Spearmon Stars in Daegu Meet
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
American sprinter Wallace Spearmon monopolized the attention of the crowd, which all but filled the Daegu World Cup Stadium Wednesday, starring in the men's 100- and 200-meter races of the Daegu Athletics Meeting.
In the 100, the 22-year-old crossed the finish line first with a time of 10.11 seconds, holding off Olusoji Fasuba of Nigeria and teammate Joshua Johnson.
Although he failed to run the dash in less than 10 seconds like the fans had craved, Spearmon's time was the best anyone has run in Korea since 1988 when American Carl Lewis ran a 9.92 at the Seoul Olympics.
Despite a slow start, Spearmon, who was a member of the U.S. 400 relay team that won a gold medal at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, in August, surged from 50 meters to win the race, which World Championship winner Tyson Gay missed due to a knee injury.
Earlier in the meet, Wallace defended his title as the Daegu champion in the 200. He won the event at last year's competition in 19.65 seconds, his personal best and the fourth fastest time ever in the event - the third fastest when he ran it. But his time on Wednesday was not as fast.
In the women's pole vault, world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia cleared the height of 4.8 meters to take the top spot. After vaulting 4.65 in her first try, she made a 4.8 with ease. Instead of challenging her world record of 5.01, the 25-year-old Russian attempted 4.93, which would have been a season best, but failed to clear it.
Olympic gold medal winner Liu Xiang, the first Asian to win a gold medal in short sprints, finished first in the men's 110 hurdles. Liu, who is 24 and the world record holder with 12.88 seconds, ran a 13.28 Wednesday, while compatriot Shi Dongpeng finished second with a 13.28.
Lauryn Williams of the United States, a 100 silver medallist in Osaka, won her race in 11.33 seconds, while world champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia jumped 6.9 meters in the women's long jump.
South Korea's Jung Soon-ok managed a 6.45 _ 23 centimeters short of her Korean record _ to finish third.