2003 - Long Distance Review

In the third installment of their eight edition review of the highlights of the 2003 Athletics year, A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava review the long distance running events.

MEN - Long Distance

5000m
2003 turned out to be a vintage year, not that anybody managed to come even close to the exclusive sub-12:40 territory of Gebrselassie/Komen in late-1990’s - but the number of sub-13:00 performances reached new all-time highs with 13 runners (one more than in 2000) dipping under that mark no less than 24 times (three more than in 1999)!

This was very much an African affair. While the analysis of the 1500m made you wonder where all the Africans had disappeared to, the picture is the completely the opposite in the 5000m. Out of the top-13 athletes Kenya had 8, Ethiopia 3 and Morocco 2! Actually only one – Swiss Christian Belz in place 26 - out of the top-33 on the world list is not African-born!

Long time 1500m-dominator Hicham El Guerrouj finally tried the event for the first time on the international level as a senior with a 12:50 the outcome, losing to Kenyan steeplechase specialist Stephen Cherono.

Following on from that Super Grand Prix encounter in Ostrava came the Golden League meetings in Oslo GL (six at 12:52-12:56), Paris GL (five at 12:53-12:59), Rome GL (three at 12:57-13:00), the Super Grand Prix in London (thrree at 12:57-12:59) and Zurich Golden League (seven at 13:01-13:04)!

As could be understood from the numbers given above, all the races came down to decisive mass finish sprints but that special ability was fairly well spread with Bekele winning in Oslo, Abraham Chebii in Paris and Rome, Gebrselassie in London, and John Kibowen in Zurich!

An untimely injury which took the edge off Chebii, didn’t stop the Paris final from being the highest quality ever with the top six runners (Chebii 5th) finishing in 12:52-12:58, a kind of depth timewise previously only seen in carefully paced Grand Prix races.

Bekele without the slightest sign of hesitation set out at close to World record pace: 2:32 – 2:35 – 2:38 but didn’t manage to shake off El Guerrouj, and despite covering the last 1000m in under 2:25 – still had to be content with the bronze medal a mere 33 hundredths from the gold!

But perhaps even more frustrated was El Guerrouj who did manage to beat Bekele but who still was 4 frustrating hundredths from the intended historical double! And the winner - typically in this year of never before seen “top depth” - was the previously unheralded (3rd in Oslo GL, 4th in Paris GL, 3rd Kenyan trials) Eliud Kipchoge!

10,000m
“The best ever 10,000m race,” that is how the Paris World Championships final in 2003 has been described. A race that started out almost leisurely (2:52 – 2:44 – 2:48 – 2:46 – 2:42) and finished in an absolute blaze (2:34 – 2:38 – 2:37 – 2:38 – 2:29). The halves of 13:52/12:57 tell much of the story – but certainly not the whole. Because much of the second half was in fact run at a pattern more resembling fartlek training than championship racing!

The master director of all this was history’s greatest 10,000m runner Haile Gebrselassie and the purpose was very obviously to make the final fight for the medals an intra-Ethiopian affair. And he did succeed with that as Ethiopia monopolised the victory, but he didn’t succeed personally as in the final sprint he had to be content with the silver medal behind Kenenisa Bekele.

However, Haile probably wasn’t that surprised as the race in Paris had great similarities with the one in Hengelo on 1 June. In both races Gebrselassie shouldered most of the pacing responsibility to help his much younger and less experienced countrymen Bekele and Sileshi Sihine. Also, both races ended with a winning sprint for Bekele in times just four seconds apart (26:53 in Hengelo, 26:49 in Paris).

But the “old man” still ended up leading the world list as he chose to enter the Brussels GL race that this year contributed the bulk of the top times recorded, in fact all but two of the top-14! Gebrselassie had serious ambitions to attack his five years-old World record, and quite probably he would have succeeded if it hadn’t been for unheralded Kenyan teenager Nicholas Kemboi.

The Ethiopian master had to consider saving something for a possible last lap dash and the pace dropped off World record schedule considerably for some laps, and yet Gebrselassie still only missed his record by 6.5 seconds.

If Kenya is to re-kindle its greatness it is now up to Kemboi to confirm that Brussels wasn’t a once-in-lifetime kind of effort.

