres hurdles in next week's World Championships in Paris.
Woody fought hard with South Africa's Olympic bronze medallist Llewellyn Herbert and found a little bit more strength that his opponent. Woody clocked 48.43 and Herbert 48.50 seconds.
"I felt very comfortable at the end of the race. I changed my rhythm after the 7th hurdle and after the 8th one I felt I had enough speed left to win," said Woody.
"Now I just fly to Paris and start to concentrate for the World Champs. Felix Sanchez is the favourite, the number 1 there, but he has not been the same this season as he used to be over the last two seasons. So I think everything is wide open and we will see people dropping out during the 3 rounds before the final. The weather today was decent for me and I am very satisfied with my result as well."
Both Darvis Patton of the USA and Eric Nkansah of Ghana ran 10.14 for the 100 metres. Patton had more luck on the finish line and won. Shawn Crawford (USA) placed 3rd with 10.16 and won 200 metres two hours later. Although Crawford beat his compatriot Joshua Johnson 20.26 - 20.32 he was not satisfied:
"I know I should be in Paris this week, but I don´t deserve to be there. I made too many mistakes when preparing for the USA trials and failed," said Crawford.
American Larry Wade was the fastest at 110 metres hurdles (13.36) only 0,03 second ahead his team mate Ron Bramlett.
Gary Reed of Canada kicked strongly at 800 metres and beat Italian Andrea Longo by 0.03 seconds. Reed´s winning time was 1.45.85.
Maria Cioncan of Romania dominated the women's 800 metres: 2.00.20, which was 1.13 seconds ahead Russian´s Svetlana Cherkasova.
Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine won men´s Shot Put with his second round of 21.09 metres. Bilonog also threw 20.78 but his last four attempts were not meassured. Christian Cantwell of the USA placed 2nd with 20.55. The Olympic Champion Arsi Harju still suffering from bad technical problems had a lowly best of 18.43 and 7th place. Harju will not compete in Paris.
This has not been a good year for the famous Finnish Javelin throwing tradition and neither was Monday´s competition which was won by Germany´s Boris Henry with a moderate 80.73 metres release.
The women´s Javelin had a higher standard: Steffi Nerius of Germany threw 62.35 and Commonwealth champion Laverne Eve of Bahamas released her spear 62.05. Finnish favourite Taina Kolkkala placed 3rd with 59.53.
Yamile Aldama of Cuba won the women´s Triple Jump with 14.43 in the 2nd round - her only measured effort, while Finland's European silver medallist in Munich, Heli Koivula-Kruger jumped 14.36 - only 3 cm from her Finnish Record - but jumped only once after that.
Men´s jumps were not very brilliant, but Ghana´s Ignisious Gaisah's 819 at Long Jump was good. It was the only jump over 8 metres in a quite tricky wind.
South-African Jacques Freitag cleared 2.26m at High Jump and Vadim Strogaljov of Russia 570m at the Pole Vault. Strogaljov beat Olympic champion Nick Hysong of the USA by 10 cm.
