Posted: August 4, 2004

Athletics: After 10.77, What Comes Next For Lalova More Important Still

By Bob Ramsak, Track Profile

(c) 2004 Track Profile all rights reserved TrackProfile.com

It can't be easy being Ivet Lalova these days.

On June 19, the 20-year-old Bulgarian emerged from relative sprint obscurity with a blistering 10.77 win at the European Cup First League competition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. After knocking a massive quarter of a second from her previous best, Lalova suddenly found herself as the sixth fastest women in 100 meter history.

But just as swiftly, rumors began making the rounds that her dash, while admittedly fast, wasn't quite that fast. On-site accounts credited the peformance to a false start that was never called. Photos of the start began to surface across cyberspace, which while inconclusive, seemed to support that assessment.

Despite her detractors, Lalova dismisses the accusations --in a very pleasant, patient manner, putting her public relations studies to good use-- that her performance, the fastest dash in the world since 1999, was the result of a lucky start.

"No," she said, unequivocally. "You can see in some photos that I'm far [ahead] from the girl next to me. But that was her mistake, not mine." She said that a rather unremarkable reaction time of .170 was registered, well within the .10 that automatically sounds the recall gun. "That's quite normal," she said, adding that the starting equipment never triggered the recall gun to sound. Besides, she added, the atmosphere in Plovdiv was supportive as well.

"It was my crowd, there were 3,000 people screaming my name, and there was good competition."

But some accounts from Plovdiv report that no false start detection equipment was in place, an appraisal supported by photos in which the starting blocks do not appear wired. Nonetheless, the performance will stand, leaving Lalova with a mark that will define the rest of her career, one that, controversy notwithstanding, was a very promising one well before June.

While a relative newcomer internationally, hers was already a recognized name in European sprint circles. She made a big leap in 2003, with 11.14 and 22.87 bests, and a strong double win at the European Junior Championships. She lowered her short dash best to 11.12 in her second race this year before her big win in Plovdiv and improved to 22.51 in the 200 with a runner-up finish at the Madrid Super Grand Prix in mid-July. She also ran a 22.37 this year in Sofia, but with a 2.1 wind reading, it was barely above the allowable wind limit for ranking purposes.

While her performances since haven't remotely approached her 10.77, she has performed admirably. At the Gaz de France Golden League meet in Paris on July 23, she overcame a modest mid-race performance to claim third in a blanket finish clocking 11.13, just three one-hundredths of a second behind winner Christine Arron. In the 200 the same evening, she ran 22.76, again finishing third.

"In Paris, I was a little scared," she readily admits. "I was a little nervous. It was my first big competition. I was a little scared from the big crowd, from the stadium. I actually don't have much experience in competitions like that." She believes that the .02 that cost her the runner-up spot in the 100 was from the experience she lacks. "But after every competition, I get stronger and stronger and I believe in myself more and more."

She echoed that sentiment before last Tuesday's DN Galan Super Grand Prix race in Stockholm, explaining that after Paris, she feels "a little more confident and a little more sure." That confidence showed in her race, where, propelled by a mid-race surge, she went from fourth to first en route to her first win on the Grand Prix circuit, clocking 11.22.

"The start was not so good," she said. "But I'm very pleased that I did not lose control, that I did not panic."

Choosing to end her pre-Olympic schedule on a winning note, she won't race again until Athens where she'll contest both the 100 and 200. Her goal is to emulate Seoul Olympian Anelia Nuneva, Bulgaria's first and only 100 meter Olympic finalist, and whose 10.85 national record she broke in Plovdiv.

Popular at home for her speed and pin-up looks, Lalova's brightly colored hairstyles and prominent tatoo --a sunburst image painted around her navel-- is not wholly unlike that of many teenagers and 20-somethings. But the tatoo, she explains, signifies more than mere fashion.

"It's something personal," she said. "It represents one moment of my life when I made the decision to do something 'bigger.'"

Her first big moment came in Plovdiv, and the athletics world will now expect her to back it up. She has little doubt that she is up to the task.

"My life changed just as quickly as that race," she said, smiling. "I like the way my life is now. And I want to go faster."

The TRACK PROFILE REPORT is a news and feature service published by the Track Profile News Service. In addition to regularly dispatched news, profile and interview features, subscribers also receive exclusive on-site updates from major national and international competitions, usually within 24 hours. Copyright (c) 2004 by Bob Ramsak and TRACK PROFILE. All rights reserved. Reproduction, republication, reposting and retransmission in ANY form is strictly prohibited without express permission from the editor.