Posted: August 7, 2005

Athletics: Mutola Survives Scare - World Championships Day 2

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak

HELSINKI, Finland -- Maria Mutola, who has raced to three outdoor and six indoor world titles, barely survived a scare in the semi-finals to move on to Tuesday evening's final of the 800 meters.

Running in the first of three heats, Mutola ran third for much of the race behind U.S. champion Hazel Clark and Russian Larisa Chzhao. With the American leading as the trio headed into the straight and Chzhao moving up outside, Mutola made her move on the inside, but couldn't fight her way past Clark, who won the heat in 1:59.00 with the Russian second in 1:59.07. With only the top-two finishers of each heat guaranteed a spot in the final, Mutola was forced to wait.

"Whatever happens, happens," Mutola said after the race, smiling. "It's not easy to come back from injury, especially in the hamstring because It really affected my speedwork."

Clark, who lowered her personal best to 1:57.99 this season, said the win left her extremely confident heading into the final.

"I just tried to stay out of trouble, ran as fast as I could, and it worked out for me," said Clark, a 2000 Olympic finalist. "I feel confident and I'm excited to be in the final. This is my year. It's been a great year. And when you work hard, after having down times, it means a lot."

Mutola said she wasn't surprised with Clark's smart, solid run.

"I knew that she was in good shape, she's been running good. So that wasn't a surprise."

Continuing her solid season, Cuban Zulia Calatayud took the second heat with a season's best 1:57.92, the fastest time of the round, well ahead of Russian Svetlana Cherkasova's 1:58.58. It wasn't until world leader Tatyana Andrianova took the third heat in 2:01.59, just ahead of Olympic silver medallist Hasna Benhassi, that Mutola knew that she would advance.

The Russian trio --the year's three fastest-- are looking to score the first-ever podium sweep in the event at a world championship. While Chzhao and Andrianova showed little strain in their first or second-round performances, Cherkasova did display a pair of weaknesses in the semi-final --first when she managed to become trapped behind four runners heading into the final turn, and again when she failed twice to make a wide pass entering the final straight.