The Men's 5000m race report
We had it ALL. Debatably, the World's Greatest ever Distance Runner, Haile Gebreselassie and his Heir apparent Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia in the same race. However, some forgot to tell Kenya's Abraham Chibii that he should be holding these two great names in AWE. And this is what provides for great racing. The names and the conqueror. One thing that is now apparent, Abraham Chibii is a 'REAL REAL' threat for any athletes prospects of winning a race or medal at this distance.

Chibii yet again, simply blasted his opposition away, names - opinions - probable times and ALL . This is the man who will provide the right ingredient for World Records in the future, strangely enough an ingredient I thought was missing at the start of this season. Geb did everything to set-up victory for his compatriot Bekele. I had my doubts that they would be going for a World Record, as there seemed no point in trying to achieve such objectives. However, a World Record may be what is needed to beat Chibii. The 1st K, went by in 2:33.51 after a blazing opening 400m with 'HARE SUPREMO' Martin Keino of Kenya orchestrating affairs with a 2K split of 5:08.01. And when compatriot, Shadrak Korir took over, the pace was provided to 3k in 7:45.60. At this point, I remarked that Chibii was not going to stay in striking distance at this pace. Then Bekele went to the front and inexplicably pulled up the handbrake, from a field that was spread out, 'all of a sardine' the lead pack had 6 to 7 contenders. And amongst them was Chibii.

From 3 to 4k, 'The Speed Manual for World Records', was thrown out the window, and the pace dropped to 2:48.78. 4K was 10:29.38 and Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine was at the fore. And as predicted and 'on queue', Geb shot to the front with 600m to go, delivering a 60 sec 400 to the bell, he maintained pace to 100m to go and stepped aside allowing Bekele to go, this was an orchestrated move and it made no qualms of the thoughts that Geb may be advising the young Keninsa. It all looked good on paper, however on the track it was insufficient to stop Chibii romping to victory. And my thoughts on this are : Geb "Leave Bekele to run his own races, tactically I have never seen a more astute mind working on such young shoulders". I believe tactically that Bekele is better than Geb was, he has the ability to slide out of supposedly closed doors and into winning positions. Geb was winning races with a 26 sec last 200m off a hard last 600m, this is now not what is needed. Bekele, to me, knows what to do to beat any challengers and this includes Chibii.

click to enlarge

For any of you who know cricket, there was a classy bowler from Pakistan who went to England to ply his trade, the English 'knowing better', tried to teach him how to bowl correctly, thankfully the youngster never listened and went on to become one of the World's greatest ever wicket takers. Bekele is the same, he has it all and needs to develop naturally in his own time. Another athlete with similar prospects is Youri Borzakovski, however whether he will realise his enormous talent is another story. Bekele to me, will, albeit injury derailing his progress.

Forgive me, back to the closure of this race : Chibii was sparkling in claiming yet another victory, the batteries of the Energizer Bunny are full, and he certainly adds a vigour an excitement to an event which is already brimming with so much talent, promise and enthusiasm [and we haven't even mentioned El G's intent] . The time wasn't the quickest, due to that unforgivable 1K, courtesy of the 'Ethiopian Running Gods', however 12:57.14 is not a time many runners would not like to have on their CV. And as for Sihine, who was to finish 6th, he was rewarded with a 13:06.53 PB. [ results below ]

And if you interested in knowing the cricketers name drop the Editor an email ;)

Quote : Abraham Chebeii (KEN) “I am happy I could win. I knew that I am faster in the final 150m if I could hold on that far. The previous 600m was really fast which was tough for me. I think Haile and the other Ethiopians tried a tactical race, to change the speed constantly during the race. I think they tried to block me in the last curve but I escaped.”

The Men's 800m race report
The Men's 800m AGAIN a great example of how healthy this event's prospects are at the moment with the 1st 8 athletes all finishing under 1:45 and within less than a second from each other. As someone mentioned, "closer than the men's 400m finish". A truly remarkable achievement considering the first 400m was delivered in 50.66 . And strangely not a single PB and only one SB for the athlete from Kenya in 5th place, Nicholas Wachira. This IS 800m running at its best and it makes for inspirational viewing.

