“Thank
you for supporting such an important IAAF competition,” says Fredericks to
Montgomery
IAAF
19 September 2002 -
Madrid - On the eve of the 9th IAAF World Cup in Athletics which will
take place tomorrow and Saturday at the Stadium La Comunidad in Madrid, the IAAF
official press conference presented a myriad of track and field talents. It is
hard to remember the last time that so many stars of our sport have sat together,
at a same table, with the same aim: presenting and supporting a major Athletics
event.
Representing all the
IAAF Areas and the USA team, nine athletes including four Commonwealth
Champions, one European Champion, one Asian Champion, two US champions and the
newly crowned 100m World Record holder were present this morning in the Salon El
Escorial of Madrid’s Hotel Melia Castilla.
Representing Team
USA, Tim Montgomery:
About his
participation in the World Cup
“I will not take part
in the individual 100m race tomorrow. This decision has been taken together with
my coach Trevor Graham. It takes a lot of energy to break a World Record as I
did in Paris and a lot of time to recover. My feet and ankles are still swollen
from it. It will be very hard for me to sit and watch the individual 100m race.
I do want to run tomorrow but we have to put the race into its context. I will
always do everything I can to support my team as long as I don’t risk any injury.
I will warm up tomorrow and see how my body reacts, and how I feel afterwards.
If I feel ok, I will run the 4x100m relay. If I don’t, I will let the USA team
decide. There is a big difference between running the individual race and the
relay. In the relay you don’t need to start from the blocks which is what is
most straining. I practiced baton exchanges with Coby Miller yesterday and if I
do take part in the relay it will be to anchor Team USA.”
About his World Record
“After my race in Paris
last week, I woke up in the middle of the night and thought ‘Wow’. A lot of
things went through my mind then. I kept asking myself ‘Is this really true?’ It
was, for sure, an incredible feeling but it also means a lot of physical and
mental fatigue. You know, a French reporter came to me last week and told me
that the track in Charléty wasn’t that fast, that the previous track record was
only 10.02. That made me think a lot. It made me ask myself ‘Well, that wasn’t a
fast track, it wasn’t a warm day…what else can I do? What am I really capable
of?’ I am conscious that the World Record will be broken one day but in good
time. Not tomorrow. And the day it is broken I will put my fate back in God and
do all I can to take it back.”
Asked about his
relationship with Marion Jones
“Everything at this
moment of my life is at ease. I am a happy man and when you are happy any and
everything is possible. I read and study an awful lot about the sport and I know
for a fact that Marion Jones will break the women’s World Record. My prediction
for the weekend is that she will better her personal best (note: Jones’ PB of
10.65 was set four years ago in Johannesburg World Cup)
Representing Team
USA, Marion Jones:
About her
relationship with Tim Montgomery
“We both would like our
private life to remain as private as possible. We are aware that we are both
public figures and we know that. We respect that journalists want to know about
us but we’d also appreciate if they respected our private life and let us keep
it as private as possible. Yes, we are both very happy at the moment.“
About what she learnt
from Tim Montgomery
“As I have stated many
times, Tim is a technician and I have learnt a lot from him and his attitude. I
have learnt that there is a lot more to do than just practice if you want to be
the best in the world. Your whole life has to be about running. Tim’s race in
Paris has been a huge inspiration not just for me but for all the sprinters in
the world. “
About the limits in the
men’s 100m
Tim is an extremely
talented athlete, I’ve known this for a long time but you all know this now. The
rest of the best sprinters, Maurice Greene, Dwain Chambers and the others, will
not sit back. We are aware that Tim will have to run a lot faster than 9.78 if
he wants to hold on to the World Record.”
About the limits in the
women’s 100m
“I believe that 10.49
is possible and I do hope that before the end of my career I will get close to
it or even better it. If you think about it, 15 years ago, a time of 9.78 would
never have crossed the people’s mind and today it is reality. The more you set
limits on us the more we want to push them out further.”
About her participation
in the World Cup
“Tomorrow’s race will
be different from every race I’ve been running each Friday for months now. It
will no longer be a head to head. It will be a race for my team. I would have
loved to run in the middle of the track but USA has drawn lane one but that is
really no big deal to me. After all, a 100m is a 100m, there are no curbs.
Tomorrow I will try and get a better start than those I had earlier in the
season and just run as fast as I can. You will hear no complain from Marion
Jones about the lane draw or anything else. “
Representing Africa,
Frank Fredericks:
About
his race in the World Cup
“I am proud to be part
of Team Africa. This is one of the very rare opportunities we get of being part
of a team. I come from team sports and I know what team spirit means. The World
Cup is a great competition and I hope it will continue for much longer. As far
as I am concerned, I am extremely happy to be in Madrid to end a season in which
I am World Number 1 ranked at 200m. I didn’t think I would ever come back so I
will look forward to defend the title we won 4 years ago in Johannesburg.”
About Tim Montgomery’s
withdrawal
“I think it is very
unfair to criticize Tim for his decision. We should stop just looking at the one
race but take the big picture into consideration. I am extremely happy to see
Tim present today. I am happy to see that he is supporting the World Cup which
is one of the most important events in the IAAF Calendar. He’s been a real
professional and behaved as such. It is important for our sport that Tim is
promoting this event. He is the fastest human being right now and I think it is
only fair that we give him the chance to enjoy his record. If he had run and
lost tomorrow, his World Record would have been seen as a fluke. He doesn’t need
to prove anything, so please let him enjoy his moment.”
About limits in the
Men’s 100m
“This question would
also be disrespectful to Tim. He is the Fastest Man on Earth. The World Record
is 9.78 and it’s his. Until somebody else runs faster, that is the limit and he
is the world’s fastest human being.”
About former African
Athletes changing allegiance
“It is very sad for us.
It just proves that in Africa we don’t get the same support as they do in
Europe. I know of shoe companies that tell athletes that if they represent an
African country they will get less money than if they represented a European
country. This is unfair but I don’t want to criticize those athletes who have
decided to move on. If you need to make money to feed your children, to look
after your family, then there is little choice. Everyone of us is ready to move
for a better paid job. I am proud I am still representing Namibia but maybe if I
hadn’t been so well off I may have needed to move on. I don’t know. What we have
to remember is that if we don’t support our athletes in Africa then we will
gradually lose all of them.”
Representing Europe,
Kajsa Bergqvist:
About her
current form
“I have had a fantastic
season. I never experienced anything like it before. Sometime you just need a
little thing to help you put all the pieces together. And it seems like the
injury I suffered this spring helped me a lot. I changed my approach from 8 to 6
steps and now everything just comes to me naturally. All the things I’ve been
working on all my life just seem so easy now. It is true that having cleared 2m
so many times this year, you no longer have as much respect for that height and
that helps you a lot.”
About her participation
in the World Cup:
“I have just had a
three-week break but things will be OK. I will certainly aim at clearing 2m or
higher depending on the conditions. The World Cup is great because it’s about
the teams. It makes me think back to when I used to play football. I sometimes
miss that team spirit in Athletics and it’s good to get the chance to be part of
a team. I will represent Europe this time, a team in which I don’t know all the
athletes. This will be the best chance for me to get to know a lot of the
athletes that I wouldn’t normally speak to at a meeting.”
Representing Asia,
Koji Murofushi:
“This will be
my first World Cup competition and I hope to do well for my team. It is also my
last competition of the season so I don’t know if I will be able to throw as far
as I did last week in Paris. In order to help the team out with the points I
will also throw the discus. For a change I wouldn’t mind losing the hammer and
winning the discus! But please, don’t be scared when I throw the discus!”
Representing Team
USA, Adam Nelson:
“It will take a
huge throw to win the competition tomorrow and I hope I will throw farther than
21 metres. There is the local boy, Manuel Martinez who set a PB the last time I
competed against him. I expect him to improve on his PB again tomorrow,
especially as he will get all the support from the crowd. It will take something
really extraordinary to win the Shot Put in Madrid. Being part of a team will
also give me an extra incentive. We don’t get that very often in track and field
so that will be a chance I won’t miss. I love the team spirit, there is nothing
like cheering your team-mates up or being cheered up by them.”
Representing the
Americas, Debbie Ferguson:
“I will run
twice in Madrid, in the individual 200m and in the relay. The relay will all be
about having fun while in the 200m I will try and set a good time after my poor
performance in Brussels. It is the end of the season for all of us but I am
still very focused. I do not want to worry about Marion Jones. Obviously she has
the fastest time of the year but I just want to run my own race. I have had the
best time of the year at 200m for a long time this season and it feels good. The
World Cup is a wonderful experience in itself. I represent the Americas
which is a very vast Area and this will be fun. It will be a unique opportunity
to get to know people from all the different regions of my Continent.”
Representing the
Americas, Mark Boswell:
“The season has
been great for me so far. The Commonwealth Games were an extraordinary
experience in which I received a great support from the crowd. I am looking
forward to a similar competition here with a lot of crowd and support from the
stands. I will aim at jumping high, for sure, but my main objective will be to
secure the victory. The Americas is such a big team, we all come from different
areas, speak different languages, this is just an amazing experience.”
Representing Oceania,
Jana Pittman:
“I am very
excited about the competition. It will be a real test for me as I will run in
lane 9 and against the strongest field I have ever had in my life. We, on the
other hand, are quite a small area which as a consequence means that the
majority of the athletes on the team are Australian. It also gives very young
people the unique opportunity to compete at such a high level. Some of the girls
who will be competing next to the likes of say Marion Jones will never have that
same opportunity again in their life.”
