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Javier Sotomayor had a great year in 1993, during which he added the
world high jump title to the Olympic crown he gained the year before, as
well as improving his world record to 2.45m. He continued to totally
dominate the event in 1994, repeating his feat of the previous year of
being the only jumper to scale 2.40m or better. Sotomayor accomplished
this feat no less than nine times, two during the indoor season, and
seven times outdoors, starting at Seville on 5 June, where he recorded
the year's best jump of 2.42m. Besides dominating the event on the
Grand Prix circuit, Sotomayor recorded wins at the Goodwill Games in St
Petersburg on 29 July, and at the World Cup in London on 11 September,
where his best jump of 2.40m was a record 12cm above the next best
performance.
He retained his world indoor title at Barcelona on 12
March 1995 with a leap of 2.38m, while in the outdoor season, he
produced the year's best mark of 2.40m when he retained his title at the
Pan-American Games in Mar del Plata on 25 March. Unfortunately, he was
hampered by a foot injury at the World Championships in Gothenburg on 8
August, but he showed that he was still a force to be reckoned with
when he (see photo above) and Troy Kemp (Bahamas) were the only
two athletes to clear 2.37m. But Kemp had only needed two attempts,
while Javier had taken three, which meant that he finished with the
silver medal when neither he nor Kemp could clear the next height of
2.39m.
Although he got a good start to 1996 in the indoor season,
Sotomayor was plagued by injury during the outdoor season, and he was
only able to finish equal 11th when he tried to defend his Olympic title
in Atlanta on 28 July. (Ron Casey)
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