The athletes jumped out their stalls with intent, the previously 'untouchable' [the season's WL 1:43.05] Wilfred Bungei of Kenya, was first to show at the head of affairs tracking the pace delivered. And David Krummenacker of America, was handily placed, as well. Krummenacker seems to run out of steam over the last 50m and needs to do something about it, either that or consider the 1500m as a medal choice for Paris Worlds in August.

Watching these athletes come into the final 100m, was similar to watching a mass start at Nascar with all the motors seeking to grab the top spot before the first bend. Athletes were switching and twitching from left to right, right to left and between it all, they were still driving towards the line with intent. Andre Bucher of Switzerland made a late charge to 'only grab 7th spot, somewhat disappointed 'maybe' [?], but no reason to be as it was still a sub 1:45 performance. Bungei was bundled out of the top 3 by the powerfully, 'upper body', built Bram Som of the Netherlands [Holland for some] who bounded through to take 3rd in 1:44.40. With the victory going to Commonwealth Champion of 2002, South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, in 1:44 'dead'.

The 'revelation' of the race went to, Hezekiél Sepeng of South Africa who edged his way through from an inside position into 2nd place in 1:44.21 . This result augers well for the two South Africans attempts at 'medalling' in affairs at the forthcoming Paris showdown in August. [ results below ]

The Men's 1500m race report
El Guerrouj stepped on to the track to run the 1500m for the first time this season and delivered a performance that underlines his ranking of being the No1 runner at this distance. Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco holds the World Record of 3:26.00 which was set at this stadium in 1998, and when the race kicked off I began to watch the event unfold with a feeling of anticipation.

The 1st 400m was provided in a balanced manner by David Kiptoo [Kenya] in 55.05. 55 is spot on for an opening lap anything faster is wasted, in my opinion, and when he delivered the next round in 55 again, to reach 800m in 1:50.84, I felt something special was on the cards. Then the gremlin of the 'unacceptable' pacesetter came into being and he allowed the pace to drop to 57 seconds, which is just not on [knowingly difficult BUT achievable by a World Class pacesetter - if they can't do it, DON'T take the job] This allowed the pace till 1200m to drop to 2:47.89, with the pacesetter being more obstructive than helpful. El G was still able to produce a 55.84 second last lap, however in order to achieve a new WR, 55 second 400m's are the order of the day. The winning time was 3:29.76 and the zip maybe was missing, however this was his first race over the distance this season and with a 12:50 5000m under his belt, much can be expected from the 'King of Middle Distance' this season.

Benjamin Kipkirui of Kenya, attempted to last the distance with the Morrocan and was rewarded with a 2nd place finish in a time of 3:32.59 SB. To give you an idea of the quality of this race, was the fact that Kipkurui's time was 2 seconds quicker than his winning time at Zagreb on Monday, however he was still close to 2 seconds behind the winner on this occasion. The Kenyan is indeed a talent with a future having come through the ranks after winning a World Junior title over 1500m.

Placing 3rd was the ever exciting Spaniard, Reyes Estevez who clocked 3:32.86 almost 2 seconds clear of Ukrainian hopeful Ivan Hesko in 4th position. [ results below ]

Quote : Hicham El Guerrouj (MOR) "This was my first 1500m this year. I am pleased with how well it went, but after running longer distances it was difficult to find the right rhythm. I have had altitude training until six days ago in Ifrane. I have to thank the spectators for the support I received. After Sunday I need to practice with my speed because the 1500m is the main distance in the World Championships. I will run 5000m too, but that is going to be the bonus."

The Women's 800m race report
Pacesetter Alice Nwosu of Nigeria is certainly making a name for herself. After providing an opening 400m of 56.98 she continues to power on attempting to provide a decent platform for all to achieve good times from, and in the process she doesn't impede any of the other runners. Yes, she will be used often by meeting directors, and rightly so.

My compatriot Dave Spence, Cape Town - South Africa's resident coach, commented that a few athletes were going to 'die' after going with the pace provided, however he will be happy to see in the results that the 1st 5 athletes all ran Season's Best [SB] and Mina Ait Hammou of Morocco ran a PB of 1:57.78 in 3rd spot. A PB for the 2nd week running [and one can only wonder whether the Golden League will be her World Championships, or will she be able to reproduce such performances in August. BUT then PB's are PB's]. Of the athletes who did not SB or PB, Dianne Cummins of Canada was probably the strangest as she did not go with initial pace and attempted to get back on level terms with her competitors in the backstraight only for it all to unfold to nought and her finishing 7th in 2:00.08. A time she can still feel pleased about.

What of the race, well for Maria Mutola it couldn't have been that important as there is only $500 000 running on each 800 she runs at the moment. Mutola is 1 of two athletes left in the Jackpot which stands at 1 million. And believe me now, when I state that there is 'no love lost', between Jolanda Ceplak and MM, such was the intent of the Slovakian running with the determination of denying the Mozambican athlete a taste of the 'money pie'. Ceplak ran in 2nd position behind the pacesetter as soon as the moment allowed and had 3 to 4 athletes placed between her and Mutola on one occasion.

click to enlarge

However, MM started to move into contention with the control and purpose of a great runner, and when they turned into the final straight Ceplak still had the advantage and one would have been forgiven for thinking that it was 'bye bye' Jackpot. BUT once the powerhouse Maria Mutola moved alongside the blonde haired Slovakian, you knew there could be only one result. And like a great racehorse, she moved away only doing sufficient to win, leaving enough in the tank for another day. A true champion thoroughbred alright. MM's winning time was 1:57.21 a new Meeting record as opposed to the 2nd finishers 1:57.44, a handy SB.

Stephanie Graf cruised into 4th place for a finishing time of 1:57.99 SB, and both the Austrian Graf and Ceplak will have to figure out before the WC in August what they need to do to beat Mutola. Whereas, Mutola has another Million dollar race lined up for August. A million if Chandra Stirrup falters in the 100m beforehand. The 'little' worry of capturing the World Title for 800m is now number 1 on Mutola's shopping list. [ results below ]

Quote : Maria Mutola (MOZ) ""It was a good competition and I am pleased I won. Once the world championships are getting closer, the competition is getting tougher. Jolanda (Ceplak) ran a good race and so did Stephanie Graf. They are coming. It is getting harder to win these races. After Gateshead I am going back home to train. The championship races can be very different from these because there's no pacemaker. They can be fast or slow, but I am ready for both of them. I train for both. I know that the Golden League Jackpot is very tough to achieve, but I am trying to reach that dream. Because there is only two of us left, it is getting exciting. When I race I am not thinking of the money. I just concentrate on each race. Maybe in the last race in Brussels it is in my mind."

The Women's 5000m race report
If Gabriela Szabo of Romania, thought she could get out jail for free for a second week in a row she was rightly reminded that Xmas in actual fact does 'only' come once a year. For the 2nd week in a row, Szabo had everything to do too late into the race and this time the 'lass' did not comeback. Congratulations go immediately to the race winner, Meseret Defar of Ethiopia, who not only won the race, but had the added pleasure of establishing a new MR [=Meet Record] as well as posting a new PB with her winning time of 14:40.34.

The 'somewhat' poor performance of Berhane Adere in 6th spot with 14:42.89, is hopefully the product of an athlete in deep preparation for August, and not that of an athlete who has 'cooked their goose', so to say. I believe it is her preparation for August that is most on her mind at present, and only next month will place this in perspective. Adere was the leader at 4K in 11:50.85, so would have run her last 1k in 2:52.

