2001 on the Road
A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava review the Road Events in 2001
Women
While 2001 for the women’s stadium events was - as stressed several times in the previous reviews - very clearly a year of transition and “recovery,” road racing simultaneously reached new heights. Obviously the rhythm of the Olympic cycle does not govern the action on the roads quite like it does on the track.
On the roads the major invitational events seem to be regarded by many as more attractive and prestigious than the official championships. The races in London, Berlin, New York and Boston have acquired a status within the marathon world that almost could be compared to that of the “Grand Slam” tennis tournaments or the golf “Majors.”
One key element in this development - at least as important as the monetary rewards - has been the media exposure: If you win in London or New York you become the centre of attention in a way you never do when the marathon is part of a week containing over 40 championship events.
Half Marathon
Despite having an annual IAAF World Championship, the half marathon is mostly regarded as an in-between-event run by track runners pondering a future in the marathon or by marathon runners looking for “speed work” in preparation for major efforts in their speciality.
But the half marathon is an event in its own right and the fact that it demands an extra half-hour when compared to the 10,000m on the track but is an hour-plus in arrears of the marathon gives the event its own unique characteristics and demands. In particular, the transition upwards has quite often proved to be much tougher physically and mentally than expected.
The statistics also demonstrate that the correlation between the half marathon and the marathon is not very strong. Of the top-10 in the IAAF World List 2001 only four - Susan Chepkemei (No 2), Catherine Ndereba (No 4), Joyce Chepchumba (No 9) and Margaret Okayo (No 10) - are established marathon runners. The others are either track runners or half marathon specialists.
So we should not think there is any a foregone conclusion when Paula Radcliffe toes the starting line of a marathon race for the first time next April in London. It will be easy task and the expectations will be enormous because of Paula’s pedigree as a half marathon runner: World Champion two years in a row she missed the world best by just a few seconds when taking the 2001 title in Bristol in 1:06:47.
Talking about the world best it must also be noted that in early April 2001 Susan Chepkemei, on the Lisbon-course regarded as having an excessive downhill gradient, ran the fastest half marathon by any women ever! Her 1:05:44 was just about a minute quicker than the best times recorded on standard courses - but as an athletic achievement it probably should be regarded as on-par with those marks.
Marathon
When Ingrid Kristiansen and Joan Benoit ran their 2:21 times just one year after the event had made its Olympic début in Los Angeles 1984 “everyone” expected the first sub-2:20 time to be just around the corner. Some “experts” went even further: In an 1992 article in the much respected journal Nature it was argued that according to “statistical evidence” the marathon record for both men and women would be 2:01:59 in 1998 - and from then on the women would be leaving the men behind!
That prediction was of course complete nonsense but even the most moderate analyst would in 1985 not have expected four full Olympic cycles having to pass by before the 2:20 barrier finally succumbed. But that is what has happened in the world of real running. This tells us that Kristiansen and Benoit - despite belonging to the pioneer generation of the event - had reached a level of excellence similar to that of their contemporaries in the established events of that time.
The duo were not just individuals lucky to be around before the event came of age; they were genuine all-time greats. A designation that four Olympic cycles from now probably will be applied to Naoko Takahashi, who in Berlin 2001 finally made a sub-2:20 marathon for a woman a reality, and to Catherine Ndereba who in Chicago just one week later this memorable autumn made a sub-2:19 equally real.
Does this double-coup herald a period of rapid further improvement of the marathon record? Although one can envisage better marks soon - e.g. Ndereba started out rather slow and finished apparently full of running - some kind of landslide development of the record doesn’t seem probable. But a further rise in the general levels of performance should be expected.
Because - although there is a sizable gap of over three minutes to the No 3 on the 2001 world list - the standards have continued to rise dramatically and swiftly: The number of sub-2:30 and sub-2:27 runners have gone from 38 and 5 respectively in 1996 to 78 and 39 five years later! With so many in the 2:23-2:26 bracket there ought be a few capable of approaching 2:20 quite soon. Perhaps Derartu Tulu, Margaret Okayo, Susan Chepkemei or Min Liu?
The constant influx of runners with strong pedigrees on the track should not be forgotten either. After Paula Radcliffe’s two consecutive world championship titles at the half marathon everybody inside the sport is looking forward to the Briton’s marathon début with great anticipation.
20 kilometres walk
In 1999 the championship distance for the female walkers was doubled from 10 to 20 kilometres. For the athletes this meant adjustments in training plus the adoption of different type racing tactics, a kind of transition that ought to take a few years.
So, as could be expected, the times have been coming down at fairly steady rate as the athletes have learned to master the intricacies of the new event increasingly well. Although weather conditions also play a big part the sequence of winning times in Seville 99, Sydney 00 and Edmonton 01 sums up the this trend quite well: 1:30:50 - 1:29:05 - 1:27:48.
The outstanding athlete in 2001 was Olimpiada Ivanova who won the world title by a minute and who set new records both on the road (1:24:50) and on the track (1:26:53). Especially the road mark - which equals two 42:25 races at 10K back-to-back - indicates that Ivanova has already lifted this fairly young event to a level that will still be seen as “brilliant” a decade from now when it has fully matured.
As for the future of the event, it seems that this also belongs to Russia since 21 year-olds Natalya Fedoskina and Tatyana Sibilyeva both feature in the top-8 on the World list in an event otherwise dominated by athletes who are 5-10 years older.
