| The supremacy which Jackie Joyner-Kersee had established over the
rest of the world's heptathletes in 1986 and 1987, continued during the
Olympic year of 1988. Her only real challenge came from trying to beat
her own personal best score, rather than from her rivals. She did just
that a the US Olympic Trials in Indianapolis on 15-16 July where she
scored a total of 7215 points, bettering her own world record by 57
points. At the Olympic Games in Seoul on 23-24 September, she broke the
world record again, scoring 7291 points and easily winning the gold
medal 324 points clear of silver medallist Sabine John (East Germany).
Joyner-Kersee comprehensively beat John in 5 of the 7 events and was
only narrowly behind her in the shot (see photo above) and the
800m. Her supremacy in the long jump during 1988 was not as clear-cut.
At the beginning of that year Jackie and Heike Drechsler (East Germany)
had been co-holders of the world record with a distance of 7.45m. At
Leningrad on 11 June, Galina Chistyakova (Soviet Union) first equalled
the record and then set a new world mark of 7.52m. On 9 July, Drechsler
just failed to reach the new record, jumping 7.48m, but moved herself
clear of Joyner-Kersee on the all-time list. The scene was set for a
titanic battle between the three best long jumpers in the world at the
Seoul Olympics on 29 September. Chistyakova led after round one with a
distance of 7.11m. Drechsler took the lead in round three jumping
7.18m, which Joyner-Kersee just failed to match with a leap of 7.16m.
Drechsler stretched her lead to 7.22m in round four, but Joyner-Kersee
came through in round five with the gold medal winning jump of 7.40m, a
new Olympic record. (Ron Casey) |