Greene finishes strong to win the 100m race
Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene of the USA won his first event of the season in 9.97 seconds in Athens yesterday at the IAAF Grand Prix meeting. Greene, who set his world record time of 9.79 in the same Tsiklitiria competition three years ago, was running for the first time in nine months. He had a poor start out of the blocks and was under pressure before coming through in the final few meters to win the race, managing the fifth best performance in the world this year. In second place was fellow American Bernard Williams in 10.06 seconds, while Great Britain’s Dwain Chambers was third in 10.08. In the women’s 100m dash, Ukraine’s Zhanna Pintusevich won the event in 11.02 seconds with France’s Muriel Hurtis taking second with a personal best of 11.06. Mercy Nku of Nigeria was third in 11.09. The men’s pole-vault event saw two athletes set a new world’s season best mark as Jeff Hartwig of the USA and Tim Lobinger of Germany surpassed the 5.90m height. The American captured the event with fewer failures. American Joey Woody won the 400m hurdles in 48.61 seconds; Ukraine’s Andrey Skvaruk won the hammer throw with a toss of 81.71m; Jamaica’s Lorraine Fenton captured the women’s 400m run in 51.49 seconds and the world indoor recordholder in the women’s 800m run, Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak, won her specialty in 2 minutes, 0.16 seconds. Other winners were Nigeria’s Deji Aliu in the men’s 200m dash in 20.25 seconds, Kenya’s Noah Ngeny took the 1,500m run for men in 3 minutes, 36.87 seconds and the triple jump went to Sweden’s Christian Olsson with 17.40 meters. Ethiopia’s Berhane Adere won the women’s 3,000m event in 8 minutes 55.67 seconds, Kenya’s Stephen Cherono won the 3,000m steeplechase in 8 minutes, 17.31 seconds, and Osleidys Menedez of Cuba captured the women’s javelin throw with a toss of 66.18 meters. (AFP)
