Sureyya Ayhan (© Getty Images)
MonteCarloThe start of the 2003 IAAF Golden League season is now only a week away, with the six meeting series starting in Oslo (27 June), then moving to Paris (4 July), Rome (11 July), Berlin (10 August), Zurich (15 August) and Brussels (5 September). Taking up one-third of the twelve disciplines on the Golden League programme, the distance running events are of course a central aspect of each meeting’s allure.
The Exxon Mobil Bislett Games in Oslo on Friday 27 June, in that respect could not be better placed to commence the 2003 IAAF Golden League, as of course the Bislett stadium has been a temple of distance running, both middle and long, since Emil Zatopek emerged on to the scene in the shadow of such star names as Gustafsson, Strand, Wooderson and Heino at the1946 European Championships. More latterly the stadium which will be re-built next year, has resounded to the greatness of Clarke, Coe, Ovett, Cram, Aouita, Ondieki, and Kristiansen, to name but a few.
This year Oslo and the rest of the IAAF Golden League circuit, will reverberate to the names of present day stars, Andre Bucher, Wilfred Bungei, and David Krummenacker are entered in the men’s 800m, and in the women’s two laps, Maria Mutola, Stephanie Graf and Jolanda Ceplak. Between them these runners hold the current World 800m Championships titles indoors and out for both men and women, the women’s Olympic crown, the women’s World Indoor record, and the current leading times in the world for 2003.
Over the women’s 1500m, the intriguing name is that of the precocious talent of Turkey’s European champion and IAAF World Cup winner Süreyya Ayhan, who won all of her four competitions in 2002. If Ayhan has retained her devastating front running form, then little will stand in her way of at least a share of the 1$ million Golden League Jackpot, which is the prize which awaits anyone who wins their individual event at all six Golden League meetings in 2003.
While the men do not have the 1500m as a Golden League event this summer, they have the opportunity to excel at either 3000m/5000m at each meeting.
Starting the 5000m race in Oslo will be two of the triumvirate of runners from the epic 10,000m struggle which took place in Hengelo on 1 June - Kenenisa Bekele, the ‘double-double’ World Cross Country champion who won, and his compatriot, the Ethiopian 5000m champion Sileshi Sihin who was third. Their more illustrious team mate, the quadruple World 10,000m champion Haile Gebrselassie, will make his season’s debut at 5000m, the distance at which he also holds the World record, at the second Golden League meeting, the Meeting Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis (4 July), and will also run the 5000m again at the Golden Gala in Rome (11 July).
As such, there is little doubt that the IAAF Golden League is set to be at the epicentre of distance running in 2003.
IAAF