Posted: August 27, 2004

Athletics: Olympic Day Seven Report From Race Results Weekly

From David Monti

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

By Bob Ramsak

ATHENS (26-August) -- With strong performances in their respective semi-finals, Wilson Kipketer and Kelly Holmes continued their steady march towards Olympic glory to highlight the distance events on day seven of the athletics program at the Olympic Games.

Running a confident and relaxed race, the World record holder and three-time World champion ran to a 1:44.63 victory in the second semi-final, nearly a second ahead of surprisingly strong Ismail Ahmed Ismail (1:45.45) of Sudan to advance easily into Saturday evening’s final. As he did in the first round, Brazilian Osmar dos Santos jumped to the early lead, and paced the field though the first half in 50.83, the quickest opening lap of the night. He was closely shadowed by Kipketer, with U.S. champion Jonathan Johnson just a step behind. But with the pack tightening, the young American found himself in trouble, and quickly fell off the pace. The 19-year-old Ismail, last year’s Arab champion, moved up as he headed up the back stretch and firmly held his ground to the finish, well ahead of Kenyan Joseph Mutua (1:45.54) and Italy’s Andrea Longo (1:45.97).

Heat two was considerably faster, with World leader Wilfred Bungei bringing a tight six-man pack through the bell in 51.35. While Dutchman Bram Som was shadowing the Kenyan, Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy made his first attack, moving from seventh position into fourth, and tucking in behind South African Hezekiel Sepeng, the 1996 silver medallist. Borzakovskiy dropped back briefly as he headed into the final straight, only to shift gears again moments later to charge into second place to secure the automatic spot behind winner Bungei, who clocked 1:44.28. The Russian was just 1/100 of a second behind. With a solid sustained kick over the final 60 metres, Mouhssin Chehibi of Morocco finished third in 1:44.62, a personal best by more than a second. Sepeng held on for fourth in 1:44.75. Chehibi and Sepeng gained the final two non-automatic qualifiers.

In the first heat, Djabir Said Guerni, the last to qualify from yesterday’s first round, avoided a repeat performance and near disaster by jumping to the lead just 300 meters into the race. The reigning World champion stayed there, and reached the line in 1:45.76. But behind him, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Antonio Manuel Reina waged a fierce homestretch battle for the second spot, with the South African, this year’s World Indoor champion, ultimately gaining the upper hand. Mulaudzi reached the line in 1:46.09, less than a tenth of a second ahead of the Spaniard. 1500 finalist Ivan Heshko was a distant fourth in 1:46.66.

Holmes, who won the gold medal in the 800 meters on Monday, sat at or near the back of the pack in her 1500 semi, before charging to the front in the waning stages en route to her 4:04.77 run, a few steps behind winner Natalya Yevdokimova of Russia, who clocked 4:04.66. Lidia Chojecka of Poland, Spaniard Natalia Rodríguez and Daniela Yordanova of Bulgaria each crossed the line in under 4:05, with World Indoor championships bronze medallist Carmen Douma-Hussar (4:05.09) of Canada and Russian Olga Yegorova (4:05.57) advancing on the basis of time. The Russian is undefeated this season in six races. American Carrie Tollefson, who raced near the middle of the pack for the first two laps, was ninth in 4:08.55, and did not advance.

The first semi, won by Maria Cioncan in 4:06.69 was slower, with Hayley Tullett, the 2003 World Championships bronze medallist the most notable no-qualifier. Anna Jakubczak of Poland (4:06.77), World Champion Tatyana Tomashova (4:06.80), 2004 world leader Elvan Abeylegesse (4:07.10), and Hasna Benhassi( 4:07.39) of Morocco advanced from the made dash of the final 50 meters. To the delight of the crowd, Konstadína Efedáki of Greece controlled much of the early pace, but was bumped on the homestraight, and ran slightly off balance, eventually fading to 11th.

Elsewhere, the evening was dominated by a loud, disruptive protest by the Greek crowd voicing their displeasure with the absence of defending 200 meter champion Kostas Kederis. With utter disregard and disrespect for the athletes in the blocks, chants, boos and whistles of protest by the sell-out crowd caused a long delay, several restarts, and eventuall a false start. It was a uncharacteristically unsportsmanlike display by a large section of the capacity crowd that up until tonight had been joyously celebrating the successes of their own athletes and others alike.

When the race was finally run, the top four finishers, led by Shawn Crawford’s world leading 19.79 peformance, all ran faster than Kederis’s winning performance from Sydney. Completing the podium sweep for the U.S., the sixth over all and the first in 20 years, was recently-minted 100 meter champion Justin Gatlin, who reached the line in 20.03, just a few centimeters behind Bernard Williams.

The only distance event on the program Friday night is the women's 10,000 meters.