Posted: July 29, 2004

Athletics: Ayhan Not Expected To Race Until Olympics, Abeylegesse To Double

From David Monti

(c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

by Bob Ramsak

LONDON -- Sureyya Ayhan, the premiere 1500 runner of the past two seasons, isn't expected to make her 2004 debut until the event's first round next month at the Olympic Games.

"She got scared last year running so well in Zurich," said the 25-year-old Turk's manager, Jos Hermens, "and then not winning at the World Championships. And I hope," Hermens added, "that she changes her tactics, of trying to run all three times so fast. But in the end it's just her and her coach making that decision." In February, Ayhan married her long-time coach Yucel Kop.

Ayhan, whose trademark strong front-running style energized the women's metric mile, won nine of her ten races at the distance the since her eighth place finish at the 2001 World Championships. Her only loss last year came at the World Championships, where she was upset by Tatyana Tomashova of Russia. That defeat, she said after the race, was merely a matter of unfortunate timing.

"I had some problems, like every woman has," she said after the final, speaking through a translator, "and I had it in a bad time. This affected me a lot, and I can only tell you that I tried the best I could. I have run 3:55," she added, "and I was ready to do it today, but it was a bad day. It was just bad luck."

In 2003, she ran her current PB of 3:55.33, along with five of the seven sub-four performances last year.

After her dominant win in the season-capping World Athletics Final, Ayhan didn't mince words about her Olympic predictions. "It will be different than in Paris," she said. "I will leave them far behind again."

Elvan Abeylegesse, who shattered the world record in the 5000 last month in Bergen, Norway, will reportedly be contesting both the 5000 and the 1500 in Athens.

"There's a good chance of that," Hermens said, confirming reports from Turkey. "But I don't think it will be decided until they arrive in Athens."

The Ethiopian-born Abeylegesse, whose 14:24.68 in Bergen eclipsed Jiang Bo's 1997 world record by more than three seconds, is also the world leader in the 1500 this season (3:58.38). The 21-year-old was also the fastest this season in the 3000 (8:35.83) until Kenyan Isabella Ochichi's 8:31.32 performance in Paris last week.