Ethiopia seem to have much better “foundation” as their No 3 (Paris bronze medallist) Sileshi Sihine finished off his year in October with two very impressive wins in Abuja (Nigeria) and Hyderabad (India). And in the heat and humidity of Abuja he was joined under 27:50 by countrymen Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam and Dejane Birhanu. So despite Kemboi, current men’s 10,000m running is in a very firm Ethiopian grip!

But what has happened to Morocco, the country of Skah, Hissou, Boutayeb et al? Their top 10,000m runner of 2003 ran a mere 28:07 which gave them a discrete 65th place on the year list!

5000/10,000m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 15 Dec 2003 
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

1. Kenenisa BEKELE 82 ETH 1441
2. Haile GEBRSELASSIE 73 ETH 1429
3. Eliud KIPCHOGE 84 KEN 1398
4. Abraham CHEBII 79 KEN 1379
5. John Kemboi KIBOWEN 69 KEN 1351
5. Abdullah Ahmad HASSAN 81 QAT 1351
7. Sammy KIPKETER 81 KEN 1337
8. James KWALIA 84 KEN 1321
9. Sileshi SIHINE 83 ETH 1317
10. Leonard MUCHERU MAINA 78 KEN 1313

3000m Steeplechase
This event has been almost completely dominated by Kenya for a long period and in recent years the only really tough challenges have come from Morocco. However, just like in the flat long distance races (with El Guerrouj “guest star” appearance at the 5000m the only exception) Morocco was not a factor in 2003.

It could be written that for the 7th straight World Championships the Kenyans took at least two of the three medals at stake but this was not the case because during the year the winner changed name and nationality, Stephen Cherono of Kenya becoming Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar, so only one medal Ezekiel Kemboi’s silver, went Kenya’s way.

Saif Saaeed Shaheen dominated the event completely winning everything there was to win and recording 5 out of the 8 eight fastest times. It was only a slight lack of pace judgement ability that prevented him from getting a series of sub-8:00 marks rather than just one such performance. But he still was pushed to the very limit three times by intense challenges from two Kenyans of his own generation.

The World Championships final in Paris bordered on the incredible, and must be classified as the most extraordinary steeplechase ever. Shaheen stunned everybody by going out as if he planned to destroy the World record, of couse he couldn’t keep such pace up and suddenly about midway Ezequiel Kemboi sprinted as if on a last lap dash to catch up with Shaheen.

By now both of them should have been soaked in lactic acid and happy just to reach the finish line “alive”, but instead the two of them continued exchanging new bursts of speed, until Shaheen finally prevailed on the last 50 metres. That they recorded times of 8:04/8:05 despite breaking all rules about sensible pacing is almost beyond comprehension.

The Brussels and the World Athletic Final matches between Shaheen and another Kenyan Paul Koech were more 'normal' races but still highly exciting as both ended with side-by-side sprint finishes. In Brussels, Shaheen won by 0.36 in 8:00.06 and in the World Athletics Final by 0.04 in the World leading time of 7:57.42, missing the World record by only a couple of seconds.

In the non-Kenyan world of steeplechasing Europe just like in the 1500m had one of its best years in recent times by getting positions No 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9 in the World Championships final. One has to go back to the 1980’s to find comparable European “dividend” in this event.

Steeple - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 15 Dec 2003  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

1. Saif Saeed SHAHEEN 82 QAT 1445
2. Ezekiel KEMBOI 82 KEN 1389
3. Paul KOECH 81 KEN 1383
4. Bouabdallah TAHRI 78 FRA 1326
5. Julius NYAMU 77 KEN 1325
6. Kipkurui MISOI 78 KEN 1311
7. Abraham CHERONO 80 KEN 1290
8. Ali EZZINE 78 MAR 1286
9. Eliseo MARTÍN 73 ESP 1278
10. Simon VROEMEN 69 NED 1258

WOMEN – Long Distance

It was a great season for women’s long distance running, particularly for the Ethiopians. Led by double World leader Berhane Adere, Ethiopia took top four places in the 5000m and top two in the 10,000m performance lists. Even without Paula Radcliffe (GBR), who was injured throughout the season, the world lists look very good in both events.

Adere came close to breaking Jiang Bo’s (CHN) 5000m World record of 14:28.09 in Oslo, but a narrow miss brought a World leading time of 14:29.32, also the African record.

