GOLDEN MOMENTS - 2001 Golden League Review

MEL WATMAN of “Athletics International” recalls the highlights of the 2001 edition of the IAAF Golden League which saw six athletes share the jackpot of 50 kilograms of gold bars.

June 29, Golden Gala, Rome

To qualify for a share of the 2001 IAAF Golden League jackpot of 50 kilograms of gold bars an athlete had to win designated events at five of the seven meetings accorded that status.

The events involved this year were the men’s 100m, 800m, 1500m or mile or 2000m, 3000m  or 5000m, 3000m steeplechase, 110m hurdles, long jump and javelin, and the women’s 100m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m or 5000m, 400m hurdles and high jump.

The Golden Gala must be Hicham El Guerrouj’s favourite meeting, for it was here in 1998 and 1999 respectively that he set the current world records for 1500m (3:26.00) and the mile (3:43.13). No record this time but the Moroccan, in only his second race of the season, was in formidable miling form.

Following pacemakers through 400m in 55.24 and 800m in 1:51.98, he led at 1200m in 2:48.54 and 1500m in 3:29.85 to complete the distance in 3:44.95, his fourth and the world’s sixth quickest ever time. Bernard Lagat finished second in 3:47.28 to become the eighth fastest miler in history and a total of six men broke 3:50, the most ever in a single race.

There was fantastic depth also in the women’s 3000m; indeed it has been surpassed only by the continuingly controversial Chinese National Games race in Beijing in 1993 when Wang Junxia set a phenomenal world record of 8:06.11 and another four runners broke 8:22.

In Rome three Russians – Olga Yegorova (8:23.96, the world’s fastest since 1994), Yelena Zadorozhnaya (8:25.40) and Tatyana Tomashova (8:25.56) – moved to third, fifth and sixth places on the European all-time list. Yegorova kicked to victory with an exceptional 28.1 final 200m, while Olympic 5000m champion Gabriela Szabo – beaten by Yegorova for the world indoor 3000m title earlier in the year – had to settle for fourth in 8:26.44. Paula Radcliffe established a Commonwealth record of 8:26.97 in fifth and back in 11th position Benita Willis ran 8:42.95 for an Oceania record.

The men’s 5000m, won by Hailu Mekonnen in 12:58.57, was another race of outstanding quality as three men slipped inside 13 minutes with Alberto Garcia clocking a Spanish record of 13:02.54 in eighth place and former world record holder Daniel Komen finding a time of 13:07.50 good only for 12th.

Best race of the evening? A classic 800m duel between the courageous front runner André Bucher and the spectacular finisher Yuriy Borzakovskiy. The young Russian was nearly 20m down at the bell and seemingly out of contention, but an astonishing second lap carried him to within inches of his Swiss opponent. Bucher persevered by a single hundredth in 1:44.01 with Borzakovskiy’s compensation a Russian record.

Another outstanding performance at a meeting which started in torrential rain came in a Grand Prix, as distinct from Golden League, scoring event when Stacy Dragila pole vaulted without failure up to and including 4.72m, a height only she had ever exceeded, and she unsuccessfully attempted a world record 4.82m.


July 6, Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis

By the end of the meeting at Stade de France, attended by a crowd of over 50,000, eight athletes had chalked up a second Golden League victory: Maurice Greene, André Bucher, Hicham El Guerrouj, Kostas Gatsioúdis, Marion Jones, Stephanie Graf, Violeta Szekely and Olga Yegorova.

The last named ran slightly faster over 3000m (8:23.75) than she had in Rome, this time covering the last 200m in an amazing 27.5 (57.9 final 400m), and again outkicking Yelena Zadorozhnaya (8:26.79), Tatyana Tomashova (8:27.02) and Gabriela Szabo (8:27.21).

It was at this meeting, though, that Yegorova tested positive for EPO and although her suspension was later overturned by the IAAF because of an irregular testing procedure the Russian athlete would remain a figure of controversy for the remainder of the season.

The other women’s event to attract a lot of attention and excitement was the 100m, which saw the return to top form of Jones. Having run 10.96 in Rome but only just managing to win against her training partner Chandra Sturrup in Lausanne in 11.04, she was simply delighted to clock a world-leading 10.84 despite a sluggish first half and leave Zhanna Pintusevich-Block (10.96) and Sturrup (10.99) well behind.