After 1k was passed in 2:53.21, a consistent pace was provided by the able Olga Komyagina, 2k in 5:48.30 [2:55] and 3K - 8:47.62 and once 4k was passed a decent enough platform had been laid for a result which allowed 9 athletes to go under 15 minutes, a good enough result in anyone's books. And last week's 'breakaway' runner, Zhor El Kamch of Morocco recorded a PB time of 14:42.53 in 5th place. [ results below ]

Middle and Distance Results from Roma : [ all the other results below ]

Results Men

5000m
1 41 CHEBII, Abraham KEN 12:57.14
2 43 BEKELE, Kenenisa ETH 12:57.34
3 45 GEBRSELASSIE, Haile ETH 13:00.32
4 31 GEBREMARIAM, Gebre-egziabher ETH 13:05.47
5 33 CHEPKURUI, Albert KEN 13:05.96
6 27 SIHINE, Sileshi ETH PB 13:06.53
7 44 HISSOU, Salah MAR 13:08.38
8 37 MEKKONEN, Hailu ETH 13:10.16
9 29 GOUMRI, Abderrahim MAR SB 13:11.42
10 38 MEZGEBU, Assefa ETH SB 13:14.60
11 32 KIPKOSGEI, Luke KEN 13:15.98
12 36 GENETI, Marcos ETH 13:20.38
13 42 LIMO, Richard KEN 13:20.71
14 34 BELLANI, Hicham MAR PB 13:21.37
15 35 KIPROP, Francis KEN SB 13:22.13
16 24 BETT, Mark KEN 13:25.81
17 25 EL AMRI, Khalid MAR PB 13:27.59
18 28 KWALIA, James KEN 13:37.36
19 39 POWER, Mike AUS SB 13:37.79
20 26 AL OUTEABY, Mokhled KSA 13:38.15
21 30 CHENONGE, Hilary KEN 13:42.32
22 22 BAKKEN, Marius NOR 13:45.61
23 40 MULI, Pius KEN 13:54.70
46 KEINO, Martin KEN DNF
47 KORIR, Shadrak KEN DNF
23 LEONE, Maurizio ITA DNF

800m
1 78 MULAUDZI, Mbulaeni RSA 1:44.00
2 74 SEPENG, Hezekiél RSA 1:44.21
3 79 SOM, Bram NED 1:44.40
4 77 BUNGEI, Wilfred KEN 1:44.66
5 71 WACHIRA, Nicholas KEN SB 1:44.77
6 72 KIMUTAI, Japheth KEN 1:44.80
7 75 BUCHER, André SUI 1:44.81
8 73 KRUMMENACKER, David USA 1:44.88
9 70 NEUNHAUSERER, Christian ITA SB 1:46.95
80 ROTICH, Henry KEN DNF

1500m
1 62 EL GUERROUJ, Hicham MAR WL 3:29.76
2 61 KIPKIRUI, Bemjamin KEN SB 3:32.59
3 60 ESTEVEZ, Reyes ESP 3:32.86
4 59 HESHKO, Ivan UKR 3:34.18
5 52 HIGUERO, Juan Carlos ESP SB 3:34.19
6 53 LIEFERS, Gert Jan NED 3:34.89
7 58 HACHLAF, Abdelkader MAR SB 3:35.12
8 50 SHABUNIN, Vyacheslav RUS 3:35.13
9 67 BABA, Youssef MAR SB 3:35.40
10 51 SILVA, Rui POR 3:37.11
11 68 MATAOUI, Ali MAR 3:38.65
12 66 OBRIST, Christian ITA 3:38.71
63 KIPTOO, David KEN DNF
64 KORIR, Paul KEN DNF
55 PARRA, Roberto ESP DNF
56 ROTICH, Laban KEN DNF
65 SELMOUNI, Aniss MAR DNF
54 WHITEMAN, Anthony GBR DNF

3000m SteepleChase
1. Stephen Cherono (KEN) 8:06.41
2. Paul Koech (KEN) 8:06.63
3. Bouabdellah Tahri (FRA) 8:06.91
4. Kipkirui Misoi (KEN) 8:07.74
5. Ezekiel Kemboi (KEN) 8:14.87
6 HACHLAF, Abdelkader MAR PB 8:15.33
7 POTAPOVICH, Pavel RUS NR 8:15.54
8 EZZINE, Ali MAR SB 8:17.12
9 LE DAUPHIN, Vincent FRA SB 8:17.48
10 KIPYEGO, Michael KEN 8:18.81
11 CHERUIYOT, Abel KEN 8:24.23
12 SAIFELDIN, Khamis Abdullah QAT 8:31.68
KOSGEI, Reuben KEN dnf.
LANGAT, John KEN dnf.
MANYIM, Philip KEN dnf.

