Amy Mbacké Thiam of Senegal (© Getty Images)
Between them, Amy Mbacke Thiam and Kéné Ndoye hold Senegal's World championships medal hopes in their hands but with under three weeks to go they are battling against lack of form and injury to fulfill their Paris dreams.
Since 2001, Senegal has surprised many athletics pundits by placing two of its athletes on major international championship medal podiums.
In 2001, Amy Mbacke Thiam became the first Senegalese ever to win a World title with her victory in the 400m in Edmonton, while triple jumper Kéné Ndoye grabbed a bronze medal at the 2003 World Indoors in Birmingham.
With a fortnight to go to the 9th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Paris 2003 Saint Denis (23-31 August) these two stars remain the best medal prospects for their country. But time is running against them.
The former is struggling to get back to the level she had two years ago, while the latter hopes she'll have recovered from an injury she contracted mid-June at Lille Grand Prix.
Thiam
26-years old Amy Mbacke Thiam came to the fore two years ago at the World championships in Edmonton when she won the 400m World title in 49.86 ahead of Jamaica's Lorraine Fenton (49.88) and Ana Guevara of Mexico (49.97). In the space of three days she lowered her personal of 50.77 by almost a second. Her feat also marked the success of the High Performance Training Center which had been set up four years earlier in Dakar.
However, last year won't be one she wishes to remember. Injuries delayed her season debut and she then failed to impress with a season's best of 50.96 in Monaco. The following African championships of 2002 could have been the opportunity to make up for it with a selection for the World Cup but the tall Senegalese withdrew after her heat because she had felt pain from a previous injury return.
As yet, 2003 hasn't brought more heartening news. Thiam hasn't won a race yet. Her season's best stands at 51.14, that's to say very far from Ana Guevara's 49.34, and she's even facing tough competition in her own country with the emergence of Fatou Binetou Fall, who set a new PB of 51.12 at the French championships without, apparently being pushed to her limits by her opponents.
Despite all these factors the reigning World champion remains calm. Asked about her feeelings, she just replies "fine, all the same. I'm getting there. I've had some problems with illnesses, injuries…That's why my first aim in Paris will be to reach the final."
"Actually I will handle the championships the same way I did two years ago. I don't want to put pressure on myself and say that I'm going to win, because if I don't, I'll be greatly disappointed. My problem is injury. If I don't feel any more pain, then it'll be OK".
The pressure that comes from her star status back at home also causes her problems. "It's true that people point their finger at me in the streets, but that doesn't come to the same extent as for football players though". It was in recognition of theis pressure why the Senegalese sports authorities sent her to Canada to train. "I spent four months there. At the beginning, it was difficult, but there were Senegalese people who gave me a really warm welcome".
As for her chances in Paris, Thiam is aware that she won't start as a favourite, but despite of all that she reemains confident.
"Ana Guevara was also the favourite in 2001. As for Lorraine Fenton, we were in the same race in Lausanne when she clocked 49.71 [Thiam recorded 51.14]. Her performance doesn't worry me", she said before concluding "in Paris, I'll take all my opponents seriously. But we aren't at the World championships yet. There are still three weeks to go…"
Amy Mbacke Thiam's next outings will be London on 8 August, if her visa problems are solved by then, Berlin on the 10th and maybe Zurich five days later.
Ndoye
Meanwhile her fellow countrywoman Kéné Ndoye has been nursing an injury that has kept her away from the track for more than a month. The triple jumper, who surprised everybody at the World Indoors in Birmingham when she snatched the bronze medal on her last attempt with a 14.72m jump, which dramatically improving her previous best, sprained her ankle in Lille on 14 June. It was a day of mixed fortunes as she also confirmed her progression outdoors with a new national record of 14.91m.
Though her name didn't make the headlines until a few months ago, Ndoye has already been in the sport for many years. "I started athletics at school at age 13, in 1991, doing middle distances and cross-country. My father didn't want me to do sport by then, but I always found a way to go and train, so he eventually gave in. In 1994 I moved to the jumps, doing both the long jump and the triple".
In 1997 she broke the 13m barrier for the first time. The following year she joined the High Performance Training Centre of Dakar, as a non-resident first.
Though she trains in Africa, Ndoye is a product of the Soviet school : in 1998 she was coached by Anatoliy Goloptsov and since 1999 she's been working under the guidance of Victor Kuzin who is a full-time coach at the centre. This same year she jumped 14.08m at altitude. 1999 and 2000 were marked by her first participations at World Events, the world championships in Seville and the Olympic Games in Sydney, but she failed to go further than the qualifying rounds.
"Actually, I think that my results started improving greatly from that period, but my progress remained unnoticed on the whole because I immediately took a year off, the following year to have a baby, a little boy who just celebrated his second birthday".
In 2002, at the African championships in Tunisia, she came twice second in the Long Jump (6.45w) and the Triple (14.28), twice behind Cameroon's Françoise Mbango, but in the Triple she was ahead of Algeria's Baya Rahouli, who was fifth at the Olympics.
And then, the trigger this winter. "Until now I lacked confidence" she explains. "I often used to have hesitations in my run-up, which made me miss the board. In Birmingham I was fourth before my last attempt. I told myself that I had nothing to lose and to go straight. Since then everything has changed, I have completely new sensations".
Though her injury forced her to miss the Paris Golden League Event, she still took the opportunity to visit the Stade de France for the first time. "The stadium is nice and seems well protected from the winds. Naturally, I regret I wasn't on the track, but I sat in the stands just above the Triple Jump and spent some time filming my opponents".
"The girls are strong this season so it is hard to make predictions" comments the Senegalese who holds the 4th best performance this season behind Yamile Aldama's 15.29, Tatyana Lebedeva Lebedeva's 15.12 and Françoise Mbango's new African record of 15.03m.
"As for myself, though I kept doing weight and training my upper body, I only started working again on impulsion at mid July. I have to stay cautious and not to rush things. The first stage will be to get back to my level. And then only I can think about a medal".
Kéné Ndoye should make her return to competition in Berlin on 10 August.
