ACOG - News - IBM

(27 July 1996; Day 8)

Consistency Pays Gold for HILGERTOVA and MARTIKAN

Consistency paid off for Stepanka HILGERTOVA of Czech Republic and Michal MARTIKAN of Slovakia as they mastered the Ocoee River before a crowd of 13,945 on Saturday in their respective Olympic canoe/kayak slalom events. HILGERTOVA edged out Dana CHLADEK of the USA for the gold medal in the women's kayak singles (K1) slalom while MARTIKAN beat defending Olympic gold medalist Lukas POLLERT to capture gold in the men's canoe singles (C1).

The two medal events make up four slalom events being contested during the Games at the Ocoee Whitewater Center in Tennessee. The remaining slalom events -- men's kayak singles (K1) and canoe doubles (C2) -- will be run on Sunday.

The women's K1 slalom came down to consistency. HILGERTOVA and CHLADEK both turned in runs of 169.49. CHLADEK, the 1992 Olympic bronze medal winner, came out of nowhere to battle for the gold medal. She entered the Games seeded last out of 30 competitors. CHLADEK's time of 169.49 came on her second run after enduring a disastrous first run in which she missed four gates.

Her only mistake during the medal-winning run was touching gate 24. "I nailed a bunch of things, and then I hit gate 24," said CHLADEK following her second run. "I think if I hadn't had the gate touch I'd be sitting pretty well."

HILGERTOVA entered the Olympic competition seeded No. 3 and turned in a clean run of 166.24 during Friday's training run. She followed up her training effort by posting a 169.49 during Saturday's first run in which she touched gate 25 for a 5-second penalty. Her second run was timed in 171.97. Myriam JERUSALMI-FOX of France won the bronze medal by posting a time of 171.00 on her second run.

Consistent improvement was the key for MARTIKAN, the 17-year-old Slovakian wonderkid who edged POLLERT by .14 seconds to win the gold medal. Beginning with his training run on Friday, MARTIKAN steadily lowered his time with each run. His first run turned in Saturday was a clean 160.88, good enough for sixth overall. His second effort, coming late in the afternoon, produced another clean run which bettered POLLERT's first run of 151.17.

"I trained hard and I didn't think about it," said MARTIKAN regarding the pressure of his second run. "It was really pressure, but if I expected to bring a medal I had to deal with it."

POLLERT had an opportunity to better his first run, but gate penalties on his final attempt cost him his second gold medal. Finishing closely behind for the bronze medal was Patrice ESTANGUET of France. The No. 7-seed paddler posted a time of 152.84 during his first run.

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Mike Mead.


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The volunteer staff of the 1996 Olympic Games totaled 50,152. They worked an estimated 850,000 shifts.