In the third installment of their eight edition review of the highlights of the 2002 Athletics year, A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava review the long distance events.

MEN - Long distances

5000m
It is beginning to look like a “remember-when-era”, those years in the mid-1990’s when Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie and Kenya’s Daniel Komen took turns at lowering the 5000m world record. In just three years a total of almost sixteen seconds were cut away in a “frenzy”, that perhaps fooled us into believing that many more new world records were to come in the near future.

But now four full years - a complete Olympic cycle - has passed since Gebrselassie’s 12:39.36, without anybody coming closer to the record than approximately ten seconds. This gap can most understandably be expressed as almost one full second for each of the 12½ laps of the race, i.e. something highly significant.

In this perspective, 2002 was a quite normal year with the world leading time at 12:55 and with the top runners closely clustered around the 13:00 barrier. Solid but nothing extraordinary. Not even the 3000m produced anything remarkable. With 7:34 as the top time it was actually a down year compared to 2001, when no less than 12 runners were faster.

The 5000m almost become an exclusive Kenyan property with 7 out of the top-8 and 9 out of the top-12. Only Morocco managed to break into that Kenyan with Salah Hissou actually leading the list, and with two more runners at positions No 9 and 10.

The almost complete Ethiopian absence (only one representative in the top-23) is rather conspicuous, with the great Gebrselassie and his heir-apparents Million Wolde, Hailu Mekonnen and Kenenisa Bekele missing the summer due to injuries, unable able to mount their usual challenge to the Kenyan supremacy.

10,000m
The picture was more positive from the Ethiopian perspective in the 10,000m. Not only did Assefa Mezgebu confirm his position as a consistent contender for championship medals by finishing 2nd in the year’s major competition at the distance (the Brussels Golden League meet), Ethiopia also presented two major talents for the future in teenagers Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam and Sileshi Sihine, who ran 27:25/27:26 in Brussels.

Talking about the world of 10,000m running in 2002, actually could almost be constricted to talking about the Van Damme race. In a year without any worldwide championship, the event is almost non-existent on the international circuit. Luckily the Brussels meet organisers have kept their great tradition alive, and the race this year was actually one of the best of all-time!

The Gebrselassie World Record (26:22) was of course not threatened (the 1-second-slower-per-lap formula also worked here!) but with the fifth 2002 finisher at 26:52, it actually almost matched the pre-2002 world all-time list where the 5th place was at 26:51. The race was won after a thrilling last lap by Kenyan newcomer Sammy Kipketer, who after four straight years of being “stuck” just below 13:00 at 5000m might have found his future event.

5000/10,000m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points 

1. Sammy KIPKETER 81 KEN 1386
2. Benjamin LIMO 74 KEN 1384
3. Richard LIMO 80 KEN 1370
4. Luke KIPKOSGEI 75 KEN 1342
4. Salah HISSOU 72 MAR 1342
6. Abderrahim GOUMRI 76 MAR 1341
7. Abraham CHEBII 79 KEN 1336
8. Paul BITOK 70 KEN 1333
9. Assefa MEZEGEBU 78 ETH 1320
10. Alberto GARCÍA 71 ESP 1315 .

3000m Steeplechase -
While the world records have been out of sight for some years at the flat long distance events the 3000m steeplechase record - that since 1978 had been a Kenyan property - has always lived under some threat. That it was improved in 2001 was thus no surprise, but that it would be done by Moroccan Brahim Boulami was definitely a surprise then.

But Boulami re-confirmed that effort this summer by first running 7:58 in Monte Carlo and then an astonishing 7:53.17 in Zurich, winning by some twelve seconds and cutting more than two seconds off his own world record. However, the excitement lived for less than two weeks. Then it was announced that Boulami had failed a surprise EPO test, which had been made the day before the Zurich meet.

Suddenly everybody had to reassess all their thoughts about the current state of the event. It meant a return to the traditional picture of a Kenyan “property”. Among the Kenyans, the power seemed to have shifted slightly from the experienced duo of Wilson Boit Kipketer and Reuben Kosgei, towards the youngsters Stephen Cherono and Ezekiel Kemboi.

Cherono did dip under 8:00 already last year but his second best then was ten seconds slower. This year he showed much improved consistency and when running his 7:58 in Monte Carlo he was defeated by just one single hundredth of a second by Boulami. Kemboi, like Cherono born in 1982, was new to the international scene but despite that, impressed by winning three major races (Lausanne, Paris and Brussels).

So despite missing the former junior superstar Raymond Yator this year, Kenya continued to have both the best established runners, as well as the most exciting prospects for the future. The fastest non-Kenyan (apart from Boulami) was Dutchman Simon Vroemen, who somewhat surprisingly surpassed the 18-year-old European record when finishing third in Monte Carlo in 8:06.91. But with Vroemen already 33 years old, it is hard see to him as a serious threat to the re-established Kenyan domination of the steeplechase.

3000m Steeple- IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points 

1. Brahim BOULAMI** 72 MAR 1420
2. Stephen Cheruiyot CHERONO 82 KEN 1368
3. Wilson Boit KIPKETER 73 KEN 1366
4. Reuben KOSGEI 79 KEN 1354
5. Ezekiel KEMBOI 82 KEN 1340
6. Paul KOECH 81 KEN 1336
7. Saad Shaddad AL ASMARI 68 KSA 1310
8. Julius NYAMU 77 KEN 1304
9. Bouabdallah TAHRI 78 FRA 1303
10. Luis Miguel MARTÍN 72 ESP 1302

**Pending hearing 

WOMEN - Long distances

The number one star of Women's long distance was quite clear in 2002: Paula Radcliffe established herself at last with spectacular performances during the season. Radcliffe has been second in many races in the past, but this year was different. She won both London and Chicago marathons and her only 10000m start at the Munich European Championships. She also won her one 5000m race at the Commonwealth Games and her only loss of the season came in the second fastest 3000m final of all time, when Gabriela Szabo beat her in the Monaco Golden League meeting.

