European Champions dominate IAAF World Rankings changes

joli_stefi09.jpg (26422 bytes)6 March 2002 - Monte Carlo - Svetlana Feofanova (RUS), Svetlana Feofanova (RUS), Jolanda Ceplak (SLO), Colin Jackson (GBR), Alberto Garcia (ESP) and Pawel Czapiewski (POL) rose through the top 10 of their Event Rankings to dominate the changes in the IAAF World Rankings this week. Svetlana Feofanova (RUS), Jolanda Ceplak (SLO), Colin Jackson (GBR), Alberto Garcia (ESP) and Pawel Czapiewski (POL) rose through the top 10 of their Event Rankings to dominate the changes in the IAAF World Rankings this week.

Feofanova vaulted yet another World Record (4.75m) to win the European Indoor Championships in Vienna. The performance lifted the young Russian to 4th in the Overall Ranking from last week’s 6th place, overtaking Maria Lurdes Mutola (MOZ) and Gabriela Szabo (ROM).
Graf was a close second behind Ceplak and also ran inside the old World Record. She rose to 12th in the Overall Ranking from her previous place at 16th.

New 800m indoor World Record holder (1:55.82m) Jolanda Ceplak (SLO) catapulted from 7th in the Event Ranking to 3rd, close behind Mutola and Stephanie Graf (AUT). The Slovenian hero also rose to 49th in the Overall Ranking after her stellar performance on Sunday.

Also moving from 6th to 4th this week is British hurdler Colin Jackson. The World Record holder won the 60m Hurdles in 7.40 seconds, the fastest time of the season, and rose two spots in the Event Ranking and seventeen in the Overall to the 51st position.

Surprise 800m European Champion Pawel Czapiewski (POL) climbed 4 places to 6th in the Event Ranking after an explosive last lap in the Ferry Dusika stadium on Sunday, to defeat World Champion Andre Bucher (SUI). Czapiewski also moved up nearly fifty places to 72nd in the Overall Ranking.

Alberto Garcia (ESP) won the 3000m in a European Indoor Championships record time of 7:43.89m. Garcia’s win moved him up to 4th in the Event Ranking, the highest position held by a non-Kenyan, and to 32nd in the Overall Ranking.

Mark Lewis-Francis (GBR) Silver Medallist in the 60m in Vienna continues to climb in the Event Rankings. The young star is 9th this week, surpassing  American Jon Drummond. Lewis-Francis also moved up to 121st in the Overall Ranking.

The 60m European Champion Jason Gardener (GBR) was another athlete who improved his ranking position. The 27-year-old is 22nd in the Event Ranking following this weekend’s win.

French sprinter Muriel Hurtis entered the 200m top 10 when she defended her European Indoor title on Saturday. Her time of 22.52s was good enough to move her into 9th place in the Event Ranking.

Breakthrough performer of the indoor season Marina Kuptsova (RUS) proved that her victories this year were no luck. The young high jumper cleared 2.03m on her first attempt to ensure her victory on Saturday, and to move into 10th in the Event Ranking. 

A new German Record and European Indoor Silver Medal from Yvonne Buschbaum (GER) lifted the young pole-vaulter one place to 6th in her Event Ranking. Her vault of 4.65m puts her as third best on the all-time list behind Feofanova and Stacy Dragila (USA). Buschbaum’s other reward was her entry into the top 100 of the Overall Ranking; she is 80th after this weekend’s result.

Belgian sprinter Kim Gevaert set a number of national records before winning the 60m in Vienna and moving up 7 places to 14th in her Event Ranking.

Natalya Antyukh (RUS) won the 400m in Vienna without any problems to continue her good form throughout the season. The result put her into the top 10 of her Event Ranking in 9th place, and 121st in the Overall.

Away from the European Indoor Championships, in New York, Miguel Pate (USA) jumped into the top 10 of the long jump Event Ranking. It took two attempts for the young American from Alabama to secure victory at the US Indoor Championships with a leap of 8.59 metres. Pate moved into 8th of his Event Ranking following his win.

British triple jumper Ashia Hansen edged up two places to 5th in her Event Ranking as a consequence of her Silver Medal in Vienna with a mark of 14.

Olga Rublyova finished second over the weekend in Vienna, and moved up accordingly two places in the Event Ranking to 5th. The Russian jumped 6.74m to finish behind Niki Xanthou (GRE) with the same distance. Xanthou also moved up two places, but is only 10th in the ranking following her win.

Click here for the latest IAAF World Rankings
 

EAA President Wirz: Fantastic Championships!

"We saw here a fantastic Championship, with outstanding performances", EAA President Hansjörg Wirz said at the end of the 27th European Indoor Championships in Vienna (AUT).

"The competitions were very exciting and supported by a fantastic crowd. The LOC provided very good conditions for the athletes, and a very well organised event. I think it was one of the best European Indoor Championships ever.

