Saif Saaeed Shaaheen of Qatar in action in the 3000m Steeplechase (© Getty Images)
Predicting a rerun of his thrilling duel at the last World championships with Ezekiel Kemboi, reigning World Steeplechase champion Saif Saaeed Shaheen admitted that he’s facing a daunting task.
"It will not be easy," said the 22-year-old Shaheen, the former Kenyan Stephen Cherono. "Everybody will be there --the Olympic champion will be there. [Brahim] Boulami will be there. The European record holder will be there. So I’m thinking it will be a very tough race." Last year, Shaheen broke Boulami’s World record in the steeplechase, clocking 7:53.63 at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels, a race he described as his Olympic Games, when he was kept from competing in Athens because of his switch of allegiance to Qatar.
Racing in the first of three semi-finals today, Shaheen and Kemboi, the reigning Olympic champion, crossed the finish line virtually side-by-side, in 8:11.79 and 8:11.90 respectively, by far the fastest performances of the day.
“It was not easy," he said after his heat. "It was hard, I was in the toughest heat. That’s why we had to run fast. The pressure was there."
While their stride-for-stride finish over the final 100 metres didn’t match the intensity of their thrilling battle in Paris two years ago, it did bring back memories from the race, Shaheen said.
"During the last lap here," Shaheen said with a smile, "the last 100 metres in Paris came into my mind."
In Tuesday’s final, Shaheen can expect an all-about assault from Kenyans Kemboi, Brimin Kipruto, and Paul Kipsiele Koech, the trio who swept the Olympic podium last year. After their semi-final races, the three didn’t speak to reporters at all about their tactics, except for Koech, who said, "The final will speak for itself."
For his part, Shaheen wouldn’t elaborate on the tactics that he plans to employ in the final, primarily because he has yet to devise them.
"The strategy that we had planned before won’t work because my training partner (Jamal Bilal) got injured at the last minute. So now I’m working on a different tactic again."
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
