World Champs flashback...Graham, Ottey shine in '91

THREE OUTSTANDING JAMAICAN athletes produced great performances at the third World Athletics Championships held in Tokyo in 1991.

Jamaica left the Japanese city with five medals - one gold, a silver and three bronze.

Merlene Ottey, competing in her third World Championships, won her first gold medal in a major championships.

Raymond Stewart clocked a national record in a race then generally regarded as the greatest-ever 100 metres final and Winthrop Graham won silver in the 400m hurdles.

Ottey was the star of Jamaica's show. She won bronze medals in the 100m and 200m before running the final leg on the winning sprint relay team clocking a national record 41.94 seconds.

Sweet satisfaction

The relay victory gave Ottey sweet satisfaction following her disappointment in the 100m and 200m.

The Jamaican sprint queen had arrived in Tokyo as the overwhelming favourite to take the women's 100m, 200m double. She was unbeaten in four years and 56 finals in the 100m. In the 200m she had not been beaten in two years.

Times of 11.06, 10.89 and a wind-aided 10.78 for the first three rounds signalled that Ottey was ready for the challenge. In the final, however, Ottey got a poor start and was outgunned by young German Katrin Krabbe and American Gwen Torrence.

Krabbe won the final in 10.99, Torrence second in 11.03 and Ottey third in 11.06.

The placing were repeated in the 200 metres. Krabbe, the new golden girl of sprinting, showed her rivals a clean pair of heels in pouring rain completing the sprint double in 22.09. Torrence who had edged Ottey in the semi-finals again finished ahead of her great rival in the final, 22.16 to 22.21.

Not to be denied

Ottey had, however, arrived in Tokyo with gold on her mind and she would not be denied. A dropped baton by the United States in the heats of the 4x100m made it a three-way battle in the final among Jamaica, Germany and the Soviet Union.

Dahlia Duhaney, Juliet Cuthbert and Beverly McDonald got the baton to Ottey in a challenging position and she ran past 100m finalist Irina Privalova of the Soviet Union to erase the disappointment of her third place finishes in the individual events. Merlene Frazer who ran the final leg in the first round also shared in the glory.

Earlier, Graham ran a magnificent race for a silver medal in the men's 400m hurdles final. Graham who reached the semi-finals of the event in 1987 and was a finalist at the 1988 Olympics, clocked 47.74 for the silver medal behind gold medal winner Samuel Matete of Zambia.

Strong contender

American Danny Harris was a strong contender early in 1991 following his silver medal behind the great Edwin Moses four years earlier in Rome. Matete had, however, made rapid progress in the event and just before the Tokyo championships ran 47.10, the second fastest time in history.

In the final the Zambian went out surprisingly fast. Graham reacted mid-race and caught Matete early in the straight but the Zambian eventually pulled away to win by a metre in 47.64.

Graham won a second medal when he ran the final leg on the men's 4x400m team which placed third in 3:00.10 behind Great Britain 2:57.53 and United States 2:57.57. The quartet for the final was Seymour Fagan, Devon Morris, Patrick O'Connor and Graham. Howard Burnett ran in the first round and was replaced by Graham.

Stewart, a silver medallist in Rome four years earlier, reached his second consecutive World Championships 100m final with some impressive performances. In the first round he clocked 10.17 then a wind-assisted 10.02 in the second round beating eventual bronze medallist Dennis Mitchell. In semi-final heat two Stewart placed fourth in 10.03 as the world record holder, American Leroy Burrell won in 9.94.

Thriller

The final was a thriller. American Carl Lewis who had taken his semi-finals in 9.93 clocked 4.25 seconds for the last 50 metres of the final to set a new world record of 9.86, four-hundredths of a second under the old mark. Burrell was second in 9.88, his last 50m in 4.33.

Stewart, the leader at halfway in 5.54 seconds, faded to sixth in a national record 9.96. Dennis Mitchell 9.91 completed an America sweep of the medals followed by Great Britain's Linford Christie 9.92 and Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, 9.95.

The Stewart-led sprint relay quartet was sixth in the final in 38.67, a time slower than the 38.45 they ran in the first round. Wayne Watson ran in the first round but was replaced by Dennis Mowatt for the final. The other members of the team were Stewart, Michael Green and John Mair.

Led by Lewis and Burrell, the Americans ran a world record 37.50 for gold. Burrell clocked an amazing 8.91 seconds on the second leg and Lewis 9.07 on the final leg. France won silver in 37.87 and Great Britain took bronze in 39.09.