Athletics: Gold at last for silver machine

World Indoor Championships: Fredericks the nearly man blazes into history to match Jackson heights

FRANKIE FREDERICKS, an athlete with possibly the finest collection of silver in the world, earned himself a precious piece of gold here yesterday.

The 31-year-old Namibian produced the second fastest indoor 200 metres in history, 20.10sec, to claim a world indoor title to go alongside the outdoor version he collected six years ago. In doing so, coincidentally, he matched the performance of Britain's Colin Jackson, winner of the 60m hurdles here on Friday night.

Fredericks's time has only been bettered by the world record of 19.92sec he set himself in Lievin three years ago but it was the colour of the medal, rather than the reading on the timer, which was his main concern on this occasion.

"Getting the gold was the key for me," he said. "At this stage of my life I'm just chasing titles. My career is almost coming to an end, and people are going to remember me by the titles I have won." Whether Fredericks is right about that is debatable - his distinction of being the 100m and 200m silver medallist at the last two Olympic Games is probably the first thing that comes to mind for most athletics followers. That, and his unwavering sportsmanship in the face of relative disappointment.

But yesterday Fredericks was entitled to wear a broad grin after a characteristically smooth run from the outside lane took him clear of Obadele Thompson, the Commonwealth 200m bronze medallist, and Kevin Little, the defending champion from the United States. Thompson's time of 20.26sec established him as the third fastest in the all-time indoor 200m list behind Linford Christie, who ran 20.25sec in 1995.

Fredericks's attitude to competition is mirrored by that of Jackson, who, at 32, is also driven by the need to bring his career to a golden close.

Both have suffered by comparison in recent years to American athletes named Johnson - Jackson's position as undisputed world No 1 has been taken over by Allen, while Fredericks had the misfortune to reach his peak in the same era as Michael, who set that staggering world record of 19.32sec in the last Olympic 200m final.

Jackson is now concentrating all his energies on the forthcoming world championships and next year's Olympics in Sydney having re-established himself at global level here.

Having divested himself of the distractions involved in running Nuff Respect, the agency he founded with Linford Christie, and after successful surgery on a knee which hindered his hurdling for almost a year, Jackson has zeroed in on his remaining ambitions.

"Everything has changed," he said. "I'm far more happy in myself, and I know what I really want." Money is not a factor in his racing programme - the $50,000 prize money he picked up here was no more than a little extra. "When I was 22, I would have said, `Hell, that's a great bonus.' But I have been at the top of my sport for a long time and I have accumulated quite a nice little nest egg. Money is not important to me any more. I don't have to work again if I don't want to."

Friday's victory was hardly celebrated in style - "I pigged out on a few doughnuts at a local store, and that was it" - but its significance for the Welshman was enormous. "I have shown that I am back," he said. "If I don't win the world title this summer - assuming I am fit - then I will feel I have let myself down."

More immediately, however, he plans to take a week off to visit Los Angeles and then New York, where he plans to drop in on another world champion - his old friend Lennox Lewis, who fights Evander Holyfield for the unified heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

Jackson met Lewis at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh where, as he recalled, the boxer - then representing his adopted country of Canada - became embroiled in an argument in the athletes' restaurant with his team-mate Ben Johnson.

"It was all about Ben's ego," Jackson said with a grin. "Ben wanted to fight him - he offered him out. Lennox just said `sit down'. He knew he could break Ben into three pieces if he wanted to. Sprinters, eh?... But it is very important to Lennox to win on Saturday. He has always spoken a lot about the fact that he's the best heavyweight out there." It is a conviction that Jackson, in his own sphere, also holds.

No fights broke out in the Maebashi Green Dome yesterday, but there was plenty of ill feeling, notably in a controversial pole-vault in which the winner, Jean Galfione of France, was accused of illegally restraining the bar with his hand as he became only the fourth man to clear 6.00m.

Jeff Hartwig of the United States took silver with 5.95m after a US appeal had been turned down. Hartwig was delayed from making his own attempt at 6.00m for 10 minutes. Galfione was briefly disqualified, but this turned out to have been a misunderstanding. According to an IAAF spokesman: "One of the international technical officials had simply queried the clearance and brought it to the attention of the referee, who confirmed there had been nothing wrong."

Britain's Jamie Baulch was fastest qualifier for today's 400m final with a time of 46.14sec as the man who beat him to the title two years ago, Sunday Bada, failed to progress.