Ato Boldon is making a slow comeback to competition
Associated Press
12 February 2000 – Ghent, Belgium - Ato Boldon is living by his words: he wants a slow start to the season and is very successful at it. Boldon finished fourth in the 60m at the Flanders Indoor Friday, unable to catch up with American Greg Saddler, who won in 6.51 ahead of Cuban Freddy Mayola.
"There is no Olympic title to be won here,'' the star from Trinidad and Tobago said afterwards.
Together with 100 World Champion Maurice Greene, Boldon is among the most recognisable sprinting stars heading into the Sydney Olympics, and after a seven-month layoff because of a hamstring injury, Boldon expects to be the fittest around in September.
"I'm rested, and when I get in shape I will be able to hold it'' through the season, he said.
But the layoff has dulled his sense of reaction. He was sluggish out of the blocks during the heats and only scraped into the final with a third-place finish. "There is no way he can be sharp this early,'' said meet organiser Wilfried Meert.
In the final, he was trailing less than a meter but couldn't find his famous kick to overtake his less illustrious opponents. He finished .02 seconds behind Saddler.
"I have no great top speed yet,'' he said.
Boldon started his indoor campaign at the Millrose Games in New York last weekend, finishing a disappointing fifth. "So this is already better.
Boldon was in great form last year and together with his friend Greene he was set for a blazing rivalry all through the summer. He had beaten Greene two out of three times, before a hamstring injury stopped him in his tracks, just ahead of the Seville World Championships.
He denied reports the friendship with Greene is on the rocks, saying only that he will spend some time training on his own during the upcoming season. "We continue to be good friends. We'll continue to give a good show,'' Boldon said.
The forced layoff has only made him more eager for Sydney and the disappointing times only belie his ambitions.
"I just don't want to be razor sharp in April,'' he said.
In the women's 60m, Canada's Philimona Mensah set a season's best mark of 7.02 beating Sri Lanka's Susathika Jayasinghe.
In the 800m, Austria's Stephanie Graf beat veteran Maria Mutola in a close finish, dipping below 2 minutes to finish in 1:59.13, edging the Mozambican by .10 seconds.
Leading Results
Men
60m: 1, Greg Saddler, United States, 6.51 seconds. 2, Freddy Mayola, Cuba, 6.51. 3,
Leonard Myles-Mills, Ghana, 6.52. 4, Ato Boldon, Trinidad, 6.53. 5, Dwain Chambers,
Britain, 6.55. 6, Patrick Stevens, Belgium, 6.64. 7, Bryan Howard, United States, 6.68. 8,
Brian Lewis, United States, 6.84.
200m: Heat One - 1, Julian Golding, Britain, 21.14 seconds. 2, Christophe Cheval, France,
21.9. 3, Erik Wymeersch, Belgium, 21.26. 4, Patrick van Balkom, Netherlands, 21.40.
Heat Two - 1, Geir Moen, Norway, 21.10. 2, John Regis, Britain, 21.41. 3, Marc Foucan,
France, 21.54. 4, Anthony Ferro, Belgium, 22.06.
Heat Three - 1, Marlon Devonish, Britain, 21.01. 2, Christian Malcolm, Britain, 21.08. 3,
Kevin Braunskil, United States, 21.24. 4, Ivan Garcia, Cuba, 21.25.
400m: Heat One - 1, Mark Hylton, Britain, 47.14 seconds. 2, Matija Sestak, Slovenia,
47.19. 3, Kjell Provost, Belgium, 47.49. 4, Julien Hagen, Netherlands, 47.74.
Heat Two - 1, Jimisola Laursen, Sweden, 47.15. 2, Fred Mango, France, 47.94. 3, Cedric Van
Branteghem, Belgium, 47.99. 4, Fidelis Gadzama, Nigeria, 48.19. 5, David Naismith,
Britain, 49.62.
800: 1, Jean-Jimmy Joseph, France, 1:49.24. 2, Torbjorn Johanssons, Sweden, 1:49.38. 3,
Wilson Kirwa, Finland, 1:49.71. 4, Tom Omey, Belgium, 1:49.78. 5, Joeri Jansen, Belgium,
1.50.00.
1000: 1, Kenneth Kimwetich, Kenya, 2:20.05. 2, Marko Koers, Netherlands, 2:20.09. 3,
Arthemon Hatungimana, Burundi, 2.20.50. 4, Ivan Komar, Belarus, 2:23.03. 5, Daniel
Chemase, Kenya, 2:26.63. 6, Bruno Dahin, Belgium, 2.29.45.
