News09 Sep 1999


Million Dollar Szabo looks for second Jackpot in IAAF Grand Prix Final

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Gabriela Szabo wins the 5000m at the 1999 Berlin Golden League meeting (© © Allsport)

"I’m sorry I’m so late – I had to have an hour’s massage just now, my legs were aching so much," says Gabriela Szabo as we meet her in the lobby of her hotel here in Munich on the eve of the 15th IAAF Grand Prix Final.

"I have just done two hours training, but I am starting to feel a little tired now. It has been a tough year."

A tough year, yes. And a very successful one. Szabo is one of the latest in a line-up of athletes who have become millionaires since the introduction of cash awards by the IAAF. "Of course I am not so very rich when you look at some of the other sports: football and basketball are huge sports in Romania and some of these athletes make millions every year," she goes on, reeling off a list of athletes and their place in the sports earnings hierarchy. "But of course, I am not poor either," she smiles.

Indeed not, the 23 year-old has already made nearly a million dollars in prize awards this year and could well add another $200,000 to that figure by the end of tomorrow’s IAAF Grand Prix Final.

Sitting in a big leather armchair, Szabo is a diminutive figure: 1m60 for 42 kilos, spectacles perched halfway down her fine nose magnifying piercing blue eyes. On the track it is another story, the elfin athlete seems like a veritable powerhouse as she storms down the home straight, normally trailed by her greatest rival, Morocco’s Zahra Ouaziz. "You know, I am very strong and I have been very lucky not to have had any major injuries."

But perhaps her greatest strength is mental, although she does confess to moments of weakness: "It is the training. That is sometimes so hard that I cry and say ‘I can’t do this anymore’."

"That is when I step in," says her coach Zsolt Gjongjossy.

"Yes," continues Szabo, "but then I tell myself that this is my job and I carry on."

"Competition is never so hard. Then I have to concentrate on winning, on beating the other girls. It is easier than training, when I am really running against myself. How much? In the off-season, I will run around 160 kilometres a week, on and off the track."

"My tactic of holding back and then kicking when we get close to the finish? You know, I really prefer to run from the front," and here she shows the scars on her legs where she has been spiked when running in the pack. "I feel really comfortable out in front, but Zahra, for example, she always wants to overtake me and Radcliffe too (Britain’s Paula Radcliffe). You saw in Berlin, it was the same for Malot. She just kept pushing to be in front, so I have to let them run like that and then kick when I feel it is the right time."

And the kick is devastating. Zahra Ouaziz, who has been second behind Szabo throughout the season knows this only too well: "She is just so strong at the finish, too strong for me even though I try my hardest," says Ouaziz.

Szabo will need to be strong and fast on Saturday, as victory in the Overall Grand Prix could well depend not only on winning the 3000m, but also her performance.

The Romanian goes into the Final neck and neck with Mozambican Maria Mutola, with both athletes having earned 84 points during the season (Mutola from 8 performances and Szabo from her 7 victories in the IAAF Golden League). Should there be a tie, this will be broken using the IAAF Outdoor Scoring Tables (a comparative table of performance evaluations prepared by Hungarian statisticians Spriev, Spiriev and Kovacs).

The difference for either athlete is a cool $100,000 dollars – the Overall Grand Prix winner gets $200,000, the second-placed athlete $100,000.

"Of course, if Mutola wins I will be very happy for her," says Szabo, then reflecting: "But $100,000 is a lot of money."

Athletics success has not only brought riches to Szabo, who was born in the tiny town of Bistrita in Transylvania, once a part of the mighty Austro-Hungarian empire: "Am I famous?" she smiles, "I am more famous now than Nadia Comaneçi (the renowned Olympic gymnast, with whom Szabo shares a petite physique and finely defined muscles).

"It is really nice with the young children. There are many now who are starting to want to run and do athletics, because they have seen me on television and in the newspapers and that is very good for athletics, especially Romanian athletics."

"My plans now? After Saturday I will go to the Black Sea for recuperation. I go there every year now and it really helps. I go to the hot spas and I take mud baths and massages and it seems to really take the tiredness from me. I will stay there for three weeks and then I will start my training again. It will soon be a new season and I want to try to go for two gold medals in the Olympics, in the 1500m and the 5000m."

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