Women Results

1500m
1 323 YEGOROVA, Olga RUS WL 4:01.00
2 326 RODRIGUEZ, Natalia ESP PB 4:01.30
3 327 FAVOR-HAMILTON, Suzy USA SB 4:01.69
4 332 HOLMES, Kelly GBR SB 4:01.96
5 331 PAVEY, Jo GBR PB 4:02.03
6 325 VARGA, Judit HUN SB 4:02.19
7 330 BENHASSI, Hasna MAR PB 4:02.54
8 324 ROZENBERG, Ekaterina RUS PB 4:02.65
9 367 DULECHA, Kutre ETH SB 4:02.74
10 334 TUROVA, Alesya BLR SB 4:03.32
11 335 TOMASHOVA, Tatyana RUS SB 4:03.44
12 343 FERNÁNDEZ, Nuria ESP PB 4:03.57
13 341 GARCIA, Adoracion ESP SB 4:05.18
14 329 DEJAEGHERE, Veerle BEL SB 4:05.36
15 338 PILSKOG, Trine NOR PB 4:07.52
16 339 BOUCETTA, Meryem MAR PB 4:08.02
17 333 GORELOVA, Natalya RUS 4:08.32
18 328 BENIDA-MERAH, Nouria ALG SB 4:08.44

5000m
1 346 DEFAR, Meseret ETH MR,PB 14:40.34
2 368 SZABO, Gabriela ROM 14:41.35
3 364 DIBABA, Ejegayehnu ETH PB 14:41.67
4 349 DIBABA, Tirunesh ETH 14:41.97
5 358 EL KAMCH, Zhor MAR PB 14:42.53
6 369 ADERE, Berhane ETH 14:42.89
7 365 KIDANE, Werkenesh ETH 14:44.40
8 362 ZADOROZHNAYA, Yelena RUS SB 14:51.61
9 357 MIKITENKO, Irina GER SB 14:56.64
10 353 FUKUSHI, Kayoko JPN SB 15:09.02
11 360 WORKU, Ayelech ETH 15:15.12
12 356 MOCKENHAUPT, Sabrina GER 15:16.37
13 352 EJIGU, Sentayehu ETH 15:29.96
14 363 LORUPE, Tegla KEN SB 15:32.22
15 350 OZAKI, Mary JPN 15:33.52
16 347 PUMPER, Susanne AUT 15:34.79
17 348 PIEDRA, Amalia ESP SB 15:43.42
18 345 OLIVARES, Elodie FRA PB 15:44.36
19 355 KUMA, Eyerusalem ETH 15:55.71

800m
1 252 MUTOLA, Maria de Lourdes MOZ MR 1:57.21
2 316 CEPLAK, Jolanda SLO SB 1:57.44
3 312 AIT HAMMOU, Mina MAR PB 1:57.82
4 315 GRAF, Stephanie AUT SB 1:57.99
5 310 GESELL, Claudia GER SB 1:58.93
6 309 LEWIS, Tamsyn AUS 1:59.88
7 319 CUMMINS, Diane CAN 2:00.08
8 320 LANGERHOLC, Brigita SLO 2:00.63
9 318 RASPOPOVA, Olga RUS 2:01.05
10 313 CHZHAO, Larisa RUS 2:01.33
11 314 SALVARANI, Claudia ITA SB 2:02.70

Other results

This report from our Time-to-Run contributor

Time-to-Run Golden Gala Meeting Rome