Then we had the best race history has seen in the women’s 10,000m. Despite the fact that the winning results was over 30 minutes and more than 30 seconds behind Wang Junxia’s (CHN) World record, it was extraordinary that, in a race with an uneven fast pace so many runners were fighting for the top places.

5000m
In particular this distance was commanded by the Ethiopians. In the world top eight, there were six Ethiopian athletes, their only problem being that they could only send three athletes to World Championships in Paris! After the disappointment that Meseret Defar did not make the final, all eyes were on Berhane Adere, who had already convincingly won the 10,000m and looked very good in the 5000m heats.

However, even though the Paris final was not very fast, both Adere and Sun Yingjie (CHN), the bronze medallist in the 10,000m, could not sustain their third race of the Championships and dropped out of contention at the start of the last lap. In the end it was Tirunesh Dibaba, who had broken the World Junior record with 14:39.94 in Oslo, who handled the final straight best taking another win for Ethiopia.

The Paris final was another disappointment for Gabriela Szabo (ROM), finishing in 11th place, and Sonia O’Sullivan (IRL) who was 14th, well behind the others.

Although some new faces were introduced to the top of this event, 36-year-old Edith Masai (KEN) still managed to win important races, in Paris she managed to take home the bronze medal behind Marta Dominguez (ESP).

After going down since the Olympic year in 2000, the depth in the 5000m finally deepened with now 85 athletes under 15:30, 2002 had 66, 2001 - 86 and 2000 - 101.

10,000m
This event had its best season since 2000. Even without the memorable World Championships final in Paris the season would have been good, but that competition really was better and faster than anyone could have expected.

Of course it was again the Ethiopians who were favourites in Paris. There were four of them in Paris because Derartu Tulu was present by right as defending champion.

The biggest question mark was 2002 Asian Games winner Sun Yingjie, who had not raced since April because of the SARS-disease affecting China. Despite coming to the competition with only a season’s best of a little under 32 minutes, the Chinese with the odd-looking running style made sure from the start that the race was fast. Although she did not win the race, Sun’s tactics proved to be right and she was rewarded with the bronze medal for that bravery.

Ethiopia still finished with gold and silver even though Tulu was unable to finish the race. Berhane Adere was a clear winner with her great last lap sprint ahead of Werknesh Kidane. The last lap was particularly unbelievable because the winning time was 30:04.18, third on the world all-time list behind Wang Junxia (CHN) and Paula Radcliffe (GBR).

Amazingly, Lornah Kiplagat (NED) finished in 30:12.53 and was left without a medal even though her time would have taken the third place in the world all-time list before the race. Furthermore, Xing Huina (CHN), who finished 7th in Paris, broke the World junior record with 30:31.55.

Overall, the depth in 10,000m also went close to the Olympic year of 2000, there were now 46 athletes under 32 minutes, with 49 in 2000. 2001 had 38 and 2002 only 31.

5000/10,000m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 15 Dec 2003   Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

1. Berhane ADERE 73 ETH 1392
2. Werknesh KIDANE 81 ETH 1385
3. Edith MASAI 67 KEN 1368
4. Tirunesh DIBABA 85 ETH 1339
5. Isabella OCHICHI 79 KEN 1325
6. Gabriela SZABO 75 ROM 1313
7. Meseret DEFAR 83 ETH 1304
8. Benita WILLIS-JOHNSON 79 AUS 1303
9. Zahra OUAZIZ 69 MAR 1300
10. Yingjie SUN 79 CHN 1299


3000m Steeplechase
Alesya Turova (BLR) was not able to match her performances from last year, but we still had a World record during the season.

The Belarussian went quite close to her 9:16.51 World record of 2002 with 9:20.28 in her first race of the season in Ostrava, but could not manage to go any faster later on in the season.

Instead it was very little known Gulnara Samitova (RUS) who stole the record with her winning performance of 9:08.33 in the Russian Championships. Samitova had not even tried the steeplechase before this season, and her best previous result in any event was 4:13.88 1500m in 2001.

Samitova confirmed her fast progress by running the 5000m in the Paris World Championships, because steeplechase is not yet a championship event for women. The Russian took 7th in the 5000m final with a personal best of 14:54.38, so there will probably be more to come in her steeplechasing too.