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Fiona May had achieved an incredible consistency in the long jump at
major international competitions since she started competing for Italy
in 1994, winning medals in that year's European Championships, in both
the 1995 and 1997 World Championships, and at the 1996 Olympics. While
maintaining her consistency in the long jump, May successfully
experimented with the triple jump in 1998, reaching 14.56m in her first
competition to smash the Italian indoor record, and outdoors, winning
the triple jump at the European Cup on 27 June. Earlier that month, May
had set a new Italian long jump record of 7.03m at Athens, and on the
day after winning the triple jump title at the European Cup, she won the
long jump title as well with another national record of 7.08m.
May had
often managed to produce her best efforts on the big occasions, and
this included the 1998 European Championships at Budapest. There she
set another new personal best of 7.11m in round three, and followed this
with a fourth round leap of 7.04m, a distance she had not bettered
before that season. Unfortunately, these efforts were short of the
7.16m reached by Heike Drechsler (Germany), and Fiona had to be content
with the silver medal. May continued her record of performing well at
major meets at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, where she set
her season's best jump of 7.04m to lead the qualifying round on 21
August. Fiona (see photo above) continued this form in the final
held two days later, taking the lead with a 6.92m jump in the first
round, and improving to 6.94m in round three.
However, Niulka Montalvo
(Spain) leapt 7.06m in the final round to snatch the gold from Fiona,
who was left with the silver medal to go with her gold and bronze won at
previous World Championships. (Ron Casey)
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