Davis in, Lester out of triple jump final

Athens, Greece (Sports Network) - American men had mixed results in the men's triple jump qualifying round Friday morning.

Melvin Lister, this year's top performer with a 17.78-meter leap last month, fell just 27 centimeters short of qualifying for the 12th and last spot in the final.

After opening the competition with 16.62 meters, he fouled on what looked to be a 17-meter jump and then came up short on a final leap of 16.64 centimeters. Afterwards, Lister complained about the metric measuring tape.

"All I needed was (my) measuring tape," he said. "It is hard to trust my approach when it is not exactly what I practiced."

Lister's American teammate Walter Davis qualified for the final in the 11th position. Davis, the world indoor silver medalist last year, opened with a jump of 16.28 meters before posting a poor 14.77 on his next. But a final leap of 16.94 was good enough to get him into Sunday's final.


But, for a co-athelete, knowing metric paid off:

08-22: Leaps of faith: Kilgore native goes for medal today

COX NEWS SERVICE

ATHENS, Greece — Triple jumper Kenta Bell likes to borrow a description favored by U.S. gold medalist Kenny Harrison in 1996 to refer to the event in which Bell is competing: power ballet.

It was an ugly dance that Bell, a native of East Texas, performed Friday in his qualifying round to make the finals today, and he knows he'll have to do better if he expects to beat Sweden's Christian Olsson, the reigning world champion, and earn an Olympic medal. The final is scheduled to begin today at 12:10 p.m. local time.

"It was not power ballet. I don't know what I want to call it," Bell said, noting that his qualifying jump of 16.98 meters was his shortest in 10 consecutive meets.

Bell finished 10th among the 12 qualifiers led by Olsson who jumped 17.68 meters. American Walter Davis, a former LSU star, qualified in 11th place, while Melvin Lister of Fayetteville, Ark., finished 18th and out of the finals.

"I'd rather be the hunter than the hunted. I've got a lot of jumps left in my legs, and we play (today)," Bell said.

Despite his bad qualifying round, the 27-year-old Bell is clearly a man on the rise in his sport.

Even before Friday’s qualifier, Olsson's coach proclaimed Bell the American who most bears watching. Randy Huntington, who coached world long jump record holder Mike Powell, coaches Bell, who finished sixth at the world outdoor championships last year.

The Kilgore High School and Northwestern State University graduate spent 10 days at the U.S. Track and Field Olympics training camp in Crete before arriving Tuesday in Athens.

He and the rest of the U.S. team are living in the Olympic athletes’ village. Bell said he has spent his time training and resting; sightseeing will have to wait until after the competition.

Bell planned to spend Saturday with a light workout and getting a massage and ice-bath treatments and watching the Games on TV. He said he has spent most of the week resting and preparing mentally.

In an unfamiliar arena, the massive Olympic Stadium, the 180 cm, 77 kg Bell said his rhythm was off Friday.

"It's a new surface out there, and I haven't had a chance to work on it," he said. "But the final is a brand new day. I get to come out with a fresh start. We know how to compete and we know what it takes at this level to be there."

Bell said he spoke by telephone before his round Friday to his parents in Kilgore, Kenneth and Diane. "They said, ‘Do good work. Go out and do what you have to do.’ ”

Bell's teammate Lister jumped 17.78 meters to lead qualifying in Sacramento for the Olympics triple jump team. He blamed his poor jump Friday on Olympic officials who took away his feet-and-inches tape measure.

Bell said he doesn't carry one. He has used the metric system since he was a freshman in college.

"It's a Euro-centric world, baby," he said.

08-22: Leaps of faith: Kilgore native goes for medal today
COX NEWS SERVICE
ATHENS, Greece — Triple jumper Kenta Bell likes to borrow a description favored by U.S. gold medalist Kenny Harrison in 1996 to refer to the event in which Bell is competing: power ballet.

It was an ugly dance that Bell, a native of East Texas, performed Friday in his qualifying round to make the finals today, and he knows he'll have to do better if he expects to beat Sweden's Christian Olsson, the reigning world champion, and earn an Olympic medal. The final is scheduled to begin today at 12:10 p.m. local time.

"It was not power ballet. I don't know what I want to call it," Bell said, noting that his qualifying jump of 16.98 meters (55.708 feet) was his shortest in 10 consecutive meets.

Bell finished 10th among the 12 qualifiers led by Olsson who jumped 17.68 meters (58 feet). American Walter Davis, a former LSU star, qualified in 11th place, while Melvin Lister of Fayetteville, Ark., finished 18th and out of the finals.

"I'd rather be the hunter than the hunted. I've got a lot of jumps left in my legs, and we play (today)," Bell said.

Despite his bad qualifying round, the 27-year-old Bell is clearly a man on the rise in his sport.

Even before Friday’s qualifier, Olsson's coach proclaimed Bell the American who most bears watching. Randy Huntington, who coached world long jump record holder Mike Powell, coaches Bell, who finished sixth at the world outdoor championships last year.

The Kilgore High School and Northwestern State University graduate spent 10 days at the U.S. Track and Field Olympics training camp in Crete before arriving Tuesday in Athens.

He and the rest of the U.S. team are living in the Olympic athletes’ village. Bell said he has spent his time training and resting; sightseeing will have to wait until after the competition.

Bell planned to spend Saturday with a light workout and getting a massage and ice-bath treatments and watching the Games on TV. He said he has spent most of the week resting and preparing mentally.

In an unfamiliar arena, the massive Olympic Stadium, the 6-foot, 170-pound Bell said his rhythm was off Friday.

"It's a new surface out there, and I haven't had a chance to work on it," he said. "But the final is a brand new day. I get to come out with a fresh start. We know how to compete and we know what it takes at this level to be there."

Bell said he spoke by telephone before his round Friday to his parents in Kilgore, Kenneth and Diane. "They said, ‘Do good work. Go out and do what you have to do.’ ”

Bell's teammate Lister jumped 17.78 meters (58.33 feet) to lead qualifying in Sacramento for the Olympics triple jump team. He blamed his poor jump Friday on Olympic officials who took away his feet-and-inches tape measure.

Bell said he doesn't carry one. He has used the metric system since he was a freshman in college.

"It's a Euro-centric world, baby," he said

Yep, international athletics are primarily in metric. News flash- this is old news.

But don't you just love the way he edited the original so as to look like the imperial was missing?

Perhaps we should all do that -you know- re-edit the original?

Like, for example, tonights 17 stone euric-lamping quarterfinals.