from track and field news:
Lapierre puts the long in long jump
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July 6, 2009
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MADRID: Australian Fabrice Lapierre used a favourable wind to win the long jump at the Madrid meeting at the weekend, in what was expected to be a duel between Olympic champion Irving Saladino and silver medallist Godfrey Khotso Mokoena.
Lapierre, from Quakers Hill, jumped a wind-aided 8.57 metres on Saturday to beat Mokoena, who finished second with an African record jump of 8.50m.
Saladino, who took gold over Mokoena in Beijing last year, was third with a best jump of 8.43m despite an even stronger wind than Lapierre.
"The wind was very tough today, very strange," said Saladino, who is also reigning world champion. "I tried to do it and I just couldn't, but I'm still happy with the performance. Wind or no wind, I lost - that's indisputable."
Fellow Australian Mitchell Watt, 21, continued his rapid rise, finishing fourth with his 8.38m jump, which was assisted by an illegal tailwind of +2.8metres/second.
Watt's 8.34m (+2.0m/s) jump on his fifth attempt was a 17-centimetre improvement on his previous best of 8.17m set on the Gold Coast in March. Lapierre and Watt move to No.6 and No.7 respectively on the world list.
Former Australian Olympic long jumper David Culbert believes Lapierre, who won the IAAF World Athletics Final last year, and the emerging Watt are demonstrating the type of form that could elevate them into medal contention at the world championships in Berlin next month.
"Anyone that saw Lapierre and Watt compete at the national championships this year would realise that these results are not a surprise," said Culbert, the Olympic and World Championship long jump finalist who twice won Commonwealth Games silver medals.
In the women's triple jump, Olympic silver medallist Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia held off countrywoman Anna Pyatykh to win the Grand Prix event at the Moratalaz stadium.
Most of the favourites on the track prevailed, including Hasna Benhassi in the women's 800m. The Olympic bronze medallist from Morocco won with a season-best time of one minute, 59.03 seconds to edge British pair Jemma Simpson and Marilyn Okoro.
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa took the men's race, with Olympic silver medallist Ahmed Ismail of Sudan finishing third.
Ireland's David Gillick won the men's 400m in 44.77s, and Christine Amertil of the Bahamas won the women's race in 51.77s.
Jamaica's Steve Mullings easily won the men's 100m in 10.11s ahead of European champion Francis Obikwelu of Portugal. In the women's event, American sprinter Gloria Asumnus won with a time of 11.40s.
In the women's 1500m, Natalia Rodriguez held off Spanish teammate Marta Rodriguez while Johan Cronje of South Africa won the men's race in 3:37.33. Isa Phillips led a Jamaican one-two in the men's 400m hurdles with a time of 48.09.