The saddest sight of the meeting was that of Deloreen Ennis-London falling at the final barrier when heading for another 100m hurdles victory. The Jamaican had been shaping up as a potential world champion but the injury she sustained brought her season to a close.

Graf (2:00.00) proved just too strong for Maria Mutola (2:00.13) in their first outdoor 800m clash of the year and Szekely, as she did in Rome (4:00.92) and would continue to do in all her Golden League races, bided her time in the 1500m (4:01.55) before sprinting away in the final straight.

Although Yuriy Borzakovskiy improved his Russian 800m record to 1:43.76 he was unable to run Bucher (1:43.34) as close as he had in Rome. Joining Borzakovskiy under 1:44 for the first time was Patrick Nduwimana.

As in the Rome mile, El Guerrouj left Bernard Lagat (3:30.83) close to 20m behind, this time over 1500m in 3:28.38, the 11th quickest ever time and his own seventh best.

Other highlights included Maurice Greene’s decisive 100m win over Tim Montgomery, 9.96 to 10.04, and splendid hurdling victories for Allen Johnson (13.15) over Anier Garcia (13.23) and for Angelo Taylor (48.10) against Stéphane Diagana (48.13).

July 13, Exxon Mobil Bislett Games, Oslo

What do Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery have in common? Well, they are both coached by Trevor Graham, but in Oslo the link was a pair of spikes.

After winning her 100m race in 10.94 by a metre from Zhanna Pintusevich-Block (11.05), Jones passed on the shoes to Montgomery, whose luggage had been mislaid. The gods were with him, for whereas it was cool and windless when Jones ran, the weather suddenly changed for the better in time for the men’s race. The sun appeared and Montgomery had the benefit of the maximum allowable 2m tailwind.

His time was flashed around the world; with 9.84 he became – alongside Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin – the second fastest man in history … and the only man to run quicker, Maurice Greene, must have been kicking himself for a lost opportunity to improve on his 9.79 after withdrawing from the meeting because of a disagreement over money.

Montgomery, who was chased home by Ato Boldon in 9.88, had never previously run faster than 9.92 and that was in 1997. “When I saw the time I could just not believe it,” he said. “It was fantastic.”

Joining Jones as a three out of three winner in the Golden League was Violeta Szekely, who drew over two seconds clear of Suzy Favor Hamilton in the sprint for home in the 1500m in 4:01.45. Olga Yegorova and her Russian colleagues did not contest the 5000m, yet Gabriela Szabo was beaten nevertheless.

She ran 14:46.92 but found herself outpaced by the remarkable 34 year-old Kenyan, Edith Masai, who improved all the way from 15:24.4 (admittedly at high altitude and probably worth around 15 minutes at sea level) to 14:45.85.

The latest round in the Stephanie Graf v Maria Mutola 800m saga resulted in another win for the Austrian, 1:58.20 to 1:58.70.

The Dream Mile went to Ali Saïdi-Sief in a personal best of 3:48.23 with Bernard Lagat (3:48.57) again running strongly for second place … he would finish runner-up in no fewer than nine international races during the season.

In addition to Masai’s triumph, Kenyans also won the 800m (Wilfred Bungei 1:44.91), steeplechase (first three, headed by Wilson Boit Kipketer in 8:12.63) and 5000m where double Olympic silver medallist Paul Bitok improved his personal best to an intensely frustrating 13:00.10 and was followed home by fellow Kenyans in the next five places. Placing 20th and last in this race was Charles Kamathi in 13:31.56, giving no hint that less than a month later he would lift the world 10,000m title.

July 20, Herculis, Monaco

The 800m clashes between André Bucher and Yuriy Borzakovskiy were one of the most enthralling features of the season, and the pair put on another sparkling show in Monaco.

The race followed its customary pattern with Bucher closely following the hare through a 50.1 first lap while Borzakovskiy was last of ten runners at the bell, although in a relatively brisk 51.3.

