In Lisbon she cleared 2

In Lisbon she cleared 2.00m, beating the Ukrainian Inga Babakova on countback. Amy Acuff missed third place by the same ranking system, a 1.96m jump earning her fourth place. The 25-year-old Texan will be in Glasgow today, renewing a rivalry with Bergqvist that stretches back to the 1994 world junior championships, where the Swede beat the American to silver.Acuff is not your average high jumper – not your average world-class high jumper, that is She taught herself to jump, using books and videos “I’m the mail order high jumper,” she says. And, unlike Bergqvist, she is not averse to a bit of public exposure Away from the track and field arena, Acuff works as a model. She has appeared on the cover of Vogue – with her kit on, it perhaps ought to be said.. Next month, some time late in the evening of 22 April, the last medal will be hung on the last sweat-caked neck, the discarded tin-foil wraps cleared away, the gutters of London swept clean of empty water bottles. The world’s elite athletes will be on their way back to airports with that combination of weariness and serenity that comes from a couple of hours and a few minutes’ punishing work in exchange for a six-figure pay cheque.

Stray back- ends of pantomime horses will be rounded up and matched with their fronts The Flora London Marathon will be over for another year. Next month, some time late in the evening of 22 April, the last medal will be hung on the last sweat-caked neck, the discarded tin-foil wraps cleared away, the gutters of London swept clean of empty water bottles. The world’s elite athletes will be on their way back to airports with that combination of weariness and serenity that comes from a couple of hours and a few minutes’ punishing work in exchange for a six-figure pay cheque. Stray back- ends of pantomime horses will be rounded up and matched with their fronts. The Flora London Marathon will be over for another year.
For a few hours that is.

The next day a small group of people will assemble to start planning all over again for next year’s event. The London Marathon, an event which attracts thousands of participants from the fastest marathoner on the planet to a runner dressed as a man sitting on a toilet, is the year-long work of a small but extraordinarily efficient team of 18. Headed by the race director, David Bedford, they are based in a bijou office suite in a courtyard five minutes’ walk from Waterloo Station (make that 15 minutes if you are dressed as a 10-foot papier-maché giraffe).It is in August of each year, though, that the pace of preparations really hots up. For athletes, agents, press and public, not to mention various supplicants who have failed to win one of the 30,000 entries in the ballot that takes place every October, the first point of contact with the London Marathon consists of Jane Cowmeadow and Claire Pulford, respectively Head of Press and Assistant Press Officer.With the marathon now just five weeks away, these two have already embarked on a hectic variety of duties ranging from the niceties of dealing with overseas runners to the doling out of photographers’ bibs in race week, taking in radio appearances, the sourcing of menus, getting weather reports from the Met Office and organising the fax-and phone-stuffed press suite at the marathon headquarters in the Thistle Tower Hotel. Roughly 400 members of the media will cover the event on the day; Japan can boast the biggest overseas contingent, with the Spanish press their closest rivals this year, thanks to the presence of the world champion, Abel Anton.As race day approaches, they are joined by a band of people who come in to help out, including a fireman blessed with the name of Gerry Addams, who has spent the last few days minding the likes of Sir Steve Redgrave, Tanni Grey and the London’s Burning regulars Heather Peace and Eddie Peel on Flora’s traditional warm-weather training trip for press, celebs and athletes to La Manga.”I bring in about seven people to work in the press office,” says Jane. “Some take holiday to work on it and some have been with me since ‘96 They come back here every year. The thing I find is that the whole of the marathon is a really good team It’s not a particularly hierarchical place.