Sanya Richards defeats Tonique Williams-Darling in Zurich (© Getty Images)
MonteCarloWith the IAAF World Rankings deciding the Top-7 entries (11 in races of 1500m and over) automatically for the 3rd IAAF World Athletics Final in Monaco (9 / 10 Sept), we can reassuringly note that the start-lists for each event will represent the year’s most consistent performers, making this weekend’s finals very much a competition between the ‘best of the best’ of global athletics.
The women’s 400m is very much a case in point where the Bahamas’ Tonique Williams-Darling, the World and Olympic champion, takes on the season’s fastest one lapper Sanya Richards of the USA. Former World champion Ana Guevara of Mexico, who has played a supporting role to these two dominant exponents this summer has not run since the World Championships and will not compete in Monaco.
The current World Ranking for the event places Williams-Darling in pole position, with Sanya Richards, second, and the Mexican, third. This was also the finishing order at the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland last month. The term ‘best ever race’ is often loosely bandied about when describing major championship races but there is little doubt that in high winds, driving rain and temperatures of 15 degrees, the times produced by these three resilient runners made the 400m final on 10 August in the Finnish capital one of the greatest ever contests. All three women managed to come home in under 50 seconds, with Williams-Darling (gold – 49.55) and Guevara (49.81) skimming to season’s bests, split by Richards’ silver medal run of 49.74.
Since Helsinki, it has been the young challenger Richards who has been dominant. The 20-year-old has taken two wins over Williams-Darling, 29, firstly in Zurich (19 Aug) in the fastest time of the year (PB of 48.92), a run which made Richards the ninth quickest runner of all-time, and in Sheffield (20 Aug), 49.77 to 50.02.
There have been 19 performances under 50 seconds this summer in the women’s 400m, and of these Richards has clocked 8, and Williams-Darling holds 6 such efforts. Behind these two dominant forces Guevara (49.81), DeeDee Trotter (USA – 49.88) and Monique Henderson (USA – 49.96) have one mark each, and Russia’s Svetlana Pospelova, the World Championship fourth placer finisher has two (49.80 and 49.96). If anyone other than these athletes are able to seriously contend for the win in Monaco this weekend it will be a major shock.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
The summer of 2005 - sub-50 second clockings
48.92 Sanya Richards USA 1 Zürich 19 08 2005
49.28 Sanya Richards 1 Carson, CA 25 06 2005
49.30 Tonique Williams-Darling BAH 2 Zürich 19 08 2005
49.55 Tonique Williams-Darling 1 Helsinki 10 08 2005
49.69 Tonique Williams-Darling 1 Paris Saint-Denis 01 07 2005
49.69 Tonique Williams-Darling 1sf3 Helsinki 08 08 2005
49.74 Sanya Richards 2 Helsinki 10 08 2005
49.77 Sanya Richards 1 Sheffield 21 08 2005
49.80 Svetlana Pospelova RUS 1 Tula 11 07 2005
49.81 Ana Guevara MEX 3 Helsinki 10 08 2005
49.82 Sanya Richards 1 Roma 08 07 2005
49.85 Tonique Williams-Darling 1 Monterrey 11 06 2005
49.88 DeeDee Trotter USA 2 Carson, CA 25 06 2005
49.95 Tonique Williams-Darling 1 Eugene, OR 04 06 2005
49.95 Sanya Richards 1r1 Lausanne 05 07 2005
49.96 Sanya Richards 1 Kingston, JAM 07 05 2005
49.96 Monique Henderson USA 3 Carson, CA 25 06 2005
49.96 Svetlana Pospelova 1h4 Tula 10 07 2005
49.98 Sanya Richards 2 Eugene, OR 04 06 2005