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VALENCIA, Spain (07-Mar) -- Resting immediately after her 800m heat, Maria Mutola sat on the steps leading up from the floor of the Palau Lluis Puig Velodrome to the interview area. She chatted casually with the other athletes as they walked by, and stayed there to watch the next heat. To think what those eyes have seen...
At 35, Mutola is the grande dame of these 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships. Starting with Toronto in 1993, Mutola has competed in every one of these championships, and is making her ninth appearance here, the most of any athlete. More remarkably, she's won an astounding seven titles, also the most of any athlete. Could there be one more in what she says will be her final indoor meeting?
"It has been a good race, it felt really good," she said after controlling and winning the second of four qualifying heats in 2:04.82 and advancing to tomorrow afternoon's semi-finals. "I'm going to fight to get into the final, then only God knows what will happen."
Perhaps no longer at the peak of her form, Mutola could still squeeze out another win, or perhaps her ninth medal in these championships. The only time she did not make the top step of the podium was in Maebashi in 1999 when she took silver to Czech Ludmila Formanová.
Based on the results of today's heats, there is no clear favorite for Sunday's final. Spain's Mayte Martínez, who finished second to Mutola in heat 2 and was the bronze medalist in Osaka last August, certainly must be looked at as likely for the podium, especially with the Spanish crowd behind her. Italian Elisa Cusma Piccione was strong in beating Australian Tamsyn Lewis in heat 1, and the Morrocan, Seltana Aďt Hammou, showed her powerful finishing sprint in winning the third heat. Also, the front-running Ukrainian who won the final heat, Tetiana Petlyuk, can't be counted out.
But Mutola, whose soft voice always seems at odds with her powerful physique, is the sentimental favorite, especially in what she says will be her final year of competition. She hopes to make it to the final in Beijing and win her second Olympic title, or third Olympic medal, to close one of the greatest careers in athletics history.
"I've been competing for many years, and I'm very happy that at 35 I'm still amongst the elite," she said.
In other qualifying action in today's afternoon/evening session, Russia's Dmitriy Bogdanov led all 800m qualifiers with a 1:48.38 win in heat 1. Other favorites to advance included Bahrain's Yusuf Saad Kamel (the former Gregory Konchella of Kenya), Uganda's Abraham Chepkirwok, South Africa's Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Sudan's teenager Abubaker Kaki Khamis, and America's Nick Symmonds and Khadevis Robinson.
Robinson came second to the big Dutchman, Robert Lathouwers, in a rough and tumble heat 5 which saw the two athletes come in contact with each other several times.
"I don't mind it, but I think it really took something out of me," said Robinson who led most of the heat.
As for Lathouwers, running the 800m is all new to him. He said that today's race was only his fifth 800m (he usually runs the 400m), and he's used to running in his own lane.
"We were just like boxing," he joked with a reporter as he showed that he had been spiked on his left shin. "You don't make that in the 400 meters."
In the men's 1500m qualifying, most of the favorites advanced to tomorrow's final, although Bahrain's Belal Mansoor Ali was eliminated when he finished only fifth in the first heat. It was in that heat where Ethiopia's Deresse Mekonnen and New Zealand's Nick Willis got away with two laps to go to qualify 1-2 in 3:39.74 and 3:40.66, respectively. Willis was thrilled.
"Yeah, I couldn't ask for anything better," said Willis. "Qualifying's the hard part; all the fun will be in the final."
Other medal favorites who advanced included Kenya's Daniel Kipchirchir Komen, Spain's Juan Carlos Higuero, Ethiopia's Mekonnen Gebremedhin, and Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi, the 2005 800/1500 world champion.
The middle and long distance action continues at Palau Lluis Puig Velodrome tomorrow with the women's 3000m final, the men's and women's 800m semi-finals and the men's 1500m final.
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