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Sotomayor dreaming of gold after qualification
= = SYDNEY, Sept 22 (AFP) - Cuba's high jump world record holder Javier Sotomayor said he felt in gold-medal winning form Friday as he made a successful return to top level competition by qualifying for the final. Sotomayor was controversially reinstated for the Sydney Games when the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) reduced his two-year ban for testing positive for cocaine. But the man from Lamanar was confident after qualifying that he could add a second Olympic gold to the one he won in Barcelona in 1992. "I felt very good physically and I hope to be even better after the days leading up to the final," Sotomayor told AFP. "If I have come here it is because I am sure of myself and to win a gold medal." Sotomayor had a nervous start, failing at his first attempt at the 2.27m qualification height. The 102,485 spectators in Stadium Australia gasped but the Cuban responded with two successful leaps. "I failed (the first attempt) because I was overconfident," said the Cuban whose world record clearance stands at 2.45m. "But we are going to wipe the slate and start again.. today's results count for nothing." With America's outgoing Olympic champion Charles Austin eliminated, Sotomayor tips Russian Vyacheslav Voronin as the biggest obstacle between him and a second Olympic title. "My duel with Voronin is really intense, like all rivalries in an Olympic Games," said Sotomayor. Sotomayor was stunned at the size of the crowd - the attendance at the evening session ensured that 200,000 spectators had passed through the turnstiles in one day - a world record for attendance for athletics. "I was very moved to be competing in the Olympic stadium full of people who know your name, applaud you and enjoy what we do. I have never competed before in front of such a public. Sotomayor stands by his earlier claim that 2.38m should be enough to win a medal in Sydney. "Everything suggests this will be the minimum to win a medal so I must aim for this. I feel capable of it.
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