We experienced here how our sport can be presented in an interesting and appealing way, and it showed that we can expect also similar quality at the European Championships in Munich, both by the athletes and the organisers."

From the statistics side the following highlights could be noted:

2 world indoor records:
- 800 m Women: Jolanda Ceplak (SLO) 1:55.82
- Pole Vault Women: Svetlana Feofanova (RUS) 4.75

7 championships best performances:
- 60 m Men: Jason Gardener (GBR) 6.49
- 400 m Men: Marek Plawgo (POL) 45.39
- 800 m Men: Pawel Czapiewski (POL) 1:44.78
- 3000 m Men: Alberto Garcia (ESP) 7:43.89
- Triple Jump Men: Christian Olsson (SWE) 17.54
- 4x400 m Men: Poland 3:05.50
- 4x400 m Women: Belarus 3:32.24

48 national indoor records

All detailed results and the full results as pdf file can be found on the EAA website www.european-athletics.org 

March, 03. 2002

Ceplak defeats Graf and smashes World Record – High Five for Feofanova
Sean Wallace-Jones for the IAAF


3 March 2002 – Vienna, Austria – It was time for the race that most of the Austrian population had been waiting for, but few in the packed Ferry Dusika Hallenstadion here in Vienna would have predicted the outcome. Austria’s darling Stephanie Graf was lining up against 5 athletes in the final of the women’s 800 metres, but this was really a two women race, with only Jolanda Ceplak from Slovenia able to challenge the Austrian powerhouse.

And that it just what Ceplak did – and more.

Going straight into the lead at the gun, Ceplak led Graf around the ceplak02_200.jpg (9237 bytes) track until the two leaders came into the back straight, when Graf started to move out, gradually pushing past the Slovenian and leading into the final bend, but as the two cam into the home straight with Graf narrowly in the lead, the unexpected happened. Ceplak started to come back and powering towards the line edged ahead of Graf to beat the Austrian for the line and set a new world record of 1 minute 55.82 seconds, demolishing Christine Wachtel’s (GDR) record of 1:56.40 set in this very stadium on 13 February 1988.

Graf had to settle for silver and a new national record for Austria of 1:55.85.

A delighted Ceplak said afterwards: “I gave everything I had, as I understood that I was getting close to the world record and that was my main goal. I was really shaking because the crowd was cheering for Graf.

“A fast race was convenient for both of us, so I went for it telling myself ‘if I die, I die.’ All the hard work I have done this winter finally paid off.”

Graf was gracious in defeat: “It was a perfect race, I took the lead 100 metres before the finish, but Jolanda was physically better today.

ceplak160x.jpg (3746 bytes)“We made a big show for the fans, both under the world record. Now this is my third silver  - the consequence is: I have to change my manager.” (Both Ceplak and Graf are managed by Robert Wagner).

The Ceplak effect played over into the men’s 800 metres, as the man the commentator had described as “Switzerland’s Stephanie Graf” , Andre Bucher lived up to the nickname today, suffering a surprise defeat in the final metres at the hands of Polish runner Pawel Czapiewski.

04.03.2002

BBC Sports

Vienna produces fitting finale

Ceplak's victory over Graf was a tremendous upset

BBC Sport Online columnist Steve Cram reflects on the closing day of the European Indoor Championships.

I thought this was probably the best afternoon of indoor athletics I've seen.

It was a great atmosphere, some great races, big shocks and two world records to boot.

I said before the women's 800m final that Jolanda Ceplak would have to run a world record to beat Stephanie Graf and I didn't think she was capable of that.

I thought the Slovenian was good but not that good, and even when Graf moved ahead in the back straight I still thought it was all over then.

There's no love lost between the two athletes and I think that little bit of needle helped spur Ceplak on to come back and win.

What I love about it is that the record was broken in a major championship.

It's a rare thing to see these days as most of them are broken at the Grand Prix meetings.

Jason Gardener's victory was the one most of us expected and, probably wanted, as well.

For Gardener it's been a real tough battle for him to get back after illness and injury in the last two years.

He came to Vienna as defending champion so that shows the last time he was running well was when he won this a couple of years ago.

Mark Lewis-Francis is the new kid on the block and he'll have plenty of opportunities in the future to win.

I just thought he wasn't quite on song here, there's all the problems he's had at home and he's been struggling with a hamstring over the last four weeks.

Jason got away well and after that there was only going to be one result, but it's great for Britain to get a one-two.

Hayley Tullett battled hard in the 1500m but she was ill and nearly pulled out of the championships on Friday.

Looking back she may well regret the decision to compete.

In the women's 400m, Catherine Murphy was over-exuberant on the first lap and I think that cost her a medal.