2000m: 1, John Mayock, Britain, 5:02.53. 2, Million Wolde, Ethiopia, 5:02.57. 3, Girma
Tola, Ethiopia, 50:03.75. 4, Moses Kigen, Kenya, 5: 05.35. 5, Irba Lakhal, Morocco,
5:07.23. 6, Christian Nemeth, Belgium, 5.14.42.
60m hurdles: 1, Anier Garcia, Cuba, 7.45. 2, Tony Dees, United States, 7.45; 3, Yoel
Hernandez, Cuba, 7.52. 4, Stanislas Olijars, Latvia, 7.53. 5, Tony Jarrett, Britain, 7.62.
6, Damien Greaves, Britain, 7.71. 7, Jonathan Nsenga, Belgium, 7.76. 8, Elmer
Lichtenegger, Austria, 7.84.
High Jump: 1, Viatsheslav Voronin, Russia, 2.30m. 2, Dragutan Topic, Yugoslavia, 2.25. 3,
Staffan Strand, Sweden, 2.25. 3, Sergei Dymcenko, Ukraine, 2.25. 5, Sefan Holm, Sweden,
2.20. 6, Wilbert Pennings, Netherlands, 2.20. 7, Ben Challenger, Britain, 2.15. 7, Jan
Janku, Czech Republic, 2.15. 9, Jin-Taek Lee, South Korea, 2.15. 10, Charles Austin,
United States, 2.15. 11, Tomas Janku, Czech Republic, 2.10.
Pole Vault: 1, Thibaut Duval, Belgium, 5.50 meters. 2, Okkert Brits, South Africa, 4.40.
3, Christian Tamminga, Netherlands, 5.40. 4, Rens Blom, Netherlands, 5.20. 5, Wesley
Rombaut, Belgium, 5.20. 6, Kevin Rans, Belgium, 5.00.
Women
60m: 1, Philomena Mensah, Canada, 7.02. 2, Susanthika Jayasinghe, Sri Lanka,7.13. 3, Petya
Pendereva, Bulgaria, 7.15. 4, Angela Kravchenko, Ukraine, 7.19. 5, Liliana Allen, Mexico,
7.20. 6, Leonie Mani, Cameroon, 7.20. 7, Irina Pukha, Ukraine, 7.22. 8, Kim Gevaert,
Belgium, 7.24.
200m: Heat One - Juliet Campbell, Jamaica, 23.15. 2, Leonie Mani, Cameroon, 23.37. 3,
Joice Maduaka, Britain, 23.52. 4, Katleen de Caluwe, Belgium, 24.40.
Heat Two - 1, Kim Gevaert, Belgium, 23.66. 2, Sylviane Felix, France, 23.68. 3, Rose
Aboaja Nigeria, 24.35. 4, Linda Hansson, Sweden, 24.70.
Heat Three - Nanceen Perry, U.S, 22.96. 2, Alenka Bikar, Slovenia, 23.34. 3, Nora
Ivanova-Guner, Turkey, 23.52. 4, Sylvie Mballa-Reloundou, Cameroon, 24.25
800m: 1, Stephanie Graf, Austria, 1:59.13. 2, Maria Mutola, Mozambique, 1:59.23. 3, Sandra
Stals, Belgium, 2:01.68. 4, Heidi Jensen, Denmark, 2:04.54. 5, Virginie Fouquet, France,
2:05.06.
3000m: 1, Helena Javornki, Slovenia, 8:52.57 2, Veerle Dejaeghere, Belgium, 8:54.15. 3,
Zoia Kaznavoska, Ukraine, 8:55.80, 4, Ebru Kavaklioglu, Turkey, 8:57.07. 5, Lauwrence
Duquennoy, France, 9:05.51. 6, Dorina Briand, France, 9:10.47. 7, Elena Gorodnichova,
Ukraine, 9:18.63. 8, Fatiha Baouf, Belgium, 9:42.88.
60m hurdles: 1, Kim Carson, United States, 7.92. 2, Anjanette Kirkland, United States,
7.94. 3, Lacena Golding, Jamaica, 8.02. 4, Svetla Dimitrova, Bulgaria, 8.11. 5, Keturah
Anderson, Canada, 8.11. 6, Aliuska Lopez, Cuba, 8.14. 7, Dionne Rose, Jamaica, 8.23.
Long Jump: 1, Olga Rublyova, Russia, 6.61. 2, Maureen Higa-Maggi, Brazil, 6.61. 3, Shana
Williams, United States, 6.59. 4, Erica Johnsson, Sweden, 6.51. 5, Adrien Sawyer, United
States, 6.47. 6, Valentina Gotovska, Latvia, 6.44. 7, Sandrine Hennart, Belgium, 5.73.
