Cloete sets her sights on gold, record

There are still two things Hestrie Cloete still wants to achieve before she hangs up her spikes.

The first is to win the gold medal at 2004 Athens Olympics.

The second is to break Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova's long-standing world women's high jump record of 2,09m.

"Those are the only two things left for me - Olympic gold and the world record," said the bubbly 25-year-old on her return from a successful two-month European campaign.

South Africa's double world champion and new World Woman Athlete of the Year has already made two narrowly unsuccessful attempts at 2,10m, and she feels it could happen in 2004.

"It was tough for me when I tried to go for the record this season because I had already jumped African, Commonwealth and South African records beforehand (first 2,05m then 2,06m at the world championships in Paris)," she said.

"It was also towards the end of the season when I was really tired, and I probably put too much into going for it.

"But when I am fresher after a rest next year, who knows?"

On her prospects in Athens in 11 months' time, Cloete said: "If it is God's will and I win (gold) in Athens, I will go on for another year. If not, I will hang up my spikes and make my husband (Andries) happy and we'll start a family. Then I will decide if I will come back or not."

She said being named Athlete of the Year was a big honour.

"It was a big bonus for me because that was not something I had worked for this year," she said. "I went out just to defend my title and set a new South African record."

Her world-beating performances, including victory in the World Athletics Final in Monte Carlo at the weekend, came at a price, however.

Cloete returned on Tuesday night with a slight cold, as well as a sore lower back and foot. "I suppose I must expect these things because it's been a long, hard season," she said.

Now, she might consider asking Athletics South Africa for permission to skip next month's All Africa Games in Nigeria.

"I'll go for x-rays (on the back and foot) and have a long rest, then take it from there," she explained. "But I don't want to jeopardise my chances of going for gold in Athens."

Cloete says she wants to be at least partly responsible for discovering her successor.

She will put her money where her mouth is, and will be donating a percentage of her winnings to Athletics South Africa's development programme.

"I want to put some money into development because that is important," she stated. "There are a lot of women not involved in sport, and you cannot tell me that there is no young athlete out there who will one day follow me up.

"I'd like to to get behind the effort to find my successor.

"At the competition in Monaco, a lot of the younger high jumpers came and wanted to have their picture taken with me," she smiled.

"I thought that was brilliant because I'd like to see myself as a role model."

At Sunday night's banquet, she suddenly realised that she had made it into the big time.

"Sitting on my right was Prince Albert of Monaco and on my left was Sergey Bubka (legendary world pole vault record holder), and that was really special."