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|  2004 Middle Distance Review By A. Lennart Julin & Mirko Jalava December 24, 2004 Courtesy of IAAF
Men - Middle Distance 800m The 800m is probably the least predictable event at the moment. It
appears that there is currently a group of some twenty athletes capable
of beating each other on any given day. Just look at the story from the
seasonal peak in the period, early August to early September. In the last major pre-Olympic encounter in Zurich, the B-race had the trio
Youssef Saad Kamel, Amine Laalou and Antonio Reina finishing in
1:43.11-1:43.89, and in the A-race the Wilfred Bungei, William Yiampoy,
Joseph Mutua and Wilson Kipketer ran 1:43.06-1:43.89, with a certain
Mulaudzi in 9th place in 1:46.89. In the Olympics, Kamel was eliminated in the first round and Mutua,
Reina and Lalou in the semis. The finishing order in the final was 1)
Borzakovskiy 1:44.45, 2) Mulaudzi, 3) Kipketer, 4) Mohcine Chehibi, 5)
Bungei, 6) Hezekiel Sepeng, 7) Djabir Said-Guerni, 8) Ismail Ahmed
Ismail. No one would have predicted that group of finalists (Ismail has
yet to dip under 1:45 and Chehibi had 1:45.73 as his PB prior to
Athens!). Then the athletes went back to the circuit for further re-shuffling:
Brussels: 1) Bungei 1:43.48, 2) Yiampoy 1:43.50, 3) Mutua, 4) Kamel, 5)
Said-Guerni, 6) Bram Som, 7) Mulaudzi, ... 9) Kipketer, 10) Reina, 11)
Sepeng.
Rieti: 1) Mutua 1:43.35, 2) Kamel 1:43.43, 3) Kipketer 1:43.89, 4) Som,
.... 10) Reina, ... dnf Laalou, Yiampoy
Berlin: 1) Kamel 1:45.07, 2) Bungei, 3) Som, 4) Yiampoy, 5) Mutua, 6)
Laalou, 7) Chehibi
WAF: 1) Kamel 1:45.91, 2) Mutua, 3) Som, 4) Bungei, 5) Mulaudzi, 6)
Kipketer, 7) Laalou. The conclusion can only be that the great depth at the 1:44-level is there
but that truly outstanding athletes are currently missing. The most
consistent were Borzakovskiy (but only ran seven meets) and Bungei
but also they had their ups and downs. This situation is at the same time the perfect setting for a quickly rising
star to take advantage of in a similar way as Wilson Kipketer did in 1994,
when he went from the middle-of-the-pack to the very top to stay there
for several years. Of the younger runners of today perhaps Youssef
Saad Kamel - with the great Konchellah 800m genes - seems to have
the greatest potential to return the event to the consistent sub-1:43
levels. 800m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004 Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points 1. Yuriy BORZAKOVSKIY 81 RUS 1360 1500m 2004 statistically became an historic year, as for the first time since 1995
the name Hicham El Guerrouj was not heading the year list! But he
probably didn't mind that very much as he instead finally got that illusive
Olympic gold medal. And he still prolonged his sub-3:30 streak to nine
years via his 3:27.64 when narrowly beaten in Zurich by Bernard Lagat. In depth, 2004 reached new heights with nine sub-3:31 and no less than
24 sub 3:33 runs. In the years 1997-2003 these numbers were quite
stable averaging 6.3 and 15.9, so the improvement was considerable
(close to 50%). The bulk of the top runners still are provided by Kenya (6 of top 10) but
noticeable was both the resurgence of Algeria with three at 3:32, as well
as the sudden emergence of completely new names on the world
1500m scene like Rashid Ramzi and Mulugeta Wondimu. The latter
might become Ethiopia's first ever star performer at this distance,
although he became a 1500m runner more or less by default halfway
through the summer, when realising he would not get on the Ethiopian
Olympic 5000m team he switched to the event. Although the event is still very much dominated by African runners there
were encouraging signs for the future also for Europe (Ivan Heshko &
Rui Silva 3:30, Mehdi Baala 3:31, Michael East, Alvaro Fernandez, Juan
Carlos Higuero and Mounir Yemmouni 3:32) for Oceania (Nick Willis
3:32) and for the USA (Alan Webb 3:32). Yemmouni, Willis and Webb
were all born 1983 and improved four seconds or more which indicates
exciting potential. 1500m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004 Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points 1. Bernard LAGAT 74 KEN 1401 WOMEN - Middle Distance Things changed a lot in the middle distances during 2004. With Maria
