GOLDEN MOMENTS - 2005 Golden League Review

Mel Watman of "Athletics International" reviews the highlights of the six TDK Golden League meetings in 2005, including a million dollar payout and a World 10,000m record.

Saint-Denis (Paris), France
1 July

In front of a Stade de France crowd the organisers stated to be 74,000, the biggest ever for any Golden League meeting, Kenenisa Bekele took top honours by registering the fourth fastest ever 5000m time of 12:40.18. But for the windy conditions he might have gone even closer to his own 2004 World record of 12:37.35. The only other swifter marks in history were also World records at the time: Haile Gebrselassie's 12:39.36 in 1998 and Daniel Komen's 12:39.74 in 1997. Bekele followed pacemakers Martin Keino and Shadrack Korir through the first two kilometres in 2:30.11 and 5:03.92 (2:33.81) before hotting up the proceedings with laps of 59.1 and 59.3 for a 3000m time of 7:32.71 (2:28.79), over four seconds faster than when he set the World record. That third kilometre proved a little too ambitious as he slipped behind schedule with 10:08.18 at 4000m (2:35.47) although he rallied with a final kilometre of 2:32.00 (57.8 last lap). Five others broke 13 minutes behind him, three of them fellow Ethiopians, including his kid brother Tariku (18) who ran 12:59.03. Be warned: Kenenisa's best at that age was 13:20.57 and was he 21 before he first dipped under 13 minutes.

Bekele was the only one of the 12 inaugural winners in this year's Golden League events who decided not to pursue the million dollar jackpot, for he did not participate in the second meeting (of six) in Rome a week later. The other winners were Aziz Zakari (10.04 - 100m), William Yiampoy (1:45.98 - 800m), Daniel Kipchirchir Komen (personal best 3:30.01 - 1500m), Ladji Doucouré (French 110m Hurdles record of 13.02 to beat Allen Johnson 13.04 and Liu Xiang 13.06), Stefan Holm (2.32m - High Jump), Tero Pitkämäki (85.95m – Javelin Throw), Christine Arron (11.03 - 100m), Svetlana Cherkasova (1:57.52 - 800m), 38-year-old Edith Masai (8:31.28 - 3000m), Lashinda Demus (53.85 - 400m Hurdles) and Tatyana Lebedeva, who in her first Triple Jump competition of the year reached 15.11m, a distance which would not be surpassed all season.

There were good performances also in the non-Golden League events at this Meeting Gaz de France. The ever-improving Tyler Christopher lowered his Canadian 400m record to 44.69, Ezekiel Kemboi won the 3000m Steeplechase in 8:09.14, James Carter the 400m Hurdles in 48.05, Brad Walker the Pole Vault at 5.80m, Tonique Williams-Darling the 400m in 49.69, Olga Yegorova the 1500m in 4:01.85 and Joanna Hayes the 100m Hurdles in 12.60 with Eunice Barber, back to top form with a French Heptathlon record of 6889 the previous month, clocking 13.00 in sixth place.

In addition to the exploits of Christopher and Doucouré there were men's national records for Nick Willis, whose 3:32.38 1500m broke John Walker's 1975 New Zealand mark, and in the 5000m for Boniface Kiprop and Moukhled Al-Outaibi whose 12:59.19 and 13:08.64 were respectively Ugandan and Saudi Arabian bests. On the women's side, Bouchra Ghézielle produced a French 3000m record of 8:35.41 and Anna Jesien a Polish 400m Hurdles mark of 53.96.

Rome, Italy
8 July

There was wholesale heartbreak at the second Golden League meeting, the Golden Gala. Of the 11 Paris winners who sought to remain in jackpot contention, only three succeeded: Christine Arron, Lashinda Demus and Tatyana Lebedeva.

Even at this early stage it was becoming evident from the quality of her performances and margin of her victories that Lebedeva stood the best chance of winning all six competitions. In Paris she had three triple jumps beyond 15 metres and won by 41cm; this time she was over that mark twice, with a best of 15.03m, while in second place Trecia Smith reached 14.85m.

