MONACO, Sept 13 AFP - South African high jump worldchampion Hestrie Cloete is set to become the women’sathlete of the year after winning her competition at theWorld Athletics Final here today.
Cloete cleared 2.01 metres on her second attempt totake victory and boost her points total for the season.
Controversial American sprinter Kelli White put thethreat of losing her two world titles aside to win the200 metres but unless she runs 10.77sec or faster inSunday’s 100m she cannot overtake Cloete in therankings.
The South African has spared the InternationalAssociation of Athletics Federations the embarrassingscenario of awarding the 100,000 dollar prize to an athlete whose explanation fora stimulant in her urine sample it rejected this week.
White’s case will now be considered by the USAnti-Doping Agency (USADA).
Cloete said: This is a real bonus for me, because myaim for the season was to defend my world title.'' In the 200m, White crossed the line in a time of22.31sec ahead of France's Muriel Hurtis who clocked22.41sec and Russia's Anastasiya Kapachinskaya was thirdin 22.57sec. It was really tough for me today,’’ White said.``I’m not feeling too good, I’m stressed out. My bloodpressure has been high for a week and a half.’’
Kim Collins, the surprise winner of the men’s 100m inParis, finished only sixth in a race won by AmericanBernard Williams in 10.04sec.
World 200m champion John Capel was just one hundredthbehind, with Uchenna Emedolu third in 10.08sec.
Jerome Young, who is being investigated for steroiduse before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, showed the formthat won him the 400m world crown by winning in45.04sec.
In the women’s 1,500m, Turkey’s Sureyya Ayhan gainedsome revenge for her unexpected world championshipsdefeat at the hands of Tatyana Tomashova when she leftthe Russian trailing in seventh place as she won by morethan four seconds.
It took 110m hurdles winner Allen Johnson 13.11sec -one hundredth of a second faster than his winning timein Paris - to secure victory and cap a brilliant seasonwhich saw him conquering a fourth world crown two weeksago.