Frustrated
Ioannou Takes The Gold
NICOSIA, 2 June
2009
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High jumper Kyriacos Ioannou’s first
place finish and the gold was overshadowed on Tuesday by
a disagreement between the Cypriot Champion and the
judges.
Ioannou, who had finished third at the 2007 World
Championships in Osaka, didn’t hide his frustration when
the judges overruled his second attempt to jump 2.30m.
Despite the disappointment of making the jump only to
find out that it didn’t count, the 25-year-old still
climbed the podium to take the gold medal – and Cyprus’
fourth in the day’s track and field event – with a leap
of 2.25m. It was his first medal at the Games of the
Small States of Europe.
Ioannou – who
overcame the 2.25m hurdle with his second attempt –
showed to be in good form and went within a whisker of
out-jumping the 2.30m with his third try.
Despite being let down by the judges’ ruling, Ioannou
was still applauded by the thousand or so Cypriot
supporters at the National Athletics Centre of the GSP
Sports Complex.
“I
am positive that the 2.30m jump was valid”, claimed
Ioannou’s coach Dimitris Efthymiou. “But even his jump
of 2.25m was a great start to the season. The ruling was
not only a blow for my athlete but also to the
supporters who showed up at here to watch Kyriacos.”
Elsewhere, Cyprus continued to lead the charge in
athletics with sprinters Panagiotis Ioannou (10.38) and
Filipos Spastris (10.61) take the top two places in the
100m event whilst in the women’s 100m event, Eleni
Artymata continued her impressive performances by not
only taking the gold but also bettering her personal
record, breaking the current Games record and securing a
B standard qualifying time ahead of the World
Championships in Berlin.
During Tuesday’s track and field athletics event, the
Cyprus National Anthem was heard a total of fives times
along with the anthem of Iceland whilst two golds went
to the athletes of Luxembourg.
Iceland’s Jon Asgrimsson took the gold medal in the
javelin throw event with his score of 72.28m whilst
Cyprus’ Nikandros Stylianou was the winner in the pole
vault event with his jump of 4.80m. Johanna Ingadottir
of Iceland won the gold in the women’s triple jump event
with her leap of 13.26m and could have gone on to secure
a Games record had it not been for the wind that was
against her.
In
the 5,000m race, Iceland’s Karin Steinn Karlsson easily
took the win with his time of 14:45.71 whilst in the
10,000m women’s event, the gold went to Pascale
Schmoetten of Luxembourg.
The first gold medal in the track and field event of the
XIII GSSE was taken earlier in the day by Iceland’s Ingi
Bergur Petursson in the Hammer Throw event with his
score of 70.60m – a new GSSE record.