At the age of 31 and seven years after her greatest year, Arron continued to enjoy one of her most consistent seasons, clocking another 11.03 100m, this time into a slight headwind. Four Americans followed, the fourth of them being Lauryn Williams (11.26) who at this point hardly appeared to shape up as a World Championships finalist, never mind winner. Demus scored a narrow 400m Hurdles victory in 53.68 over reigning World champion Jana Pittman (53.74), but the Australian never raced again that summer due to a back injury.

Of the other Paris winners, five finished second in Rome. Aziz Zakari (10.06) found himself a metre down on Justin Gatlin (9.96) in the 100m; Daniel Kipchirchir Komen (3:30.37) was out-kicked by Moroccan-born Rachid Ramzi of Bahrain, whose 3:30.00 1500m was an Asian record; Tero Pitkämäki's 84.87m Javelin Throw was bettered by Andrus Värnik's final round 85.50m; Svetlana Cherkasova (1:58.47) paid the penalty for getting boxed in at a crucial point in the 800m and could not catch Hasna Benhassi (1:58.41); while Stefan Holm found his season's highest jump of 2.36m netted him only a tie for second place with Jaroslav Baba (equalling the Czech record) as Andrey Sokolovskiy won with a lifetime best of 2.38m. It was the first time for 12 years that three men had cleared 2.36m or higher in the same contest. 

As for the others who travelled to Rome with high hopes, Ladji Doucouré (13.29) placed third in the 110m Hurdles behind Dominique Arnold (13.11) and Liu Xiang (13.24); Edith Masai set a Kenyan 5000m record of 14:37.20 but in the best race for depth of quality yet seen at this distance she lagged far behind the Ethiopian trio of Tirunesh Dibaba (14:32.57), Berhane Adere (14:32.79) and Meseret Defar (14:32.90), all of whom sprinted the last lap inside 60 seconds; and William Yiampoy was buried in seventh place (1:45.59) in an 800m race surprisingly won by Kenyan junior Alfred Kirwa in 1:44.62 ahead of the Olympic silver and gold medallists Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Yuriy Borzakovskiy.

Fast last laps were a feature of two of the meeting's outstanding performances. In a very high calibre 5000m which saw seven men inside 13 minutes (the seventh being Benjamin Limo, who would the following month emerge as World champion) Isaac Songok - a 3:30.99 1500m performer whose previous best stood at 13:06.22 - uncorked a 53.8 final 400m for a time of 12:52.29, while Saif Saaeed Shaheen needed a sub-59 seconds last circuit in the steeplechase to hold off Paul Kipsiele Koech, 7:56.34 to 7:56.37.

Oslo, Norway
29 July

Three athletes with a million dollars on their mind became two when Lashinda Demus messed up in the 400m Hurdles as the Exxon/Mobil Bislett Games returned to the rebuilt Bislett Stadium. The US champion went out too fast and paid the penalty in the closing stages. Although she was still in the lead over the final hurdle, her legs gave way just a few strides from the line and both her 36-year-old compatriot Sandra Glover (53.93) and Polish record holder Anna Jesien (54.43) overtook her as she finished a distraught third in 54.59.

The demise of Demus meant that at the halfway mark in the series Christine Arron and Tatyana Lebedeva stood to receive half a million dollars each if they could continue after the World Championships to win in Zürich, Brussels and Berlin. In Oslo, Arron had a metre to spare over Lauryn Williams in 11.06 and Lebedeva jumped 26cm farther than Trecia Smith with 14.89m, but at some cost as she injured her left Achilles tendon while warming up and that eventually led to her withdrawing from the final in Helsinki, which Smith won with 15.11m to equal Lebedeva's World leading mark for the year.

