Rain fells Sotomayor in high jump

Russian Sergei Kliugin upstaged team mate and world champion Vyacheslav Voronin and Cuba's world record holder Javier Sotomayor with a fortuitous victory in the men's high jump that was badly affected by rain.

Kliugin cleared 2.35 metres in relatively calm conditions then watched as the rain swept through the stadium.

Three jumpers, including Cuba's world record holder Javier Sotomayor, who had gone over the bar with their only attempts at 2.32, found the conditions impossible and failed with all three attempts at 2.35. Sotomayor was awarded the silver medal on the countback with Algeria's Abderrahmane Hammad third.

''I was lucky,'' Kliugin said. ''The rain helped me.''

Sotomayor, the 1992 Olympic champion, tested positive for cocaine at the Pan-American games in Winnipeg, Canada, last year and was banned for two years. He was cleared to compete in Sydney when athletics' world governing body halved the ban on humanitarian grounds.

The 32-year-old Cuban said he had competed at his last Olympics and would retire after the 2001 season. ''I would have liked to compete a bit better than this but unfortunately the weather, the wind and the rain were against me,'' he said.

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