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The 1998 European Championships was Denise Lewis's first tilt at that
particular title. It took place in Budapest just five days before her
26th birthday and was her first heptathlon of the year - a season thus
far scarred by injuries. World champion Sabine Braun was amongst the
starters but as the contest unfurled, it was Poland's Urszula Wlodarczyk
who came closest to stopping Denise capture the one missing title from
her ever expanding C.V.
Denise took the lead after the third event, the
shot putt, with a PB of 15.27m. but at the 'close of play' on day one
was lying second. The next day a 6.59m. long jump and 50.16m. javelin
throw restored her back into the lead and her winning total of 6559
ranked her No.1 in the world for the year. She lost her No. 1 status the
following year.
1999 was World Championship year and Seville the venue. As fate would have it another name would appear above that of Lewis on
the scoreboard at the conclusion of the event. Not Shouaa or Braun but
this time Barber. Formerly of Sierra Leone, for whom she had finished
5th at the 1996 Olympics, Eunice Barber was now competing for France and
after a couple of years contesting the long jump (best of 7.01m) had
returned to the Heptathlon, much to Denise's misfortune because the
British record holder was in sparkling form.
In the shot putt for
example (see photo above) she improved her PB in each round with
15.41m. 15.95m. and 16.12m. and her final score of 6724pts. was only 12
short of her Commonwealth record. She also beat 1997 world champion
Braun (4th with 6497) and Olympic champion Shouaa (3rd with 6500) but
Barber's total of 6861 was too good. Would Denise ever win that elusive
gold medal at either of the 'Majors'? (George Herringshaw)
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