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Lebedeva remains in the Jackpot hunt

20.08.2005

Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia and France’s Christine Arron started this evening as the last two contenders for the TDK Golden League Jackpot of one million dollars, a share of which goes to any athlete who can win at all six series meetings and then competes at the World Athletics Final in Monaco (9 – 10 September).
But after a three hour programme of competition the hunt for one million had been whittled down to just one participant for the meeting in Brussels next week (26 Aug), and even that victory by the Russian looked uncertain at one point tonight.

Lebedeva, who opted out of the World Championship Final of the women’s Triple Jump last week in Helsinki due to a persistent Achilles injury which had first developed in Oslo (29 July), was lying in second place (with 14.57) until the fourth round behind World champion Trecia Smith of Jamaica. Smith, carrying her own injury which had resulted when winning her title in Helsinki, had a best of 14.67 (second round) but ultimately it was not good enough to hold back even an under-par Lebedeva. In the fourth round, the Russian pulled out 14.73 and with her next effort killed the competition dead in the extremely wet conditions with 14.94.

“I was following what happened to Christine Arron in the 100m race,” confirmed the Russian, “so I knew I would remain alone in the Jackpot race if I won…. I was afraid about my injury but with every jump, it got better and better.”

Yuliya Pechonkina, another newly crowned World champion might only be IAAF World Ranked number four but she is certainly ahead of the world at the women’s 400m Hurdles at the moment. The Russian World record holder was dominant tonight, taking a 53.30 win over Lashinda Demus (53.83) and Sandra Glover (53.91). These two Americans had also followed her home in Helsinki last week, so this was an exact repeat of the Helsinki podium finish.
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