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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2008 > August > 16 > Entry
BLOG: Fountain Slips to Second After Long Jump
BEIJING — Hyleas Fountain dropped into second place in the Olympic heptathlon competition after finishing seventh in the long jump competition Saturday morning at Beijing’s Bird’s Nest stadium.
With two events remaining — the javelin and 800 meter run, both of which will take place Saturday night — Fountain has 5,029 points.
Ukraine’s Natalia Dobrynska — who won the long jump with a leap of 21 feet 9 inches — leads with 5,045 points. Ukraine’s Lyudmila Blonska and Russia’s Anna Bogdanova are tied for third with 4,913 points.
Fountain — who began the day wearing the blue leader’s bib, the heptathlon’s answer to the Tour de France’s yellow jersey — fouled on her fist two long jump attempts and finally took a safe approach and jumped early on her third and final attempt, clearing 20-feet 11 1/4 inches
The long jump is one of Fountain’s best events — she went 22 feet 7 inches at the U.S. Olympic Trials — and certainly left a couple of hundred points out there in the pit Saturday
Friday, she finished first in three of the day’s four events — 100 meter hurdles, high jump, 200 meters — and was 19th in the shot put.
Lynn Smith, Fountain’s personal coach and the women’s track coach at Central State, said Friday that there was a group of six women he thought would vie for the gold here.
“They are so close that they could either be first or sixth and it wouldn’t surprise me,” he said.
The event is seen as wide open in these Olympics since Sweden’s Carolina Kluft, the defending Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champ. decided to change events and is competing in the long jump and triple jump.
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