GREECE had its Cathy Freeman moment in the Olympic Stadium last night when Fani Halkia won the women’s 400 metres hurdles to the rapturous applause of a full house of 72,000 spectators. Or was it a Konstantinos Kenteris moment? After being presented with her medal, Halkia faced the firing squad, which was her phrase to describe the media.
The latest Greek from pouthena (nowhere) to win a gold medal, Halkia triumphed by half a second in a race normally decided by tiny fractions. She ran almost four seconds quicker than she had last year and was faster over hurdles here than she had been on the flat when she was sixth and last at the World Indoor Championships in March.
While Freeman emerged from the position of favourite to win the 400 metres for Australia in Sydney, Kenteris was the surprise of the Games, taking the 200 metres. The world outside Greece accused him of being on drugs and, facing charges of missing recent doping tests, he withdrew from the Games here. Ekaterini Thanou, Greece’s top woman sprinter, pulled out, too, and, after it was put to Halkia that her coach had links with Christos Tzekos, Kenteris’s trainer, she replied that, although he had, he did not any more. Then she turned on the media for its treatment of Kenteris and Thanou.
“The journalists have put these two people against the wall and started imagining the wildest things,” Halkia said. “I do not understand getting the firing squad out just because you want it to be on the news. I know these people. People have accused them but there were no positive drugs tests.”
Abi Oyepitan, the first British woman to reach an Olympic sprint final for 20 years, was unable to go one stage further by winning a medal in the 200 metres. Oyepitan finished equal seventh in a race won by Veronica Campbell, from Jamaica, in 22.05sec.
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The final of the women’s 10,000 metres takes place tomorrow and there was still no confirmation last night of Paula Radcliffe’s intentions. Radcliffe, who dropped out of the marathon on Sunday after 22½ miles, will have her entry confirmed by today’s deadline but, unless there is word from her to accompany it, that means nothing more than telling us she has not withdrawn.
Tonight British interest centres on Chris Tomlinson, in the men’s long jump final, and on whether Kelly Holmes, having won the 800 metres, can progress through the 1,500 metres semi-finals. Tomlinson jumped 8.23 metres in the qualifying round but will probably need to break his British record of 8.27 to earn a medal.
There are no Britons in the men’s 200 metres final this evening after Darren Campbell finished last in one semi-final and Christian Malcolm last but one in the other. Justin Gatlin could beat Holmes to the first double of the athletics programme. Having won the 100 metres, the 200 metres appears to be between Gatlin and Shawn Crawford, his fellow American.