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330 athletes from 61 countries struggled
to beat records and the high temperatures on the Madrid tracks.
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GREATS RESULTS, DESPITE
THE HOT WEATHER
On the tracks at the Spanish National Sports Council facilities,
there were 61 countries participating altogether, with 271 male and 59 female
athletes. The Spanish, with 33 athletes, headed the ranking with a total
of 31 medals. Cuba, with 11, was second due to its high number of golds,
seven altogether; and Belarus, with 16 medals, came third. The medals were
finally shared out between 30 different countries, with the Europeans
with 17 countries participating taking the lion's share. The United
States, who were expected to do much better, only managed two silver medals.
Together with Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Panama and the Dominican Republic, they
were the only representatives from the American continent in athletics.
The most pleasing surprise was the 7th place in the ranking achieved by
Tunisia in athletics with 4 gold medals. In addition, Algeria and Kenya
added to Africa's tally of medals. Japan and China, with 4 medals each,
were the Asian representatives. As for Oceania, Australia and New Zealand
also won medals.
The heat was the main protagonist throughout the 8 days
of competition with the temperature, at times, reaching 40 degrees Celsius,
thus converting the long-distance events into a real ordeal for the athletes.
This, however, did not prevent records being broken, as was the case of
the Panamanian Said Gómez in the 10,000 metres (B3 category) or the
Portuguese girl María Fiuza in the 5,000m (B2).
The star of the track events was the Cuban sprinter Adrián
Iznaga who, after suffering a slight mishap with one of the cameras deployed
by TVE (the Spanish state TV company) in the 100m B1 qualifiers, went on
to win the final, as well as the 200m, beating the spanish favourite Enrique
Sánchez Guijo. The Portuguese, Spanish and Italians were the strongest
in the sprinting events. As for the 800m races, most outstanding in B2 was
the Spanish podium while, in the long-distance events, the Portuguese and
Mexican athletes were in top form, together with the Panamanian Said Gómez. |
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The host nation, Cuba and Belarus
headed the final medals table.
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 In the female category, the surprise came in the 100m
(B1) with the victory of the Spanish girl Raquel Díaz over her compatriot
Purificación Santamarta, the long-standing champion, who took the
silver. In addition, Santamarta won in 200 and 400m. More Spaniards: Beatriz
Mendoza and Vanessa Ortega were the best in the B2 sprinting events, whilst
the Cuban girl Ana Jiménez was the star in B3. In 800m, the Russian
girl Batalova confirmed, yet again, her superiority in middle-distance,
beating her compatriot Julia Akhmatdinova by over 7 seconds. This veteran
athlete also won in the 1500m. In the 5000m (B2), María Fiuza beat
the world record with a time of 20 minutes, 1.81 seconds, well ahead of
her rivals.
In the jumping events, Spain, Belarus, Ukraine and Cuba
shared out the gold medals. Records were broken in the triple jump (in B1
and B3) by Rodriguez Ibáñez and Cepeda (Spain). The other
events were rather more restrained as regards setting new records.
The female participation in the jumping events was regrettably
scant, with the result that only three events were contested: High Jump
(B2) and Long Jump (B2 & B3), won respectively by the Estonian Silm,
the Russian Nikolaeva and the Belorussian Chouliakovskaia.
The Spaniard Alfonso Fidalgo (B1) once again demonstrated
his superiority in throwing events. He won the gold in the discus and shot,
beating his own record in discus for the umpteenth
time with a distance of 44.44 metres, over 12 centimetres more than the
Austrian Willibald Monschein who was placed second. The Ukrainians Oleksandr
Yasynvyy and Vasyl Lischynskyy, with a world record in discus B2, also performed
outstandingly. As for the javelin, the star was the Canadian Gagne, who
beat the B3 record. France Gagne won everyone over with his warmth and his
constant joking with his companions and the Madrid'98 volunteers. Miroslaw
Pych, although far from his best performance, won the B2 category and the
Japanese Mineho Ozaki won the B1, also with a rather modest distance.
In the women's B2 shot and discus events, the Australian
Jodi Willis and the Cuban Masso shared the gold and silver medals between
them. The Belorussian girl Sivakova beat the world record with a great throw
of 41 metres and 24 centimetres in B3 Discus.
In the Pentathlon, the medals went to Mexico, Poland and
Belarus in the men's and to Estonia and Ireland in the women's event.
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