The Dream Mile, restored after three years, was a cracking race as six men ducked under 3:50 and no one has ever run as fast as Rui Silva did to finish up only tenth ... 3:52.13! Pacemaker David Lelei laid on a very fast but even first half with 55.54 at 400m and 1:51.17 at 800m before the inevitable lull on the third lap with Daniel Kipchirchir Komen the leader at 1200m in 2:50.73. It was another Kenyan-born athlete, Najem Dahame Bashir (the former David Nyaga) now of Qatar, who came out on top in the sprint for the line and his time of 3:47.97, which would remain the year's fastest, was an Asian record. In his slipstream another former Kenyan, Bernard Lagat (now representing the USA), ran 3:48.38 and then there were personal bests by Komen 3:48.49, Alan Webb (USA) 3:48.92, Craig Mottram 3:48.98 (Oceania record, breaking John Walker's 3:49.08 from 1982) and Tarek Boukensa 3:49.95. In eighth place Hudson de Souza established a South American record of 3:51.05.

There were other excellent middle distance races. Rome 800m winner Alfred Kirwa ran faster this time with 1:44.45 but in third place as Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (1:44.15) pipped Yuriy Borzakovskiy (1:44.18) on the line, while in the women's event Tatyana Andrianova followed up victories in the Russian Championships in the World's fastest of 2005 (1:56.07) and in Stockholm (1:57.80) with a strong finishing 1:56.91 success. Another World leading mark came in the 3000m where Maryam Yusuf Jamal, Ethiopian born and Swiss domiciled, set a Bahraini record of 8:28.87. Following a misadventure at the World Championships she would later post the year's best 1500m time of 3:56.79.

A treasured moment for the crowd was when Olympic champion and local hero Andreas Thorkildsen set a Norwegian Javelin record of 87.66m in the third round but Tero Pitkämäki responded with 90.54m in the fourth and Sergey Makarov crept into second place with his final effort of 87.76m. Ladji Doucouré confirmed himself as favourite for the World 110m Hurdles title, following-up his French record of 12.97 of a fortnight earlier with a clearcut win in 13.00.

Zürich, Switzerland
19 August

And then there was one; only Tatyana Lebedeva was left in the jackpot hunt after Christine Arron ran 10.99, faster than in any of her previous three 100m victories, but good in the Weltklasse only for fourth place. With both setting personal bests, Veronica Campbell (10.85) and Lauryn Williams (10.88) reversed their Helsinki positions, while the year's fastest performer at 10.84, Chandra Sturrup was third in 10.97. Lebedeva, who withdrew from the World Championships final after aggravating her Achilles tendon injury when jumping 14.15m in the qualifying competition, moved ahead of World champion Trecia Smith (14.67m) in the fourth round with 14.73m and made sure of the win with a fifth effort of 14.94m.

Held only five days after the close of the World Championships, the meeting witnessed several victories by newly minted champions. Justin Gatlin was slowed to 10.14 in the 100m by a 1.8m/sec wind, Jeremy Wariner took the 400m in 44.67, Kenenisa Bekele dropped down to 3000m for victory in 7:32.59, Saif Saaeed Shaheen won the 3000m Steeplechase in 8:02.69 despite falling at the final water jump and thus missing an opportunity to threaten his World record, Bershawn Jackson took the 400m Hurdles in 48.14, Virgilijus Alekna the Discus Throw with 68.00m, Zulia Calatayud the 800m in 1:59.16, Michelle Perry the 100m Hurdles in 12.55 and Yuliya Pechonkina the 400m Hurdles in 53.30.

