Welcome to Helsinki 2005 Day 2

Day 2 of the Helsinki 2005 World Track Championships, would see the semi-finals of the Women's 800m and the heats of the Men's SteepleChase.

Women's 800m semi-final :
Clark, Calatayud and Andrianova Win Semis. Mutola in Final

With only two certain to qualify there was no room for error and in semi-final one Hazel Clark USA and Larisa Chzao RUS made sure with defending champion Maria Mutola MOZ in third, going through as one of the fastest qualifiers.

At the bell the American led in a swift 58.82sec and held on for a hard fought victory. With 80m to go it looked as though Mutola might creep past up the inside, but Clark reacted in time to hold her off in 1:59.00, Chzao just seven hundredths down with Mutola (1:59.29) and Spain’s Mayte Martinez (1:59.40) both going through as the two fastest losers.

Zulia Calatayud CUB confirmed her season’s form with an untroubled victory in semi-final two as she sped away from fancied Russian Svetlana Cherkassova. Calatayud clocked the fastest time going into the final of 1:57.92 with Charkassova’s 1:58.58 second fastest.

Season’s leader Tatyana Andrianova RUS powered though to take semi-final three in the slowest of the three heats, 2:01.35, with Hasna Benhassi MAR doing the minimum to ensure her place in the final (2:01.59) | results |

Men's 3000m SteepleChase Heats :
The season has been a Kenyan-Qatari showcase with only Morraccan Brahim Boulami intruding at the sharp end of the lists. There was no change in the heats at lunchtime as all the favourites qualified with ease. In the first heat, Spanish record holder Luis Miguel Martin was responsible for the fast early pace with Kenyan Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi and former Kenyan Saif Saaeed Shaheen QAT, lurking at the rear of the field. But it was Slovenian Bostjan Buc who took the field through the first kilometre in a nippy 2min 41.84sec before ceding the lead to the Spaniard once again.

The pace slowed dramatically for the second kilometre in 2:50.05 with Shaheen and Kemboi happy to work their way steadily through the back markers before with two to go the Qatari made a decisive move to whittle the numbers down to the requisite three qualifiers. With the injection of pace, Simon Vroeman NED, Gunter Weidlinger AUT and Martin were fighting over the final qualifying slot with the Dutch European record co-holder putting sufficient distance between himself and his pursuers in the final lap.

It was just a question of whether Shaheen and Kemboi would waste energy with a dust-up in the final 100m but they chose to coast home, Shaheen breaking the beam first in 8:11.79 (final kilometre 2:39.90), the fastest of the day, with Vroeman safely into the final on a season’s best, Weidlinger and Martin filling finalist slots. The final qualifier on time from this heat was Sweden’s Mustafa Mohamed.

The early pace in the second heat was also taken by a Spaniard, Antonio Jimenez (2:45.72), the reigning European champion, before American Anthony Famiglietti took over through the second in 5:31.30 (2:45.58). Olympic bronze Paul Kipsiele Koech KEN took over at the bell from Obaid Musa Amer QAT (Moses Kipchirchir – fourth in the Olympics) with France’s Bob Tahri on his shoulder and a detached Jimenez determined to pounce in fourth.

Entering the straight, Koech (8:16.42) and Amer went comfortably clear while Jimenez summoned up a final surge to claim the third qualifying spot. The heat featured a 16-year-old from Brunei via Kenya, Tareq Mubarak Taher (formerly Daniel Sang of Kenya). This year’s world youth champion over the 2000m distance, he squeezed through to the final as the 12th and last qualifier with 8:21.68.

American champion Daniel Lincoln took the third heat out for a 2:44.51 first kilometre before Mediterranean Games winner Boulami took over followed by Olympic silver Brimin Kipruto through the second in 5:35.85 (2:51.34).

Boulami continued to press the pace to the finish in 8:19.54 (2:43.69) with Kipruto and Jose Luis Blanco surging past Lincoln in the straight, the Spaniard clocking a season’s best 8:21.04. After his early efforts Lincoln was rewarded with a qualifying slot in the final. | results |

report by Helsinki2005 media team