article by Nicola Pucci
With the retirement of Carl Lewis, four-time consecutive Olympic long jump champion from 1984 to 1996, and his dolphin Mike Powell, world record holder with 8.95 meters and protagonist of the most famous race in history in Tokyo 1991, a new face has been appearing on the international scene for years, establishing an absolute dictatorship.
He is the Cuban Ivan Pedroso, born in 1972, who has already collected an infinite series of successes, almost unbeatable at the World Championships (gold in 1995, 1997 and 1999, to which he will add a fourth title in 2001), at the indoor world championship (four consecutive successes, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, with a fifth in 2001) and at the Pan American Games (where he triumphed in 1995 and 1999, completing the hat trick in 2003). More, would have achieved the new world record in Sestriere in 1995, 8.96 meters with 1.2 m/s of favorable wind, but the Italian Athletics Federation did not send the result to the IAAF for approval as the wind measurement was declared invalid since a technician, Luciano Gemello, had positioned himself in front of an anemometer, disturbing the real wind measurement. It must be soì “please” of a personal record of 8.71 metres, achieved in Salamanca on 18 July 1995. The only failure in an already prestigious career? Precisely at the Olympics where, after a promising fourth place on his debut in Barcelona 1992, he was only twelfth in Atlanta 1996limited to be honest by some physical problems.
At the 2000 Sydney Olympics Pedroso is the big favoritealso because his most accredited rivals, namely the Spaniard Yago Lamela (second at the 1999 World Championships in Seville), the Jamaican James Beckford (silver in Atlanta 1996), the Russian Kirill Sosunov (European champion in Budapest 1998) and the Slovenian Gregor Cankar (also on the third step of the podium again in Seville 1999) found nothing better than being eliminated in qualifying.
Unlike previous seasons, in 2000 the Cuban improved his performances, despite appearing in Australia with the best seasonal performance of 8.65 meters achieved in Jena, Germany on 3 June, but he is well aware of the pitfalls that the race can represent, especially when it is experienced with the pressure of the great favorite, as well as of being, at the age of 28, probably the last great opportunity within his reachespecially since a 23-year-old with great hopes, Dwight Phillips, is making his way in the United States.
And so Pedroso, who debuts with 8.32 meters on the third qualifying jump, the only one to obtain the measurement to directly access the final like his compatriot Luis Meliz, who lands at 8.21 meters, has the green light on September 28, allo Olympic Stadium in Sydney, even if the race is less obvious than expected and the champion from Havana must give his best to finally be able to boast the Olympic title. Pedroso in fact enters the race with a zero, but with 8.34 meters on the second attempt he is already in command, although later overtaken by the Australian Jai Taurimawho does not have great pedigree boasting only a silver at the 1998 Pan American Games in Kuala Lumpur, which first equaled himaglia and then leaps into the lead with 8.40 meters on the fourth attempt, then improving to 8.49 meters on the fifth jump. Pedroso in turn improved to 8.41 metres, but after a failure in the fifth jump, he saw the specter of yet another Olympic disappointment looming ahead.
The very long minutes that separate him from the last test available to him – with Taurima jumping after him – must have seemed interminable to Pedroso who at the last attempt he finds the right concentration to soar in the air until he lands on the sand at 8.55 metersthus managing to overtake his surprising opponent, who evidently enjoyed the home air and closed with a final jump at 8.29 metres, and put the gold medal around your neck. The two Ukrainians Shchurenko and Lukashevych are battling for the third step of the podium, with the former also leaping to 8.31 meters with his last effort and steals the medal from his national teammate by just five centimetres.
Now Ivan Pedroso’s palmares can be considered complete.
2024-01-22 10:12:00
#JUMP #GOLD #IVAN #PEDROSO #SYDNEY #OLYMPICS #SportHistoria
