Irina Yatchenko of Belarus wins the women's discus throw (© Getty Images)
Paris, FranceWell it’s reassuring to know that while the cooperative farms of the communist era are now gone in this post ‘Cold War’ world, that the harvest is still good in Belarus!
“They feed us well,” was the response of World Discus champion Irina Yatchenko of Belarus to the question why her nation had so far taken a clean sweep of the throwing gold medals at the 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Paris 2003 Saint Denis.
Though Yatchenko quickly confirmed that her answer was just a joke, the reply and the very need for such an obvious clarification, momentarily recreated the aura of mystery that had surrounded Soviet winners and their parlance in post event press conferences before the fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of 1989.
That's hardly surprising because the 37 year-old Belarussian’s talent was nurtured in that communist era, as she has been throwing over 60 metres ever since 1985, and was seventh in the World Championships as far back as Tokyo in 1991.
The sports instructor from Grodno, whose marriage to Hammer thrower Igor Astapkovich is already well documented as they both won bronze medals at the Sydney Olympics, has now had 13 seasons throwing over 64 metres.
Family fortunes were mixed today. While her husband had a dismal day registering no mark at all in the men’s Hammer final, throwing from a circle which all the major players agreed had a very slow surface, Yatchenko was full of praise for the throwing ring.
”I liked the circle a lot, as I prefer the surface hard and slow. My first throw (winning 67.32 metres) was good, and technically satisfying.”
The stature of her performance was marked out by the fact that her throw was only just a metre off her personal best which had stood since 1992 (68.94), and her best mark at all since 1997.
Also, the distance was the third furthest performance of 2003 behind Russia’s defending champion Natalya Sadova’s 69.38m and Czech Vera Pospíšilová’s 67.71m, who respectively finished in 6th (65.22m) and 5th (65.55m) places here tonight.
Tenth last time in the Edmonton Worlds, Yatchenko was lucky to have made Paris at all, having sustained a back injury which prevented her from training for two weeks.
So it’s now three gold medals from the three throwing finals so far contested in Paris, a remarkable clean sweep for Belarus, and already the highest total of golds ever amassed at a single World Championships by the nation.
In fact with a grand total of just three World titles between 1983 and 2001 - two gold medals won at the 1995 championships in Gothenburg and another win taken in Edmonton 2001 – the Belarussian team in the course of just three days of the 9th IAAF World Championships have doubled their all-time gold medal collection.
Whatever the food these Belarussians are eating, the rest of the world’s throwing community certainly wants the recipe.
IAAF
