BNW

B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News

Heaston Goes into History By Accident American shot putter Kristin Heaston accidentally went into history as the first woman to compete in the ancient Olympic stadium, ending nearly 3,000 years of men-only competition here. The honour should have gone to Singapore's Zhang Guirong, who was drawn to throw first in the first qualifying group of women's competition. However, while photographers massed around the Asian girl, officials of the second group in which Heaston was competing, told the Californian to go ahead and take her turn. "It's just so exciting to be part of history. Who knows when there will be other women competing here or when there will be another competition," said Heaston. The men's and women's shot put were staged two days ahead of the start of the main athletics programme on Friday, in a specially constructed arena on the site of the ancient Games. Women were forbidden from participating in the ancient Games, on pain of death, although there are several stories of women competing disguised as men. The ancient Games were staged from 776 BC to 393 AD, when the Roman emperor Theodosius I ordered them to be stopped because he was a Christian and considered them to be a pagan festival. Heaston didn't qualify for the final later on Wednesday, finishing 22nd with only the top 12 to go through, but she barely cared after the event. "Perhaps I should have thought more about what I was doing in the ring rather than what I was doing in history. OK, I didn't qualify for the final, but what happened can't be negative," added the 28 year-old thrower. "Now that I'm done competing, I can take in what it's all about. It's a bit overwhelming, as I hadn't really thought about it before," said Heaston. Official competition returned to Olympia yesterday for the first time in 1611 years. Who Are We ? | About THISDAYOnLine.com | THISDAY People | Contact Us © Copyright 2000 Leaders & Company Limited

	BNW News
Voice of Biafra | Biafra World | Biafra Online | Biafra Web | MASSOB | Biafra Forum | BLM | Biafra Consortium
	© 2001 BNW BiafraNigeriaWorld  Privacy Policy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Powered by ACENetwork ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Axiom PSI Yam Festival Series, Iri Ji Nd'Igbo the Kola-Nut Series,Nigeria Masterweb