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El Guerrouj proves too good

Nick Davies

For 800 years Andalusia was ruled by the Moors. Last night, one of their descendants, Hicham El Guerrouj, became King of Seville with a majestic display of middle distance running.

As he strode down the home straight, his challengers Noah Ngeny, Reyes Estevez and Fermin Cacho trailing behind, the Moroccan broke into a smile, raised his eyes to the heavens and thanked God. The clock froze at 3:27.65 – the fifth fastest in history for the 1,500 metres.

Some complained that by slowing, he missed the chance of breaking the World record but El Guerrouj cared not about the time. He had been challenged hard and, in probably the most competitive and thrilling race of his life, had triumphed.

"I sent two kisses tonight," said El Guerrouj, "one for my family and the other for the people watching here and in Morocco. I was so happy because I truly think that this was one of the best races of this century."

But as well as sheer talent there was cold logic in this result. Adil Kaouch, the other Moroccan, sacrificed himself to ensure a fast pace. There would be no chance of a repeat of the 1996 Olympic final, when El Guerrouj had been caught in a box and fallen out of the race. Here in Seville, the World record holder was able to chase his friend – going through the 800 metres mark in 1:52.15. His main rivals Ngeny and Estevez remained in contention – with every move of the Spaniard greeted with a roar – but once El Guerrouj began his long sprint for home there was only going to be one champion.

Estevez made a brave effort to catch El Guerrouj but he was then overtaken by Ngeny, who clocked 3:28.73, and finished third in 3:30.57. His two countrymen finished just behind (in 3:31.34 and 3:31.83), a stunning reminder of Spain’s current standing in this discipline. It was easily the fastest championship final in history.

Ludmila Formanova became outdoor World champion last night in Seville, overtaking Maria Mutola just before the finish in a thrilling 800 metres final.

The Czech, who had performed exactly the same feat to win the World indoor title in March, seemed to have been boxed out of contention with 300 metres to go. But she pulled out into lane three and chased Svetlana Masterkova, Jearl Miles Clarke and Mutola hard. Still fourth with 70 metres to go, she kept her concentration and seemed to pass the Mozambican just on the line. But Formanova wasn’t sure of victory until she saw her result on the giant screen.

"Before the competition I called home and was told that Mutola had said that she knew there was a Czech who could spring a surprise. I replied 'Hopefully she will remember my name after the final!' "

Formanova, coached by Jarmila Kratochvilova who won this title (and the 400m) in 1983, had specifically worked on her acceleration in recent training sessions after missing most of the early season because of injury.

In the final of the men’s discus throw, sentiment may have favoured Lars Riedel, chasing his fifth successive win or his 38 year-old countryman Jürgen Schult, World champion back in 1987, who seemed to have clinched the contest with 68.18. But then Anthony Washington stepped into the discus circle for his fifth throw and achieved a sensational 69.08 – a championship record.

Neither German could respond and the USA had won its first major discus gold since Mac Wilkins in 1976.

It was also an historic moment for Afro-American sport since no black discus thrower had ever won Olympic or World championships gold before.

Speaking after the event, dwarfed by the two men flanking him, Washington said: "The Germans have dominated this event since the mid 1980s. I was not conscious that the US last won back in 1976 but just that I had finished fourth in Atlanta and did not want to repeat."

In the men’s 10,000 metres, run as a straight final, we were all expecting a repeat of the sensational duels between Haile Gebrselassie and Paul Tergat in recent major events. We were expecting Tergat to try and break Gebreselassie and the Ethiopian to hang on grimly before unleashing his deadly kick.

But in the end, Gebrselassie sprinted home with relative ease, while Tergat struggled to escape a box built for him by Assefa Mezgebu and Tolla Girma. For one moment on the last lap it seemed as if the three Ethiopians were heading for a spectacular clean sweep of the medals. But Tergat broke free with less than 70 metres to go, sprinted past his rivals and finished second. Haile Gebrselassie thus celebrated his fourth successive title with 27:57.27 and Tergat his third successive silver (27:58.56) at global level. Mezgebu won bronze with 27:59.15.

Antonio Pinto had made a brave bid for glory with three and a half laps to go but he could not shake off the World record holder and faded to fifth.

South Africa’s Hendrick Ramaala had set the pace from 1000 metres (2:59.59) until Gebrselassie took over at the halfway point (reached in 14:17.17).

The women’s triple jump was a disappointing contest with Greece’s Tsiamita Paraskevi winning gold with 14.88. It was the first time the 15 metre mark had not been surpassed since this event debuted in 1993.

Defending champion Sarka Kasparkova finished sixth with 14.54 while world indoor record holder Ashia Hansen could only manage 13.39 and finished last.

During the women’s hammer, making its World Championships debut, most of the suspense came from seeing each throw of Mihaela Melinte edge closer to the marker that showed the World record distance. Thanks to the generosity of Mita, an IAAF sponsor, any woman breaking a world record would get an award of $100,000, regardless of the event.

Melinte came mighty close – especially with her final effort that seemed to breach the hallowed mark. But she was agonisingly close – 75.20 as compared to her own record mark of 75.97. Still, Melinte’s joy at becoming World champion matched that of her male counterpart Karsten Kobs a few days ago, but at least Melinte got to complete her victory lap in front of a packed house.

"My first three throws were technically the best," commented the Romanian, "then the heat got to me a little. Had the conditions been better for throwing I would have achieved one or two metres more with my last throw."

Russia’s Olga Kuzenkova had shown the best form coming into this event, but was not able to cope with Melinte’s strong opening effort.

The third placed athlete in this contest, Lisa Misipeka, was representing American Samoa, so her bronze was a historic first for her country.

"My last competition was in June!" she said. "There just isn’t the money in this event yet so my coach and I just have to imitate competitive situations in training."

It seemed like the past three days had been just an aperitif for tonight’s main course. A capacity crowd waved flags, blew trumpets (there were some good musicians on the north bend) tapped out their Flamenco hand-claps and reserved their best chants, like good patriots, for anyone wearing the red and yellow vest of Spain. An hour before the race most of these spectators had paid to see – the 1500m – the stadium erupted as Niurka Montalvo made her way to the podium for the long jump medal presentation. She may have been Spanish for only three months, but what the heck. The fiesta has finally begun.

UNI adds:
Skurygin wins 50kms walk

German Skurygin savoured his day in the sun today with an unexpected victory in the men's 50 kms walk on the fifth day of the championships.

The sun was already high in the sky when the field set off on 20 laps of a circuit around the Olympic stadium in the early morning.

It was beating down three hours 44 minutes and 23 seconds later when the 35-year-old Russian strode across the finish line.

''I can't remember when anyone from my town has won a medal in a summer sport,'' Skurygin said. ''We're famous for skiing and biathlon, winter sports.

''Although I come from a much colder place, the heat here did not bother me.''