Manuela Machado Wins Marathon Setting Championship Record
August 24, 1998 - 0:0
BUDAPEST, Hungary Portugal's Manuela Machado set a new European Championships record and clocked her best time ever in winning the marathon Sunday in 2 hours 27 minutes 10 seconds. Machado, 35, the defending champion eclipsed and old championship record of 2:28:38 set in 1986 for fellow Portuguese Rosa Mota. Russia's Madina Biktagirova took silver in 2:28:01 followed closely by Italian Marua Viceconte. On a cool but sunny morning, Machado steadily pulled away in the last 15 kilometers to add another gold to her collection.
She was the 1995 world champion and twice world silver medalist and is another in a long line of strong Portuguese distance runners. Biktagirova, 33, if a former Los Angeles marathon winner and finished fourth in the '92 Olympics but was disqualified and given a three-month ban for testing positive for stimulants. On Saturday, Heike Drechsler, 33, became only the third to win four consecutive titles in the same event, taking the long jump in 7.16 meters.
Fourth in last year's worlds, Drechsler edged out '96 Olympic silver medalist Fiona May (7.11) of Italy and world champion Luydmila Galkina (7.06) of Russia. The jump was also No. 4 on the world list behind three by American Marion Jones, who has a best of 7:31. ``This was maybe for me the hardest win,'' said the 33-year-old German, who is coming back after surgery almost a year ago on both achilles tendons.
``I had three really hard years,'' she added. ``I wanted to come back. It was a really hard thing for me. I had to work very hard for this gold.'' Britain's Colin Jackson, 31, also won his third consecutive European gold, clocking 13.02 in both the finals and semifinals of the 110 hurdles. It was the No. 3 time in the world this season behind Americans Allen Johnson (12.98) and Mark Crear (13.00) for the world record-holder (12.91) and former world champion.
``It's strange that I had to come here and re-establish myself,'' he said. ``This one has got to be high on my list of achievements.'' After five days, Britain leads with six gold medals and 11 overall. Russia has five gold and 17 overall and Germany has won four gold and a total of 16. Britain picked up two more gold medals to go with Jackson's as Denise Lewis, world silver medalist, won the heptathlon with 6,559 points.
Britain's 4x100 men also got gold in 38.52 as 100-meter champion Darren Campbell and 200 champion Doug Walker picked up their second golds. European 100 champion Christine Arron of France also got gold in the 4x100 as she anchored and blew by Russian Anchor Irina Privalova - the 200 gold-medalist - to victory. France clocked 42.59. In the pole vault, Russian Maksim Tarasov took advantage of Sergei Bubka's absence and added a European gold to '92 his Olympic gold with a jump of 5.81.
Spain, which got gold Thursday in the 1,500 with Reyes Estevez, was 1-2 in the 5,000 and Isaac Viciosa clocked 13:37.46 and Manuel Pancorbo finished in 13:38.03. (AP)
She was the 1995 world champion and twice world silver medalist and is another in a long line of strong Portuguese distance runners. Biktagirova, 33, if a former Los Angeles marathon winner and finished fourth in the '92 Olympics but was disqualified and given a three-month ban for testing positive for stimulants. On Saturday, Heike Drechsler, 33, became only the third to win four consecutive titles in the same event, taking the long jump in 7.16 meters.
Fourth in last year's worlds, Drechsler edged out '96 Olympic silver medalist Fiona May (7.11) of Italy and world champion Luydmila Galkina (7.06) of Russia. The jump was also No. 4 on the world list behind three by American Marion Jones, who has a best of 7:31. ``This was maybe for me the hardest win,'' said the 33-year-old German, who is coming back after surgery almost a year ago on both achilles tendons.
``I had three really hard years,'' she added. ``I wanted to come back. It was a really hard thing for me. I had to work very hard for this gold.'' Britain's Colin Jackson, 31, also won his third consecutive European gold, clocking 13.02 in both the finals and semifinals of the 110 hurdles. It was the No. 3 time in the world this season behind Americans Allen Johnson (12.98) and Mark Crear (13.00) for the world record-holder (12.91) and former world champion.
``It's strange that I had to come here and re-establish myself,'' he said. ``This one has got to be high on my list of achievements.'' After five days, Britain leads with six gold medals and 11 overall. Russia has five gold and 17 overall and Germany has won four gold and a total of 16. Britain picked up two more gold medals to go with Jackson's as Denise Lewis, world silver medalist, won the heptathlon with 6,559 points.
Britain's 4x100 men also got gold in 38.52 as 100-meter champion Darren Campbell and 200 champion Doug Walker picked up their second golds. European 100 champion Christine Arron of France also got gold in the 4x100 as she anchored and blew by Russian Anchor Irina Privalova - the 200 gold-medalist - to victory. France clocked 42.59. In the pole vault, Russian Maksim Tarasov took advantage of Sergei Bubka's absence and added a European gold to '92 his Olympic gold with a jump of 5.81.
Spain, which got gold Thursday in the 1,500 with Reyes Estevez, was 1-2 in the 5,000 and Isaac Viciosa clocked 13:37.46 and Manuel Pancorbo finished in 13:38.03. (AP)