Men’s events
Half Marathon
There were few really outstanding results in the Men's Half Marathon in 2001, at least in the period before the IAAF World Championships. Haile Gebrselassie came to that event in Bristol just a couple of months after his disappointing debut 10,000m of the season at Edmonton. But again, the Ethiopian proved that he can rise to a challenge. In easily the best half marathon race of the year, Gebrselassie outsprinted fellow Ethiopian Tesfaye Jifar to win by one second in 60:03, the second fastest time of the year behind Fabian Roncero's (ESP) world leading mark of 59:52.
As usual, the Half Marathon world list was dominated by Kenyans. There were a total of 18 Kenyans in the Top 30 of 2001.
Marathon
The Marathon is an event where it’s hard to say who is the best at the end of a season. The best runners only race once or twice and rarely against each other. This time, however, the Edmonton World Championships gathered most of the top runners together. Abdelkader El Mouaziz (MAR), the London winner, and Antonio Peña (ESP), the Otsu winner, were a couple of pre-race favourites. Of course, Japanese runners should never be underestimated and 22 year-old Ethiopian Olympic Champion Gez Abera, was also a big favourite despite his modest best time of 2:17:04 in Boston.
Edmonton proved, as usual, that world list does not tell who is going to race well in a major championship road race. Simon Biwott, with fast times from both 1999 and 2000 and also the Paris winner from 2001 and Olympic Champion Abera proved to be the ones who were in the best shape on that day. Biwott looked to be the winner a couple of kilometres before the finish, but the young Ethiopian showed again that his country really loves this event. In a true sprint finish, Abera edged Biwott only by one second – 2:12:42 to 2:12:43. Abera later ran 2:09:25 to win the Fukuoka marathon in December, the second best time of his career.
The marathon is developing quickly. Ten years ago, 2:10 was
considered a world class result, in 1993 there were 7 runners under this mark, but in 2001 we had a total of 37! The world leading mark in 1993 was 2:08:51 – this year 16 runners bettered this. There are also many young runners coming onto the scene, mostly from Africa and Asia. Of course, Olympic and World Champion Abera is still young, but we also have many other juvenile stars. 18 year-old Chinese Li Zhuhong, recorded the World Junior Best, 2:10:46 in the National Games Marathon in Beijing. This was his third marathon race and he even added a fourth in Macau in December.
There were no new entries to the World All-time Top Ten this year, but
Khalid Khannouchi’s 2:05:42 from 1999 was still threatened. But Marathon times are all down to the conditions and they were never “just perfect” in 2001. Haile Gebrselassie (ETH), who will run his first marathon in London 2002, showed that he is also capable of winning longer events at the World Half Marathon Championships in Bristol. Recording the second fastest time of the year, 60:03, the 28 year-old Ethiopian proved that he is deadly serious about his marathon quest and could be the first man to break the 2:05:00 barrier.
20 km walk
In the 20km walk, the year started as usual as the Russians jumped to the top of the rankings after their Winter Championships where 18 year-old Viktor Burayev walked to a World Junior Best of 1:18:06, only one second behind the winner Dmitriy Yesipchuk. Nathan Deakes (AUS) was the biggest surprise of the year with his Oceanian Record 1:18:14, which he walked in Ireland. Many thought that neither the Russians, whose best times in their own country are rarely matched outside, nor Deakes, would be in the medals at Edmonton. Instead many considered 25 year-old Andreas Erm (RUS) and Ilya Markov, a Russian who nowadays rarely competes in Russia, as the leading candidates for the top podium.
The Chinese were not expected to take the top places – only their top walker Li Zewen has been able to perform well in major championships. Indeed Li faded to 13th in Edmonton, but many others also performed well under their performances in the world lists. There were still 12 walkers in the leading group after 15km, but after that surprising things happened. The experienced Russian Markov took the lead with two younger teammates Roman Rasskazov and Viktor Burayev with Australian Nathan Deakes hanging on too.
In the end the three Russians entered the stadium in a pack. Roman Rasskazov sprinted away from Markov in a finish that seemed a little close to the limit of the rules.
2001 was not the best possible year for the 20km walk, but walkers, like runners in all road events, are affected by weather and the course conditions. The best European meetings had a very modest level this
year, which meant there was a lack of top performances in general.
50 km walk
Robert Korzeniowski is about the only name to mention in this event. Since finishing third in the Gothenburg World Championships in 1995, the Pole has won all major championships except the 1999 Seville World Championships where he was disqualified.
In Edmonton Korzeniowski started slowly, allowing his teammate Tomasz Lipiec to build a clear lead by halfway. However, by 30km, the double Olympic Champion was just behind the leader Aigars Fadejevs (LAT), who tried to break away. Korzeniowski was the strongest again, taking the lead after 33km and finishing unchallenged.
But other than that achievement, there was little memorable about the 50km walk in 2001. Edmonton produced the two fastest times of the year, which is quite unusual for this event. One of the most impressive performances was made by 15 year-old Yu Guoping, who walked an incredible 3:45:46 to take second place in the Chinese National Games behind Wang Yinhang (3:44:28).
There were also plenty of other very young Chinese walkers, who could be a threat at the top of the world rankings in the years to come. Two other 15 year-olds, Zhang Jiawei and Guo Chao also walked under four hours in 2001, 3:55:15 and 3:57:28 respectively. All the 15-year-olds come from the Liaoning Province, also the home of the famous Ma’s Army.