Despite her European Record of 8:21.42, only topped by four Chinese runners on the all-time list, Szabo's season was nowhere near perfect. She suffered two losses in both 3000 and 5000m, although she only ran a total of 9 races over those distances.

Apart the fast Monaco race, the year was quite weak for 3000m and same goes for 5000m too: there were 17 women under 15 minutes, where as in 2001 there were 18 and in 2000, 24 of the standard. The 10,000 metres on the contrary had a good year, six women went sub 31, the best since 1997, excluding the Olympic year of 2000 in which there were nine.

5000m
Paula Radcliffe only raced one 5000m race during 2002 but still managed to record the world lead which lasted until the end of the season. Running at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Radcliffe missed Jiang Bo's 5-year-old World Record by a little more than three seconds. The record which stands at 14:28.09 is clearly the weakest in the women's distance running and should fall some time soon.

Another threat to the record could be fellow Chinese Sun Yingjie, who established herself a position at the world top at the Asian Games. Chinese distance running has been quite poor during the last few years and Dong Yanmei's 4th place at Edmonton 2001 was small comfort. Sun, however, could be a new winner for the country, as she only came to Busan with a seasonal best of 15:32.00 and bettered that by almost 50 seconds to win in 14:40.41. Sun is the only Chinese at the top of the world all-time lists with a mark made outside their prestigious National Games.

Gabriela Szabo started her season with a win at the Oslo Golden League 5000m, but after that it was more or less a difficult year for her. The first loss of the season came at Rome (Golden League) and another one in London. Both times, the super-fast finishing Berhane Adere (ETH) was ahead of the Romanian, although it was the 35-year-old Kenyan Edith Masai who won the Rome meet.

Masai was also part of the fastest ever 3000m race (outside China) which took place in Monaco. Gabriela Szabo won the race with European Record and Paula Radcliffe was second in 8:22.20. Masai also created a new continental record for Africa with her 8:23.23. In the 5000m, the depth was not the best possible as there were only 66 athletes under 15:30, when the 2001 had 86 and 2000 101 runners at that level.

10,000m
It was Radcliffe again at the top of the 10,000 metres too. In this event which is usually quite lame in a year without a major world wide championship, Radcliffe clocked the fastest ever 5000 m split (14:57.65) and nearly went on to run a sub-30 minute race. Radcliffe finally won in 30:01.09, by a huge margin of 47,5 seconds before Sonia O'Sullivan (IRL) who also bettered her own PB and Irish National Record in 30:47.59.

Radcliffe's time gives her second place in the world alltime list only bettered by Wang Junxia's world record of 29:31.78 from 1993. Although Wang did come to halfway in only 15:05, her second half of the race was 14:26, so the record was not really in jeopardy.

This season also witnessed an uncharacteristic fast sub-31 race in May at Stanford University, California. Yoko Shibui (JPN) and Deena Drossin (USA) both recorded National Records of 30:48.89 and 30:50.32.

However, the biggest surprise of the year came in the last big meeting of the year. 25-year-old Sun Yingjie, mainly a marathon runner, ended the Chinese misery in women's distance running by winning the Asian Games by a huge margin in front of the young Japanese favourite, Kayoko Fukushi. Sun's winning time of 30:28.26 was 2nd in the world list and 8th all-time. It was also the first time since the 1997 National Games that a Chinese runner bettered a winning distance running result from those Games. Sun made terrific progress this year bettering her 2001 personal best by over 80 seconds.

20-year-old Fukushi, who took silver after Sun in both 5000 and 10000 metres at Busan, also made promising progress during the season and could be the first Japanese to hit the top of the medal podium in a major championships. Year 2002 was much better than usual for women's 10,000m, as there were a total of six women under 31 minutes, while 2001 only had one, and Olympic year 2000 witnessed nine, with six of those from the Sydney final alone. However, depth was clearly lost in 2002 - 2000 had a massive total of 49 women under 32 minutes, 2001 a total of 38, while 2002 could only boast 31.

5000/10,000m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 17 Dec 2002
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points 

1. Paula RADCLIFFE 73 GBR 1388
2. Berhane ADERE 73 ETH 1385
3. Gabriela SZABO 75 ROM 1382
4. Edith MASAI 67 KEN 1361
5. Tatyana TOMASHOVA 75 RUS 1327
6. Sonia O'SULLIVAN 69 IRL 1324
7. Olga YEGOROVA 72 RUS 1318
8. Worknesh KIDANE 81 ETH 1307
9. Benita WILLIS-JOHNSON 79 AUS 1297
10. Marta DOMINGUEZ 75 ESP 1291


3000m Steeplechase
Women's steeplechase is a very young event, but recent results have been of high quality. 1998 saw the first competitions in Europe and sub-10 minute times were taken as elite marks. Daniela Petrescu (ROM) was the first one to go sub-10 with her 9:55.28.

The situation is quite different now. It was really year 2001 which took the event to a new level. Justyna Bak (POL) was the first to go below 9:30 with her World best of 9:25.31.

In 2002, Bak recorded another record of 9:22.29 in early June. However, Alesya Turova (BLR) chopped another six seconds off Bak's time, first running 9:21.72 at Ostrava and then on 27 July in Gdansk, the world's leading time of 9:16.51. Turova was really the first world class miler to try the distance, she also ran a personal best of 3:59.89 in Zürich this season.