But there was also an early opportunity for some of those who faltered in Helsinki to show their true form. An extreme example was Daniel Kipchirchir Komen, who had been among the favourites to win the 1500m but was knocked out in his first round heat. In a race notable for such intermediate times as 53.42 at 400m (David Lelei), 1:49.78 at 800m (Hudson de Souza) and 2:47.83 at 1200m (Bernard Lagat), Komen prevailed in 3:30.49. Tero Pitkämäki, who suffered from the pressure and threw only 81.27m in Helsinki and failed to gain a javelin medal for an expectant Finnish nation, clicked back into form with throws of 88.71m and 87.22m to dispose of the bronze and silver medallists, Sergey Makarov (86.89m) and Andreas Thorkildsen (85.44m), with World champion Andrus Värnik staying away due to blood pressure problems. There was rehabilitation too for Maryam Yusuf Jamal, who had placed a knocked about fifth in a rough 1500m final. In Zürich she had a much smoother ride in the 3000m, where a 59.6 last lap carried her to victory in 8:29.45, the year's second fastest time behind her own 8:28.87 in Oslo.

One of the most fascinating rivalries of the year was the battle for women's 400m supremacy between Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling and Sanya Richards, who had finished sixth as a junior in Athens. Williams-Darling, from the Bahamas, struck first with a narrow 49.95-49.98 win in Eugene in June, but her Jamaican-born American rival evened the score in Lausanne a month later, 49.95-50.14. At the World Championships it was the more experienced Williams-Darling who prevailed, 49.55 to 49.74. In Zürich, however, it was Richards who came out on top with a remarkable run during a rainstorm. Holding back until the finishing straight, she overtook her opponent (season's best of 49.30) to record a stunning 48.92, the World's fastest time since the 1996 Olympics and making her at 20 the youngest ever sub-49 sec performer.

Another brilliant American win came in the 110m Hurdles where Dominique Arnold, just out of the medals in Helsinki, was only 2/100ths outside his personal best with a 13.03 run which accounted for "the big three" of the event: Liu Xiang (13.12), Ladji Doucouré (13.23) and Allen Johnson (13.26).

Brussels, Belgium
26 August

A capacity crowd in the Stade Roi Baudouin for the 29th Memorial Van Damme meeting was treated to a World 10,000m record by Kenenisa Bekele. The 23-year-old Ethiopian clinched male athlete of the year honours with a fabulous run which saw him take 2.78 seconds from his 2004 figures with a time of 26:17.53. Bekele had run halves of 13:14.7 and 13:05.6 in his previous record and he aimed again for a negative split race. To that end the pacemaking was ideal for in succession Roberto Garcia (2:39.85, 5:15.63), Martin Keino and younger brother Tariku Bekele (7:53.02, 10:29.96, 13:09.19 at 5000m) set him up perfectly. Soon afterwards he was out on his own. He remained ahead of World record schedule to pass 6000m in 15:44.66, 7000m in 18:23.98, 8000m in 21:04.63 and 9000m in 23:45.09. With the bell reached in 25:20.4 a 59.9 last lap was required, and that he accomplished with ease as he finished with a flourish in 57.2.

The place times were brilliant too as for the first time six men broke 27 minutes. Boniface Kiprop, fourth in Helsinki in 27:10.98, smashed the Ugandan record with 26:39.77 and Kenya's Japan-based Samuel Wanjiru set an extraordinary World Junior record of 26:41.75 after breaking 13:10 en route for his fastest ever 5000m time! In seventh place Zersenay Tadesse, who would clock the World's quickest half marathon time of 59:05 three weeks later, set an Eritrean record of 27:04.70.

Two other World record attempts proved unsuccessful. The intermediate times in the steeplechase of 2:36.21 at 1000m and 5:16.89 at 2000m posed a serious threat to his record figures of 7:53.63 set on this track last year but Saif Saaeed Shaheen weakened in the closing stages and had to settle for a 2005 World best of 7:55.51, the third fastest ever legitimate time. Simon Vroemen (36) from the Netherlands ran the race of his life to take a fast finishing second place in 8:04.95, smashing the European record he shared with Bob Tahri.

