SLJ Kostis Tsiklitiras, in memory of whom the meeting was held, was an olympic champion at the standing long jump. Christos Kyritsis won this rare event that is held only in the Tsiklitiria meeting with a jump at 3.29 m.
WDT-WSPNatalia Sadova won the Discus with an effort at 68.21 m leaving behind her Franka Dietzch and Anastasia Kelesidou. Astrid Kumbernus won the Shot Put with 19.26 m.
MLJ What a fight (or should we say flight) it was between James Beckford and Ivan Pedroso at the Men's Long Jump. The two athletes drew the crowd's attention for over an hour with successive and almost equal attempts over the 8 m. barrier. They both landed at 8.28 but Beckford won the event due to a better second best jump.
M110mHLarry Wade showed the way to an outstanding evening of Joe Smith's athletes. He impressed with a 13.11 sec which is the world's leading performance for 110mH, followed by Anier Garcia only 1/100 of a sec. behind. World record holder Collin Jackson was restrained to a fourth place after loosing at the photo finish by Robin Korving at a time of 13.18 sec.
W100MKaterina Thanou seemed as if she was running alone although Inger Miller and Glory Alozie were competing in the same heat. Her time of 10.92 sec drew all the attention of the crowd to the local favourite who now seems capable enough of winning a medal in Seville. She is number two in the world list and very stable in performances under 11 seconds.
M100MThe atmosphere started to heat up early in the afternoon when Ato Boldon droped below 10 sec at the preliminary heats, clocking at 9.97 and almost walking at the last meters. Everybody remembered of his promises last year of breaking the world record in Athens and awaited with great impatience for the big final. After one hour the six top sprinters of 1999 were taking places for what was meant to be the race that determined the fastest man on earth... and that was not Ato Boldon. Maurice Greene after the gold medal he won on this same track 2 years ago managed to break Bailey's 9.84 and equal Ben Johnson's controversial record of Seoul. Both Joe Smith's athletes pulled away from the others from the first meters of the race but it was Greene that kept accelerating till the end. Ato Boldon still managed to equal his PB with 9" 86. and Bruny Surin to run 9" 97. in one of the fastest races ever. Afterwards Ato Boldon stated that he and Greene finally managed to achieve what they believed they could do. He added that it was Greene to break the WR first but he believes himself can take it even further next time... Frankie Fredericks was fourth with 10" 02. and Dennis Mitchel followed with 10" 04. at the race that was meant to make the whole world focus on Athens.
W400mHNezha Bidouane achieved a world leading performance with 53" 54. after a strong finish over WR holder Kim Batten, in the same stadium she had won the Golden World Champs gold medal 2 years ago.
M400mHKen Harden from Zimbabwe with 48" 41. managed to win the men's event although Samuel Matete lead the race almost till the end.
MJT Sergei Makarov and the Greek Champion Costas Gatsioudis proved once again that the Seville final will be a very hard to judge one, as they can both throw over 90 m. Makarov was the winner tonight with 89, 93 m. and Gatsioudis followed with 89, 57 m. (a new NR for Greece) which are the two best performances for 1999. They were followed by Boris Henry who threw 84, 67 m. and is also one of the favorites for Seville. After makarov's win tonight, Gatsioudis leads their fights by 2-1 and awaits for the Super League in Paris this weekend for a new deathmatch.
M3000m-M3000mStBoth the events were dominated by the Kenyans. However, although the races were very good and all the athletes very competitive, the hot weather prevented them from achieving top perormances. Kimutai and Bitok fought at the finish of the 3km race with the first winning at 7' 39" 03., while the Greek 19 years old Papantonis ran 7' 55" 01. and will compete in Paris at the Super League for Greece. At the Steeple race Kibiwoot managed to overcome Kandie's, Barngetugny's and Keter's challenge at the last meters and won with 8' 16" 04. while Notis Papoulias ran 8' 28" 62. for Greece and seems to find his way to Seville.
MPV This was probably the best Pole Vault competition we 'll see this year and maybe one of the best ever. Eventually, Maksim Tarasov, with a jump at 6, 05 m. broke Russia's record and became the 2nd man ever to have made it so high, after the "Czar" Sergei Bubka. Jeff Hartwig, at his first competition for this year managed to fly at 6, 00 m., followed by Markov and Lobinger who also had great jumps at 6 m. but finally stayed with 5, 95 m. Potapovich and Galfione also compeeted and both jumped 5, 80 m. to rise the number of athletes over that height to six. It was really a long long night for the vaulters and the eventual winner, Tarasov, celebrated with great rejoice at the end.
W200mInger Miller ran 22" 10. which is a season best for her and felt very happy about it, folloed by Goncharenko and Bikar who broke her national record. Also, Mercy Nku of Nigeria ran 22" 68. which is a very good performance for her.
M200mAt the 200 m. Ato Boldon had no problem winning his teamate, but from the beginning he knew that breaking Michael Johnson's WR would be out of question. However, he ran 19" 86., a PB for him and probably a performance that won't be broken this year by anyone else. Maurice Greene followed at 20" 03. and Francis Obikwellu at 20" 05. in an incredibly fast race, which unfortunately lacked in glamour after the WR at the 100 m., 2 hours before. Greek 400 m. champion Kenteris, with 20" 50. achieved a wonderful PB and proved that he can run the 200 m. as good as the 400 m.
W800mWhat an exciting race!All the girls wanted to run fast tonight and not only followed the quick pace of the pace maker, but soon started to overcome her in a crazy fight for the win. Larissa Michailova took the lead at the 500 m. and managed to keep it till the end, although she was very hardly challenged by Tina Paulino, Hasna Benhassi and Stefanie Graff. Michailova managed to achieve the world leading 1' 57" 70 and to bring 5 more athletes below 2 min. in one of the faster races for 1999. She also showed an extreme passion for win which makes her a favorite for the Seville title and a strong competitor for Maria Mutola.
M1500mThe Men's Middle Distance event was also exciting. The pacemaker lead in an extreme way, followed by Kenya's youngest two talents, Samy Rono and Noah Ngeny, the experienced Laban Rotich and William Tanui and Vermin Cacho, the Olympic Champion of Barcelona. Finally, Ngeny, the world leader so far, won with 3' 31" 32. followed closely by Rotich in a race were six athletes ran below 3' 35". Greece's Record holder, Panayotis Stroumbakos ran 3' 38" 39. and seems ready for Seville.
MHJDragutin Topic, the big favorite of the Athenian crowd was once again the winner in this stadium. He jumped 2, 32 m. and proved that he is in top form despite the war at his country.
WTJAt the Women's Triple Jump Iva Prandzeva, Teresa Marinova and Voula Tsiamita had an excitinf fight over 14, 50 m. The local favorite managed to clinch the win at her last effort, with 14, 62 m. in a competition that excited the crowd with the great jumps and the passion of the girls.