The Russian cut through the field along the backstraight and was only a stride behind Bucher at the finish, lowering his Russian record to 1:43.17, while Bucher reaped the reward for his uncompromising run by breaking his Swiss record with 1:42.90, at the time the world’s fastest mark of the year. Four others dipped under 1:44 in this great race.

The women’s 800m was also of an uncommonly high standard with nine inside two minutes. Stephanie Graf gave it a miss but Maria Mutola still had to pull out all the stops to gain victory in a world leading 1:57.11 as Fabiane dos Santos (who would later be expunged from the results of this and several other races after testing positive for testosterone in Rio on May 6) improved by 1.67 sec with 1:57.16.

In this the final Golden League meeting prior to the World Championships, three other world leading marks for the year were established. Violeta Szekely chalked up her fourth successive Golden League 1500m victory, once again swooping past Natalya Gorelova (personal best of 3:59.70) in the closing stages for a time of 3:59.35; Paul Bitok clocked 7:32.11 for 3000m on the flat and Wilson Boit Kipketer 8:01.73 for the steeplechase.

Bernard Lagat (3:31.08) for once was pushed back to third place in the 1500m behind world indoor champion Rui Silva’s Portuguese record of 3:30.36 and Benjamin Kipkurui’s 3:30.67, while other excellent performances in the men’s events included a thrilling 110m hurdles win by Allen Johnson over Anier Garcia (13.18-13.19 into the wind), Felix Sanchez’s 48.46 400m hurdles and Dmitri Markov’s Oceania record equalling vault of 5.95m.

Aalthough a shadow was cast over that latter competition when Maksim Tarsasov, just getting back to top form, suffered horrendous injury when attempting 5.85m.

Chryste Gaines took the women’s 100m in 10.98 while at the other end of the distance scale Kenyan revelation Edith Masai ran away with the 3000m in 8:34.79.

August 17, Weltklasse Zürich

Newly minted world champions met with mixed fortunes in the first major post-Edmonton jamboree. André Bucher, Hicham El Guerrouj, Richard Limo, Allen Johnson, Felix Sanchez, Maria Mutola, Olga Yegorova, Nezha Bidouane and Hestrie Cloete maintained their winning edge, and in the case of Bucher, Limo, Sanchez and Yegorova they achieved lifetime bests.

Others – Reuben Kosgei, Jan Zelezny, Gabriela Szabo, Anjanette Kirkland, Fiona May – placed second, with Kostas Kedéris third. However, Iván Pedroso (4th), Zhanna Pintusevich-Block (4th) and Lars Riedel (5th) were comprehensively beaten, while Maurice Greene and Dmitriy Markov did not compete.

Violeta Szekely, runner-up to Szabo over 1500m in Edmonton, reverted to winning ways, thereby notching up her fifth Golden League victory and a guaranteed share of the jackpot. Yet again she swept past the luckless Natalya Gorelova, clocking 3:59.94. With two more opportunities remaining, three athletes registered their fourth win in the series.

With arch-rival Anier Garcia falling at the ninth hurdle, Allen Johnson took the 110m hurdles in 13.18, while Marion Jones put her shock 100m defeat in Edmonton behind her by running 10.94 into a 1m wind half a metre clear of Chandra Sturrup (10.99) with the new world champion an anti-climactic fourth in 11.16.

The other fourth time winner was Bucher, under immense pressure from the predominantly Swiss crowd. He did them proud.

Moving ahead with 250m remaining, he pulled out all the stops to finish in 1:42.55, a Swiss record, and yet he needed to run that fast as in one of the most remarkable 800m races of all time Jean-Patrick Nduwimana (Burundi record of 1:42.81), Wilfred Bungei (1:42.96), William Yiampoy (1:43.00) and Pawel Czapiewski (Polish record of 1:43.22) all smashed their personal bests, Yuriy Borzakovskiy found 1:43.30 sufficed only for a record time for sixth place and Olympic champion Nils Schumann in eighth was just a tenth of a second outside his fastest with 1:44.32, again a best ever time for that position.