The women's 5000m also produced a World leading time for the year. Olympic 5000m champion Meseret Defar reached 3000m in 8:42.49 and was still within striking distance of Elvan Abeylegesse's World record of 14:24.68 at 4000m (11:41.92) but the pace slowed as Defar and Berhane Adere prepared for the final sprint and the chance was lost. Defar covered the final 200m in 28.4 for an African record of 14:28.98, the third fastest time ever, with Adere clocking 14:31.09. In the men's 1500m Daniel Kipchirchir Komen easily out-kicked World champion Rachid Ramzi in 3:31.13, his fifth mark (four winning) inside 3:32.

Tatyana Lebedeva kept her Jackpot hopes alive, leading throughout with an opening 14.80m and 14.94m in the fifth round. World champion Trecia Smith finished second with 14.76m. No longer eligible for a share of the big prize, Christine Arron chalked up her fourth Golden League 100m win in 10.97 and another early contender, Lashinda Demus, scored over Sandra Glover and World champion Yuliya Pechonkina in a 53.61 400m Hurdles. Competing for the first time since her World record 5.01m vault in Helsinki, Yelena Isinbayeva incurred a failure at 4.83m, which was cleared first time for a Polish record by Anna Rogowska, but the Russian made 4.93m without trouble for victory prior to three misses at 5.02m. 

Berlin, Germany
4 September

Only once before had an athlete scooped the entire million dollar Golden League Jackpot, and that was Maria Mutola in 2003. That lucrative feat was emulated by Tatyana Lebedeva, but it was a close run thing even though World champion Trecia Smith was absent injured. The 29-year-old Russian set the target with 14.85m in the second round but Yamilé Aldama, fourth in Helsinki with 14.72m, fancied her chances of creating an upset and only narrowly failed with her two final jumps measured at 14.75m and 14.82m. 

The Jackpot is an all or nothing affair but Christine Arron had further cause for regretting her defeat in Zürich as she won the 100m in Berlin in 11.01, her fifth victory of the series. The next most successful athletes were Daniel Kipchirchir Komen and Tero Pitkämäki. Komen was winner over 1500m in Paris, Zürich, Brussels and now Berlin in a personal best of 3:29.72, plus second in Rome and third in the Oslo Dream Mile. David Lelei paced the field through 400m in 54.83 and 800m 1:50.85 with Elkanah Angwenyi ahead at 1200m in 2:47.77. Pitkämäki won in Paris, Oslo, Zürich and Berlin, throwing 89.32m in the final round to overtake Sergey Makarov's 88.14m with Andreas Thorkildsen raising his Norwegian record to 87.75m. The Finn was also second in Rome, third in Brussels.

After finishing second or third in four of the Golden League 1500m races, Bernard Lagat tried his luck at 5000m. Ineligible for the World Championships and one week after running the World's fastest 1500m time of the year with a North American record of 3:29.30 in Rieti, the former Kenyan kicked to victory over World champion Benjamin Limo with a 53 seconds last lap for a time of 12:59.29, hacking over 15 seconds from his previous best. Another interesting competitor in this event was the 3:48.92 miler Alan Webb, who had enlivened many a race this year with his forceful running. The US 2 Miles record holder had a previous best of 13:30.25 and finished eighth in 13:10.86.
 
Surprisingly, the only World champion present to score a victory was Zulia Calatayud in the women's 800m, taking a slow race in 1:59.25. Her male counterpart, Rachid Ramzi, finished only fourth in his race as Mbulaeni Mulaudzi just held off a strong finish by Antonio Reina, 1:44.26 to 1:44.30. Ladji Doucouré had a nightmarish race, hitting hurdles all over the place to finish sixth while Dominique Arnold won in 13.20. Two of the most unexpected winners in Helsinki were high jumper Yuriy Krymarenko and pole vaulter Rens Blom, and they wound up fourth and equal seventh respectively in contests won by Yaroslav Rybakov (2.32m) and Tim Lobinger (European year best of 5.93m), while Franka Dietzsch lost to Natalya Sadova (64.20m) in the women's Discus Throw.