She had a great opportunity of winning a medal and, I know it's easy to say, but I think she could have played it a bit more safe and sat back.

So maybe she will be disappointed on the plane home.

But all in all, the British team can be satisfied with their performances - two golds, three silvers and two bronzes is a good showing.

One of the big plusses of this championship was the way it was so well organised by the Austrian authorities.

I only hope the people from Birmingham, where the world indoor championships are being held next year, were paying close attention.

It was a great atmosphere in the arena and they used the music well.

The great thing was it didn't matter that Austria didn't win a gold medal - it was a great two or three hours of athletics.

04.03.2002

Eurosport

Ceplak and Feofanova set WR

Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak, 25, set a new World record of 1:55.82 minutes to win the 800 metres at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna. A few minutes later, Russia's Svetlana Feofanova broke her own pole vaul world record as expected.

Serble after his European title in Vienna
View the best moments from Edmonton

quick access :  REPORT: Gardener wins ahead of Lewis-Francis over 60 metres

In Vienna, the party was already prepared, the champagne was on ice, the fireworks ready to go off. Austria's Stéphanie Graf was set to win the European Indoor title in the 800 metres. This winter, not only did Graf defeat the World and Olympic champion, Mozambique's Maria Mutola, but she also came close to breaking the world record held by the Eastern German Christine Wachtel since 1988.

 

With a new personal best of 1:56.85 minutes, Graf was almost assured to offer this title to her home country on the final day of these championships. But she should have taken a closer look at her recent finals. In Sydney, at the Olympics, she lost the gold medal for 0.49 seconds over Mutola. A few months later, in Lisbon, at the World Indoor championships, once again, she had to content herself with the second position this time for only 0.04 hundredths of a second. Eventually in Edmonton, at the World Outdoors, the Austrian runner came 0.03 second short of the coveted gold.

 

In Vienna, everything seemed to be said when Graf, the defending European champion, 150 metres away from the finish, powered away from Ceplak. But, the young Slovenian, who had never won anything before coming to the Austrian capital, roared back to edge Graf on the line.

 

Ceplak's surprise was sweeter when the speaker announced she had broken the world mark set here in Vienna back in 1988. Graf said in Stockholm one year ago that she intended to break the world indoor record. She did with a time of 1:55.85 minute but she placed second once again for less than a second.

 

A few minutes after her achievement, Russia's Svetlana Feofanova broke her own world mark in pole vault, leaping over 4.75 metres to upset Germany's Yvonne Buschbaum and Poland's Monika Pirek both of whom set new national records respectively at 4.65 and 4.60.

 

Feofanova, who settled for the silver medal behind America's Stacy Dragila in Edmonton, has been compared with Serguei Bubka this winter. The young Russian, 22, first set a new world record of 4.71 metres for one centimetre on February 3rd. Three days later, Feofanova improved her mark by, again, the smallest margin before repeating the performance on February 10th and 14th. She came to Vienna, having taken the record to 4.74 metres, claiming that she could even go higher.

Listen to Stacy Dragila (November 2001)

She proved it in Austria, clearing 4.75 metres at her first attempt after having nearly stopped her contest at 4.74 metres. The outdoor season should see a breath-taking duel between both Dragila and the Russian for the world mark of 4.81 metres.

 

If Feofanova's victory was expected, that was not the case for Poland's Pawel Czapiewski who defeated the reigning world outdoor 800M champion Switzerland's André Bucher. Czapiewski set a new championship record running in 1:44.78 minutes while three other athletes established new national marks.

 

In the men's 400 metres, Poland's Marek Plawgo set a new championship recordof 45.39 seconds to clinch his first senior title, the European Indoor title. Plawgo is one of the most promising runner on the distance. The Polish sprinter claimed this European title less than two years after having winning , winning the 2000 World Junior title in 400 metres hurdles in Santiago de Chile.

 

The European Indoor championships marked the end of the indoor season. The outdoor season officially starts on March 7th with the Grand Prix meet in Melbourne and the comeback of Cathy Freeman on 400 metres.


Eurosport : Patrick Merle-03/03/2002

Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak, 25, set a new World record of 1:55.82 minutes to win the 800 metres at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna. A few minutes later, Russia's Svetlana Feofanova broke her own pole vaul world record as expected.


Ceplak's surprise was sweeter when the speaker announced she had broken the world mark set here in Vienna back in 1988. Graf said in Stockholm one year ago that she intended to break the world indoor record. She did with a time of 1:55.85 minute but she placed second once again for less than a second.

In Vienna, the party was already prepared, the champagne was on ice, the fireworks ready to go off. Austria's Stéphanie Graf was set to win the European Indoor title in the 800 metres. This winter, not only did Graf defeat the World and Olympic champion, Mozambique's Maria Mutola, but she also came close to breaking the world record held by the Eastern German Christine Wachtel since 1988.