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Sunday, September 24
Russia's Kliugin easily wins gold
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- Cuba's Javier Sotomayor, whose drug
suspension was reduced in time for him to compete at the Sydney
Olympics, settled for a silver medal in the high jump in pouring
rain.
|  | | Javier Sotomayor's best clearance was 7-7¼ (2.32). |
The event was won by Sergei Kliugin of Russia, the only
competitor to clear 7 feet, 8½ inches (2.35 meters) in Sunday's
event. Sotomayor was second, with a best clearance of 7-7¼ (2.32).
Abderrahmane Hammad of Algeria also cleared 7-7¼, but took the
bronze because he had one more miss than Sotomayor. The Cuban got
his second Olympic medal -- he was the champion at the 1992
Barcelona Games.
After mild weather for the first two nights of the track and
field competition, it was cold and windy Sunday with sporadic
showers. It poured during the final attempts in the high jump.
"It was impossible for me in the rain," Sotomayor said. "I'm
the worst jumper in the world in the rain."
"These are the Winter Olympics," said 110-meter hurdler Mark
Crear. "They don't seem like the summer."
Sotomayor, a two-time world champion and world record-holder,
was banned by the International Amateur Athletic Federation for two
years for testing positive for cocaine after winning the high jump
at last year's Pan American Games in Canada.
But the IAAF reduced his suspension to one year last month,
citing "exceptional circumstances" and an exemplary 15-year
career. That allowed Sotomayor, who has denied ever using cocaine,
to resume competitions immediately.
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