19 September 2003 00:46
Chambers chases face-saving cheque in Moscow ATHLETICS:
British sprinter Dwain Chambers has a final opportunity tomorrow to salvage something substantial from a disastrous season, even if it is only a big cheque. The track and field season officially ended with the World Athletics Final in Monaco last weekend. But a couple of "spectaculars" in far-flung places remain, none more potentially spectacular than the Moscow Challenge in the 1980 Olympic Stadium, the Luzhniki Arena. The meeting has just eight events, and is variously described by Muscovites as either the city's first step towards hosting the 2012 Olympics - in competition with London, Paris and New York - or as part of a mayoral re-election campaign for Yuri Luzhkov. Its highlight is a men's 100m with Dollars 1m (Pounds 620,000) in prize money. The winner will sprint away with half of that. The co-organisers of the meeting are the Russian company Sportima and the London-based Stellar Group which say the event has a budget of some Dollars 5m from ticket sales, television rights, merchandising and an eclectic group of sponsors ranging from Aeroflot to Leman Pipe, a Ukrainian pipeline company. "Moscow is very interested in the event as a means of showcasing the city for its Olympic bid, not directly, but simply to prove that Moscow can handle high-profile events," says Sportima chairman Ilya Slutsky. That remains to be seen. There are two commonly cited barriers to Moscow winning the 2012 games: one is the fact that it hosted them relatively recently, but the other is security. After this weekend there may be a third. The consensus of several athletes' agents is that the Moscow organisers "don't have a clue what they're doing". Yet one agent, Pavel Voronkov, himself a Muscovite, is more charitable. He was initially angry that the women's pole vault had been cancelled. It was potentially the best "local" event, since it was to feature his athlete, world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva, against former record holder Svetlana Feofanova, both Russians. Voronkov said: "I think they simply didn't know what the pole vault was, and that it takes time, so it was cancelled mostly for technical and TV reasons. But they agreed to pay compensation to the athletes, and we certainly need events like this in Moscow, so I hope they succeed." The International Association of Athletics Federations, the sport's governing body, might be more concerned when they see Hicham El Guerrouj competing in the 1500m, after the Moroccan withdrew from its World Athletics Final last weekend, citing fatigue. The other supporting events are the men's and women's 800m, the men's triple jump, and women's 100m, high and long jumps. But the big bucks are in the men's 100m, and it has attracted two of the stars of this season. They are Kim Collins of St Kitts & Nevis, who won the world title, and Bernard Williams of the US, winner of the World Final. And Tim Montgomery has reappeared, hoping to duplicate his end-of-season run of last year when he broke the world record. Chambers has responded badly to criticism that he is too muscle-bound to compete against the sylphs who have won the awards this year. It is about time he translated that anger into action, otherwise it will be another thin man sprinting off with the fat cheque. * Paula Radcliffe yesterday admitted that she was "leaning" towards running just the marathon at next year's Athens Olympics rather than trying to double up with the 10,000m. Speaking as she prepared for Sunday's Great North Run, Radcliffe added: "I am hoping to get selected for both events so I can leave the decision to a lot later."
[FTI [The Financial Times]] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