As always in Zürich, brilliant performances were evident in practically every event. Tim Montgomery ran away with the 100m in 9.90; El Guerrouj threatened his world 1500m record by reaching 1200m in 2:46.90 before fading to 3:29.06 ahead of the inevitable Bernard Lagat (3:30.61) with Enock Koech third in a personal best of 3:31.28; Richard Limo improved his 5000m time to 12:56.72, which proved to be the world’s fastest of the year; Sanchez –a far cry from the athlete who only the previous month had not been deemed good enough to merit a lane in the “A” race in the Lausanne Grand Prix – won a star-studded 400m hurdles in a Dominican Republic record of 47.38, another world leading mark; Virgilijus Alekna threw the discus 69.95m and Raymond Hecht the javelin 88.88m.

Best of all was Brahim Boulami in the steeplechase. A painful ankle injury had held him down to tenth place in the World Championships but here he let rip with a Moroccan record of 7:58.50, the third fastest ever. Reuben Kosgei, the Olympic and world champion, improved his best to 8:03.22 but still was left 30m behind as Boulami was the only runner prepared to stay up with the pacemakers.

The women’s 3000m was another tremendous race. Yet again Yegorova produced an unassailable kick over the last half lap, crossing the line in a world leading personal best of 8:23.26 with Szabo improving her Romanian record to 8:24.19 in second place and Berhane Adere setting an African record of 8:25.62 in third.

Other nuggets included the world’s quickest women’s 800m of the year by Mutola (1:56.85) with Kelly Holmes (1:57.88) pipping a demoralised Stephanie Graf (1:57.98) for second; a 12.53 100m hurdles victory for Gail Devers over Kirkland (12.64) and a 6.97m long jump by Eunice Barber, bouncing back after her disastrous heptathlon in Edmonton to decisively defeat all of the event’s top specialists.

August 24, Memorial Van Damme, Brussels

Brahim Boulami showed his immense capabilities in Zürich, but in Brussels he achieved athletic immortality by ending the lengthy Kenyan era of steeplechasing domination by seizing the world record. Ironically, it was two Kenyans who set a perfect even pace for the Moroccan – leading also to the greatest ever depth of any steeplechase race. Josephat Kapkory led at 1000m in 2:39.66 and John Langat at 2000m in 5:19.45. The final kilometre was covered by Boulami in a brilliant 2:35.83 for a final time of 7:55.28, thus breaking Bernard Barmasai’s 1997 record of 7:55.72.

Boulami became the first non-Kenyan to set a world record in this event since Anders Gärderud’s 8:08.02 at the 1976 Olympics. Ominously, Boulami remarked: “I wouldn’t say this is my last word on the distance, as I still feel capable of beating the record again.” Note that prior to 1956 no man had ever run 3000m that fast on the flat, never mind negotiating 35 obstacles!

Behind Boulami, the Kenyans indicated that they have plenty of talent capable of recapturing the prized record. Reuben Kosgei improved from 8:03.22 to 7:57.29 for fourth on the all-time performer list, while Stephen Cherono progressed from 8:19.12 to an extraordinary world junior record of 7:58.66 to become the fifth fastest ever. It was the first time three men had broken 8 minutes in the same race, while Kipkirui Misoi ran the quickest ever fourth place time of 8:01.69. Another first was seven men finishing inside 8:10.

The capacity crowd of 46,500 had much else to enthuse over in a meeting which topped even Zürich for all-round quality.

On a memorable evening for Morocco, Hicham El Guerrouj came agonisingly close to his world 1500m record of 3:26.00. Reaching 1200m in 2:46.10, he produced a 53.4 last lap for history’s second fastest time of 3:26.12, and he needed that to stay ahead of Bernard Lagat, whose 3:26.34 was a Commonwealth record and moved him into second spot on the world all-time list. William Chirchir also smashed his best with 3:29.29 in third place  and a total of 14 runners streamed in under 3:35.

Kenyans filled the first five places in a 10,000m won by Mark Bett in 27:24.68 with world champion Charles Kamathi third, while Ethiopia’s moment came in the 3000m in which Hailu Mekonnen (7:30.53) had his hands full against his compatriot Kenenisa Bekele whose 7:30.67 was a world junior record.

