Posted: August 10, 2005

Athletics: Ramzi Takes Tactical 1500M; Ethiopians Dominate Women's 5000M Qualifying

From David Monti

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

HELSINKI (10-Aug) -- Although the track was puddled from yet another day of heavy downpours, the wet Finnish weather did nothing to rain on the continuing parade of victories for Rachid Ramzi. The Moroccan-born Bahraini was best over the final meters in a tactical, herky-jerky 1500m final which ultimately belonged to the kickers.

"I was hoping for a tactical race," said Ramzi after his 3:37.88 victory adding, "I was waiting for my chance to make my move."

Ramzi got that chance one lap after American Alan Webb shocked the field by bursting down the backstraight in under 13 seconds after the race went through the 800m mark in a dead-slow 2:03.78. Webb, who had run near the front for the first two laps, decided that the pace had been so slow and that so little had been taken out of the favorites that he had to go sooner as opposed to later.

"It was too slow," said Webb of the particularly sluggish second lap. "Sixty-three (seconds), come on!"

Webb's sprint put him several meters up on the field while his rivals decided how to react. He clearly didn't wound Ramzi, who before the race had anticipated that Webb would be the key instigator of a fast pace.

"I figured Alan Webb would go out fast," said Ramzi who also said that he was happy when Webb made his move because it had broken the race open for him.

Once Ramzi jumped into the lead after passing the 1200m mark, he simply pressed hard enough to stay there, keeping Adil Kaouch of Morocco at bay by a scant 12/100ths of a second at the line. Kaouch had to use all of his speed to hold off a fast-closing Rui Silva of Portugal who, despite running dead last at the 800m mark, had passed Ivan Heshko in the last 20 meters to move into third place and nearly caught Kaouch at the line to take silver. Only 2/100ths of a second separated them in the end, 3:38.00 for Kaouch and 3:38.02 for Silva.

Webb, who went backwards in the final 250 meters, finished ninth. Certainly disappointed, he felt good that he had tried to do something to get the victory and hadn't just played it safe.

"I wanted to see if I was the strongest guy out there," he said recalling that during the race he had told himself, 'let's go for it, let's rock and roll.' "Nobody wanted to do anything," he lamented. "All those guys are kickers."

Interestingly, Ramzi migrated to Bahrain on his own prior to becoming an runner. This distinguishes him from the other established African athletes who have recently migrated to Gulf States, lured by financial incentives. Ramzi said that his victory tonight was for all Arab people, not just for the people of Bahrain.

Ethiopians Dominate 5000M Qualifying

In earlier action, the Ethiopian women dominated the women's 5000m heats, taking the top-2 places in each heat and advancing four women to the final. Tirunesh Dibaba, who already won the gold medal in the women's 10,000m last Saturday, sprinted the last 200m against teammate Meselech Melkamu in the first heat, to win 14:50.98 to 14:51.49. In the slower second heat it was Meseret Defar and Ejegayehu Dibaba who went 1-2 in 15:13.52 and 15:14.33, respectively. Other favorites who advanced included Jo Pavey of Great Britain, Marta Domínguez of Spain, Isabellah Ochichi of Kenya (on time) and Xing Huina of China, the Olympic 10,000m gold medalist.

The Americans --Amy Rudolph, Lauren Fleshman and Shalane Flanagan-- were all eliminated, Fleshman in heat 1 and Rudolph and Flanagan in heat 2. Flanagan came the closest to advancing to the final. Running 15:20.59 and finishing seventh, she was the fastest non qualifier in either heat.