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After nearly a decade of competing at world-class level without serious
injury, Irina Privalova's luck finally ran out in early 1997. Her
indoor season had started strongly in preparation for the World Indoor
Championships at Paris in March. Privalova won a 60m event in 7.02sec
at Ghent on 12 February, and then set the season's fastest time over
200m of 22.52sec at Lievin on 16 February. After the preliminary rounds
of the 60m at Paris, it appeared that the main two contenders were
Privalova and Gail Devers (USA), the same two athletes who had fought
out a thrilling final in the 1993 World Indoors, at which Devers had
just edged out Privalova for the gold medal.
In the final at Paris,
Privalova got an early lead and was seemingly heading for victory, but
she suddenly pulled up with a torn hamstring, which caused her to miss
the remainder of 1997, and she did not return to competition until the
1998 indoor season. After a cautious start indoors, including a
seasonal best time of 23.11sec over 200m, Privalova appeared to quickly
regain the same form that she had prior to 1997. At the European
Championships at Budapest on 19 August, Privalova recorded a time of
10.83sec in the 100m final, her fastest time since 1994, but
unfortunately only good enough for second place behind Frenchwoman
Christine Arron.
In the 200m final two days later, Privalova, as she
had done four years earlier, won the gold medal (see photo above, Privalova in lane 6)
in 22.62sec. In addition, she anchored the Russian team to a bronze
medal in the 4 x 100m relay. Despite these successes, Privalova's
season finished somewhat disappointingly in the World Cup at
Johannesburg, where she had three fifth-place finishes, in the 100m,
200m and 4 x 100m relay. (Ron Casey)
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