Posted: September 3, 2005

Athletics: Lebedeva's Million Dollar Quest: 'i Will Have To Be A Fighter.'

By Bob Ramsak, Track Profile

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BERLIN – Triple jumper Tatyana Lebedeva's quest for the $1 million TDK Golden League jackpot concludes tomorrow in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, and it's a task that was made substantially easier yesterday when Jamaican Trecia Smith, who captured the world title in Helsinki, pulled out with injury.

But despite Smith's withdrawal, Lebedeva said there won't be anything easy about Sunday afternoon's contest.

"I will have to be a fighter," she said. "I can't relax."

If the Russian succeeds after her wins in Paris, Rome, Oslo, Zurich and Brussels, she'll become just the second athlete to claim sole possession of athletics' biggest prize. In 2003, Maria Mutola was the sole winner.

"At the beginning of the season, I wasn't thinking about winning the Golden League. I was taking every competition step-by-step."

But after she won Oslo's Bislett Games a few days after sustaining an Achilles injury, Lebedeva said she had a big decision to make. She would either risk her shot at the jackpot by jumping competing aggressively at the world championships, or save herself for the remaining post-Helsinki GL fixtures. She decided on the latter, and didn't advance from the qualifying round at the world championship.

"The world championship is not new for me," she said. "I won in Edmonton and in Paris. "But the Golden League is new for me. I want to be included with the big stars like [Christian] Olsson, [Tonique Williams-] Darling, Mutola, El Guerrouj, others who won the Golden League."

She said she hasn't given much thought to how she'll spend her prize if she emerges victorious in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, but she does know where at least $100,000 of her winnings will go.

"I want to give it to a pre-school and kindergarden in Volgograd."

With Smith out, her primary competitors will be Yargelis Savigne of Cuba and Russian Anna Pyatykh, respectively, the silver and bronze medallists from last month's world championships.

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