Ana Guevara running in a Freeman style bodysuit in Gateshead (© Getty Images)
As the 2004 TDK Golden League series reaches its fourth rendezvous with tomorrow’s Weltklasse Zurich meeting, five athletes remain in contention for the coveted one million dollar jackpot.
Given the depth of the Zurich TDK Golden League meeting all five athletes will face arguably the strongest opposition in the world in their attempt to remain in the battle for a share of the Jackpot.
Click here to read related TDK Golden League Jackpot contenders story
Guevara versus Williams-Darling
Among the “challengers” who aim to dethrone these aspiring Golden League Jackpot winners - in this case Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas (women’s 400m) – is Mexico’s Ana Guevara, the number one in the IAAF World Event Ranking for the women’s 400m, who appears extremely fit and very relaxed on the eve of what will be only her third race of the year.
A former Jackpot winner herself (2002), Guevara knows what it takes to reach the top and then remain there, deal with the pressure of the challenge, and execute the perfect race week in and week out.
National Icon
27-year-old Guevara was undefeated in 2002, the year when she scored seven wins in seven Golden League meetings including a fabulous 49.16 Area Record on Zurich’s Letzigrund track, and throughout 2003, when she ran a superb 48.89 – the fastest time recorded since Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games - to take the World Championships gold medal and raise into 8th on the All-time world lists.
Since her bronze medal finish at the 2001 Edmonton World Championships behind Amy Mbacke-Thiam (SEN) and Lorraine Fenton (JAM), Guevara has become an icon in her native Mexico. Her following is at such a level that her managing company headed by Jos Hermens took the initiative to set up an international athletics meeting in Mexico’s Olympic stadium in May 2003 which was attended by 55,000 spectators.
This May, Guevara was expected to open her season at the second edition of the Mexico City meet but although she was present in the Olympic Stadium and received a standing ovation from the Mexican crowd, the two-time Pan-American champion whose earlier training had been sidelined by tendonitis in her left heel, did not compete.
“I got injured in February,” confirmed a very approachable Guevara in Zurich today. “It all started with me feeling a very small pain in my foot. I thought it was nothing so I kept on training but then the pain started to grow and it became impossible for me to run.”
“When I first found out the nature of my injury which meant that I need to stop training to be able to cure myself, I was very surprised. To get injured at that time of the year when you’re building up your training regime and in an Olympic year, that was very unfortunate.”
Swimming, swimming and more swimming
“But then I thought to myself that I needed to stay focussed and calm and just work on healing properly. What did I do? Swimming, swimming and swimming and believe me I did a lot of it!”
Guevara now jokes about the injury which prevented her from competing in what the people Mexico City consider “her” meeting, in the later Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, and a series of other competitions which she had listed on her Olympic preparation schedule.
Gateshead opener
Together with her training group consisted of her coach, physiotherapist and doctor, Guevara chose Gateshead IAAF Super Grand Prix for her opening 400m on 27 June and although she only just narrowly won the race in 50.16 (to Russia’s Natalya Antyukh 50.21) it still was her 29th successive win, an extremely important confidence booster.
Pleased with Rome run
However, Guevara was still to face a much harder test in Rome Golden League meeting a few days later, and despite a very good 49.74 clocking she was beaten into second by Tonique Williams-Darling’s 49.25, the Bahamian still being one of the five Jackpot contenders.
“There has been a lot of speculation about Guevara not running well, about Guevara being finished in the press, on TV, on the internet but I just do not pay attention to it.
“I was very pleased with my result in Rome,” continues Guevara. “No-one knew what I had been going through and I was the only one to know that with so little training and so few races the time I ran in Rome was the best I could have expected. I knew that in the conditions I was, that was a great race for me.”
Back to top shape
Since Rome, Guevara has spent one week in Ljubjana, her European base since the summer of 2000, and then a very intensive altitude training period of 24 days in the Spanish mountains of Sierra Nevada. According to her coach Raul Barreda she now is back to her top shape and spectators in Zurich can expect a great show from Guevara.
Leaving the predictions to the Press
But as she approaches the Zurich meeting, the former basketball player does not consider herself as Williams-Darling’s challenger nor does she consider herself as the favourite for the win.
“I just leave that for the press. I am here to run a good race and hopefully I will. I am very relaxed, I do not put any pressure on myself. I know that I am in a much better physical condition today than I was in Rome and hopefully I will run a good time.”
Guevara is even ready to come second provided she clocks what she calls a good time.
“Obviously I would like to win tomorrow’s race and run a good time but if I had to choose I think I would take the time. It would help build my confidence even more.”
Williams-Darling – a fare share of injuries too
Williams-Darling is also coming back from injury hampered years and has so far not lost one race in 2004.
“It doesn’t surprise me to see Tonique running so well,” analyses Guevara. “I don’t know her personally but as a runner she is very talented. She also had her share of injuries and is only now starting to get back onto the scene. She like me just wants to win. This is what athletics is all about. In your head you always need to aim at being number one.”
“When I came fifth in the Sydney Olympics no one really expected that I would be the one to succeed Cathy Freeman at the top of the event but I did. Tonique’s situation is a bit the same. People expected to see more of Lorraine Fenton this year but she just came through instead and has been running very well.”
It has taught me that things do not always come easily
With only just two weeks to go to the beginning of the athletics competition in Athens, questions about Guevara’s Olympic ambitions were the obvious next step in this conversation.
“Obviously the Olympic Games are very important and with all my family travelling to Athens, and most probably everyone back home watching me I will be expected to perform well.
“What the injury has taught me is that things do not always come that easy. If you have little time to get ready for a competition then you have to take what you have. You just have to make things happen with whatever means you have.
“Handling the injury was easy for me. I just accepted it and life went on. The most difficult thing was to make the people around me accept it and understand it. All the people that surround me, the fans, the media they do not always know what is really happening and sometime they just speculate about it.
“But I have no problem. I just do not get myself involved into this kind of talk. I stay focus and keep believing in myself.”
Athens – nothing else counts but the day itself
So what really can we expect from Ana Guevara?
“In any race, and especially at the Olympic Games, any girl from lane one to eight can win. When we line up in Athens, when the gun is fired it will be just like starting over a whole new story. Nothing else will count but the day and I sure will be ready to take on the challenge.”
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF