Sean Wallace Jones in Rome
6 July 1999 – Rome, Italy - "Last year I had a lot of problems and one of
these was trying too hard to come back!" It is a relaxed and smiling Wilson Kipketer
who is speaking on the eve of the second leg of the IAAF Golden League meeting in Rome.
The reserved and enigmatic Kipketer of previous years seems a thing of the past, as the
young neo-Danish engineer, world record holder over 800 metres indoors and outdoors,
addresses journalists in one of the press conferences leading up to the second meeting of
this year’s IAAF Golden League.
"This year I am taking things easier and I’m a lot more relaxed. I have decided
to take things step by step." Last year matters were very different for Kipketer:
struck down by a serious attack of malaria during a holiday trip back to his native Kenya,
it looked at one point as though his athletics career could have been compromised
definitively.
"I am so happy to be here today, healthy. Maybe I will never get back to the same
levels as 1997 (when Kipketer broke both world records in the 800, improving the outdoor
mark twice in the season to end up at 1:41.11), but the important thing now is to be happy
to be here and not in another world. When I had the first attack, I didn’t really
know how serious it was; it was only when I was getting better and saw the analyses that I
realised just how dangerous it could have been."
You seem a lot more relaxed now?
"I have learnt from my mistakes and I have decided that I must do things for myself.
I made the mistake last year of pushing myself – it was important that I compete in
the European Championships – and that was a big mistake. It was too much too soon. It
is important for me to enjoy running and not be desperate to win. The results will come by
themselves.
"I have been thinking and I realise that we all have a job to do: to promote our
sport. I understand now that it is important that we do this well and give an example for
the future generations. We have to enjoy our sport.
"Now I take each meeting one at a time; I don’t really have a schedule. I
don’t think about the jackpot at the end. When I get to the last meeting and have
been successful up to then, then maybe I will think some more about it; I don’t want
the pressure now. At the end it will be like a big bonus, when I have been
successful."