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News01 Sep 1999


Wilson Kipketer: the pressure off the track is the worst thing

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2 September 1999Brussels, Belgium – The pressure is mounting on the remaining two contenders for the IAAF Golden League million dollar jackpot, as the last but one day of reckoning approaches with tomorrow’s Van Damme Memorial, the penultimate leg of this year’s series.

Romania’s Gabriela Szabo, who will be running in the 3000m tomorrow and renewing her series of head-to-heads with Morocco’s Zahra Ouaziz and could also see some surprise competition from Portuguese 1500m specialist Carla Sacramento, who is making a debut appearance in the 3000 here, seems unfazed although she is tired after an intensive season of competition. "Running the 3000 and the 5000m is not so easy as, say, the sprints," she has said on a number of occasions. "It is hard and very tiring."

The fact that Marion Jones and Bernard Barmasai are no longer in the competition does not make her task any easier either. She still has to win her own race. "The fact that Marion Jones has finished her season doesn’t make me happy, even though my possible part of the jackpot increases. She is out because of injury, not because she was beaten on the track, so there’s really no reason to jump in the air."

For Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer, thrice world champion in the 800m and holder of both indoor and outdoor world records over the distance, the fact that both Barmasai and Jones are out of the jackpot stakes has made things a lot harder: "Now there is just that much more focus on us. The pressure is still higher and that makes things more difficult.

"It is not the pressure of the World Championships, it is different, but it is still there. In Seville I had the pressure of defending my title and there is not really anything more important than that, so it was very hard.

"At the end of the day, yes it is a lot of money, but the important thing is competing and winning. It is almost as important to be able to say: ‘Yes, I won the Golden League’. It is a little bit like a Championship title in itself.

"I have been doing my own management this year, also because since I had malaria last year, the money has become less important to me. I thought that having a manager was important when you are starting and need to make more money. Now it is important for me to win and to stay focussed on my competition. A lot of athletes could be very good and they often do well for a year or two, then their focus drops off when they have made some money. This is not the case for me. It is important to stay focused 100% all the time."

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