Berlin
Last Chance for 5 Remaining Golden League Jackpot Contenders, El Guerrouj Chases
Record in 2000 Metres
IAAF
29 August 2001
– Monte Carlo – On Friday, Berlin’s Olympic Stadium will once again host the
final leg of the 4th edition of the IAAF Golden League. Two athletes
– Romania’s Violeta Szekely-Beclea and Marion Jones (USA), with six and five
victories, respectively – have already earned their share of Jackpot of 50kg of
gold bars. Another five athletes – three men and two women – remain in the
running and with victory in Berlin will have the five wins necessary for a share
of the booty.
The athletes in question are: Andre Bucher (SUI) in the 800m; Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR) in the 2000m; Allen Johnson (USA) in the 110m hurdles; Stephanie Graf (AUT) in the 800m and Olga Yegorova (RUS) in the 5000m.
Can they do it?
Judging from their performances in Brussels, and those of the opponents they will face on Friday, the odds are good for all five. The 800m World Champion, Bucher, will doubtless benefit from the absence of Russia’s 20-year-old phenomenon Yuriy Borzakowski who, after setting the world’s best performance in the Van Damme Memorial meeting in Brussels with his 1:42.47 clocking, is taking a long break before competing again. But Bucher will need to watch out for his other opponents – Kenyans Bugei and Yiampoy, the Olympic champion Nils Schumann and Poland’s Cziapewski – who are all capable of surprising the Swiss on the home straight. Bucher will almost certainly once again need to go under 1:43.00, which he has already done three times this season (and once in 1999) to clinch his share of the Jackpot.
World Champion and World Record Holder in the 1500 metres, Hicham El Guerrouj is unlikely to face any great surprises. He is in superb shape, physically and mentally, as was amply demonstrated in Brussels, where he ran one of the greatest 1500 metre races ever to beat Kenyan Bernard Lagat. El Guerrouj had to run the last 300 metres in 40.02 – a faster pace than in his first lap (53.65) – and crossed the line just 12 hundredths off his world record time. In Berlin, El Guerrouj has set his sights on breaking the record for 2000 metres, a mark that he set in the same stadium two years ago. To improve on his record of 4:44.79, the Moroccan will have to go through 1500 metres in 3:33.00-3:34.00 and run the last 500 metres in 1:10.00-1:11.00, Not an easy task, but one within his capabilities.
In the 110 metre hurdles, Allen Johnson will need a major boost of adrenalin to assure himself of victory over Cuban Olympic champion Anier Garcia. Johnson is one of the few great masters of the hurdles, even if this year he has sometimes had to compensate for errors in his technique with a burst of energy (as in the final in Edmonton). On the other hand, that is what the 110 hurdles is all about: the subtle balance between acrobatic power and perfection of style.
Insofar as Stephanie Graf and Olga Yegorova are concerned, the latter looks the most likely to clinch a share of the Jackpot. The Austrian faces strong competition, with Maria Mutola, Letitia Vriesde, Kelly Holmes and Natalya Tsyganova all determined adversaries. Yegorova, who is running the distance for which she won gold in Edmonton, will be in a much better position to control how her race is going to be run: a high pace that could take her to a far from impossible European record (currently Gabriela Szabo’s with 14:31.48) or even an attack on the world record of 14:28.09 owned by China’s Jiang Bo, or on the other hand a more relaxed pace and a devastating final kick unleashed at the crucial moment.
Whatever the outcome, these battles and the others that surround them are sure to make this a thrilling conclusion to the 2001 Golden League series. After the tough competition in Edmonton, the world of athletics still managed to produce some great competition in Zurich and Brussels. There was even an astonishing World Record that broke 23 years of Kenyan dominion - since the days of the great Henry Rono – in the 3000 metre steeplechase by Morocco’s Brahim Boulami (whose brother Khalid was bronze medallist in the 5000 metres in Atlanta). But, above all, there have been some extraordinary results, from the sprints to the middle distances, in the jumps and the throwing events, just as new potential has burst onto the scene: J.J. Johnson, for example, the latest Texan 200 metre star. Athletics has entered the new century in the best possible way with great hopes for the future, defying those who would decry it.