Mutola's (MOZ) almost two-year-old win streak in the 800m coming to an
end in Lausanne, where she lost to Svetlana Cherkasova. There was
also a new queen to be crowned at the middle distances in Athens. 34-
year-old Kelly Holmes (GBR) was victorious in both 800m and 1500m in
Athens following her 800m silver in the Paris World Championships a
year before. Holmes has come a long way from Sydney where she took
the bronze medal in 800m, and was seventh in 1500m. 800m Although Holmes only raced five times (once indoors) during 2004, she
won all of her races. She won the national championships both indoors
and outdoors, and raced only once abroad before the Olympics in the
800m winning in 1:58.71 in San Sebastian, Spain, in July. But her form
in Athens was solid, she won her heats in all of the three rounds, first
recording a season's best of 1:57.98 in the semi-final and then winning
the Olympic gold medal with the second best mark of her career,
1:56.38. Her personal best of 1:56.21 dates back to the Grand Prix Final
in Monaco in September 1995! Just looking at the world list, 800m was a very even event at the top this
season. There were a total of six women at 1:56.59 or better, but
Tatyana Andrianova's (RUS) world leading time of 1:56.23 from the
national championships in July is only 0.46 better than the sixth place in
the world list. Maria Mutola, the reigning World champion from Paris 2003, came to
the season unbeaten since the Commonwealth Games in July 2002. But
her win streak came to an end after 27 races in Lausanne on July 6,
where she was beaten by Svetlana Cherkasova. The Russian, however,
did not make the final in Athens, where Mutola, despite leading in the
beginning of the final straight, finally faded to fourth place, still recording
a season's best of 1:56.51 in easily the most even 800m Olympic final
ever. This was the first time when the first five in a competition finished on the
same second, in fact only 0.13 seconds was between the gold medallist
Holmes and fourth placer Mutola. Hasna Benhassi (MAR) was second
in 1:56.43, a national record, and Jolanda Ceplak (SLO) took the bronze
in 1:56.43, and world leader Andrianova was fifth in 1:56.88.
The overall quality went up as well and was better than in the Olympic
year of 2000 too, there were 35 athletes under two minutes, in 2003 and
2002 we had 25, 26 in 2001 and 31 in 2000. Russia had 19 athletes in
the world top-100, USA had eight and Romania six. 800m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004 Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points 1. Maria de Lurdes MUTOLA 72 MOZ 1365 1500m In the 1500m, Elvan Abeylegesse (TUR) started her season with an
early world lead of 3:58.28 at the end of May, which lasted until the
Olympic Games final. Abeylegesse, however, didn't play a big part in the
incredibly high standard Olympic final where she clocked 4:00.67, but
that was only enough for the eighth place. This was easily the best mark
for eighth place in the Olympics. During the summer, there were several athletes recording relatively fast
times, but in the end no-one in particular entered the Games as a
favourite. Unlike in the 800m, Kelly Holmes raced internationally in the 1500m
before Athens. After finishing a disappointing ninth in the World Indoor
Championships in Budapest she was in the top three in all of her six
outdoor races before Athens. Although she only entered the Olympics
with a season's best of 4:03.48 from Zurich Weltklasse, she won the
gold medal with a national record of 3:57.90. Tatyana Tomashova
(RUS) took the silver medal with 3:58.12, and Maria Cioncan (ROM)
was third in 3:58.39. There were a total of seven performances under four minutes during
this season with six of them coming in the Olympic final. In 2004 there
were only 23 athletes under 4:04, one less than the 24 in 2003. In 2002
and 2001 there were 16 and the Olympic year of 2000 had 23 as well.
Russia had 15 athletes in the world top-100, USA had 12, and Morocco,
7. 1500m - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004 Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points 1. Kelly HOLMES 70 GBR 1356
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