Freitag jumps for gold in Paris

Paris - South Africa has a new sporting hero.

Young Pretorian Jacques Freitag finally realised his enormous potential by winning the gold medal in the men's high jump at the world athletics championships at an electric Stade de France in Paris on Monday night.

The 2,07m-tall star made sure of winning the title he so desperately wanted when he succeeded with his second attempt with the crossbar at 2,35m and his closest rival, Sweden's Stefan Holm, failed with all three of his jumps at the same height.

The towering 21-year-old then sprinted across the track to embrace his coach, friend and mentor Jonathan Greyvenstein, and both men burst into tears.

Freitag then collected a flag from a fan in the crowd and went on his lap of honour, during which he was hugged by Jannie Momberg, a former South African athletics administrator who is now South Africa's ambassador to Greece, and Heli Koivula, the Finnish wife of South Africa discus star Frantz Kruger.

Freitag's longtime friend and manager Peet van Zyl also had tears rolling down his cheeks, not quite believing that he now finally manages a world champion.

It was not all plain sailing for the 2000 world junior champion, however, and he gave himself and all the South Africans in the 60 000-strong crowd some anxious moments with the bar at 2,25m, when he clattered into it with his first jump and just edged over with his second.

"My nerves were shattered at 2,25 and I was killing myself," he recalled, grinning from ear to ear. "But as soon as I went clear first time at 2,29, the pressure was gone and it was on Holm, who I knew would be the toughest guy to beat," explained Freitag, who in 2002 jumped a lifetime best of 2,37m in Durban before being struck down by a career-threatening ankle injury that kept him out of athletics for more than six months.

"At that stage, I told myself there was only one jump that was going to do it (win gold) and that was a first-timer at 2,32, so I psyched myself up to just nail it."

Once gold was safely in the bag, the Warrenton, Northern Cape-born beanpole briefly contemplated going even higher. "I thought about going for 2,41 because I really want to go through the magical 2,40 barrier soon, but I didn't want to push it," he said. "I want to go the the Grand Prix Final (in Monte Carlo in three weeks' time) fresh and savour being a world champion, being on top of the world.

"If I'm feeling good maybe I'll go for it (2,40m) there because that's the height every high jumper worth his salt wants to jump.."

Following Freitag's heroics, there is a very real possibility now that South Africa can do the high jump double in Paris to become only the second nation to do so in the history of the world championships.

Hestrie Cloete is a hot favourite to successfully defend her women's title at the weekend.

"I just know Hestrie is going to win it again," enthused Freitag. "There is only one woman in women's high jumping and that's our Hestrie."

Freitag thanked his coach, manager, agent Yuka Harkonnen and his girlfriend, Carika Pieterse, who stayed home in Pretoria, for their support. "It's been a tough year coming back from the injury and so many people doubted me, but they stuck by me and never gave up hope that I would become a world champion," beamed Freitag.

Surita Febbraio also did South Africa proud by progressing to Thursday night's final of the women's 400m hurdles.

She finished third in her semifinal in 55,18sec. "The pressure is off now, though," smiled the 29-year-old. "All I wanted was to get to the final and anything after that is a bonus."

The other two South Africans in action on Day 3 of the nine-day global showpiece, sprinters Heide Seyerling-Quinn and Sherwin Vries, fell by the wayside in their semifinals.

"I really struggled over the first 60m," lamented Seyerling-Quinn, 26, who finished seventh in her 400m race in 51,89sec. "It was like I didn't have rhythm, and when I found it, they (the rest of the field) were gone."

Former Namibian Vries was ninth and last in his 100m semi in a sluggish 10,41sec after failing to recover from being the last man out of his starting blocks.

"I wouldn't say it was nerves," said the 23-year-old. "I was probably too relaxed, but there was too much noise in the crowd. In the blocks I was listening here and there, but no-one shouted my name!"

But everybody will now be cheering for South Africa's latest sporting idol, Jacques Freitag.