French thrower keeps family’s tradition alive

French hammer thrower Alexia Sedykh wins gold at the inaugural Youth Olympics.

SINGAPORE: French hammer thrower Alexia Sedykh, daughter of two Olympic throw legends, wins gold at the inaugural Youth Olympics. The 16-year-old is the daughter or Yuriy, owner of the 26-year-old world hammer record  of 86.74 metres, and Natalya, the 1988 Olympic shot put champion.

Alexia struggled with the surface in the throwing ring which had become slippery due to the heavy downpour, fouling on her first two attempts, but she managed to gain the outright lead among the nine competitors in her next throw that saw her hammer fly 59.08metres.

Her fourth and final attempt was also a foul, but second-placed Belarussian Alena Navahrodskaya’s final attempt travelled only 57.34metres to make Alexia a Youth Olympic Games champion.

Team Americas reign supreme

Teams from the Americas won gold in both the medley relays to wind up the track events at the event.

In the boys’ relay, the individual 400-metre champion Luguelin Santos anchored the Dominican Republic to gold. The Americas team had been led off by long jump gold medallist Caio Dos Santos from Brazil, running the 100-metre, with the Odane Skeen from Jamaica handling the 200-metre leg and Najee Glassfrom the US taking the 300-metre before handing off to Santos.

The Americas ran the four legs in one minute and 52.71 seconds. Europe took the silver and Oceania the bronze, with Africa finishing fourth and Asia fifth.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2010.