André Bucher ran the second quickest 800m (1:42.75) of his career but sustained his only defeat of the season when Yuriy Borzakovskiy’s even-paced tactics finally paid off against him.

The Russian (51.0) was some 15m down on Bucher (49.25) at 400m but a 51.5 second lap carried him past to victory in a national record of 1:42.47, the year’s fastest time and good for fifth place on the world all-time list at the age of 20.

A more surprising world-leading mark came in the 200m when Joshua Johnson, a former basketball player whose previous best was an unexceptional 20.48, clocked a stunning 19.88 from the ninth lane.

Also notable among the men’s events were a 13.07 110m hurdles by Anier Garcia and a tense long jump contest in which Savante Stringfellow leapt 8.31m to edge Iván Pedroso and Kevin Dilworth (both 8.30m).

Marion Jones joined Violeta Szekely (3:59.75 1500m winner) as a guaranteed jackpot beneficiary by chalking up her fifth Golden League 100m victory, running 10.86 a metre clear of Chandra Sturrup (10.95).

Too fast a first lap (55.93) spoiled the overall times in the women’s 800m but a lively race saw Stephanie Graf (1:57.46) triumphant over Kelly Holmes (1:57.90) with Maria Mutola slowing to third in 1:57.95.

Olga Yegorova kept alive her hopes of a jackpot share with a fourth win, sprinting home in the 3000m in 8:30.09.

August 31, ISTAF 2001, Berlin

Violeta Szekely (36), who nevertheless made it seven wins in seven meetings by taking the 1500m in 4:00.80, and Marion Jones, who did not compete, were already assured of a share in the Golden League jackpot of 50kg of gold bars prior to the final meeting in Berlin, played out before a crowd of 41,000.

That share diminished considerably, though, as four others produced the necessary fifth victory: André Bucher, Hicham El Guerrouj, Allen Johnson and Olga Yegorova, the star of the show with her European 5000m record.

Still under a cloud following the EPO test affair, Yegorova appeared to have succumbed to the mental stress and the physical strain of so many fast races to her name when she dropped nearly 30m behind the leaders by the fourth kilometre.

It transpired that she was not prepared to follow the world record threatening tempo being set by pacemaker Edith Masai (8:44.49 at 3000m) and Paula Radcliffe (11:39.07 at 4000m); instead the Russian produced a cracking final 800m to overtake Radcliffe (who set a Commonwealth record of 14:32.44 in third place) and Gete Wami (14:31.69) with 250m remaining. Her time of 14:29.32 has only ever been bettered by Jiang Bo’s 14:28.09 in 1997.

Another world record which could have been in danger was El Guerrouj’s 2000m mark of 4:44.79. A 2:23.3 opening kilometre made it a possibility but El Guerrouj admitted he had not yet recovered from his great 1500m in Brussels and slowed considerably for a time of 4:51.17, still the second fastest of the year. In sixth place Isaac Songok, born in 1984, set a world junior record of 4:56.86.

Another precocious Kenyan, Stephen Cherono, was a comfortable steeplechase winner in 8:09.59.

Probably relieved that Yuriy Borzakovskiy had decided to give the event a miss, Bucher joined the jackpot winners with another forceful display (1:43.82) but four of his African rivals, led by Wilfred Bungei (1:44.01), all finished within half a second of him.

Despite hitting four of the barriers hard, Johnson generated such speed and determination that Anier Garcia (13.15) was left a good metre behind in the 110m hurdles and he equalled his world-leading time of 13.04 in chalking up his all-important fifth Golden League win.

Stephanie Graf had hoped to do likewise in the women’s 800m but fell short with her 1:59.42 behind Maria Mutola (1:59.19) and Diane Cummins (1:59.40).

In other action, Francis Obikwelu took the 100m in his fastest time of the year (9.96) with 38 year-old Troy Douglas fourth in 10.19, the even older Jürgen Schult (41) – now Germany’s national discus coach - bade farewell to international competition with a throw of 62.05m for fourth in a contest won by Lars Riedel with 65.86m, Jan Zelezny threw the javelin 88.29m and Yelena Isinbayeva vaulted 4.46m for an outdoor world junior record behind Svetlana Feofanova’s 4.56m.

And, as a grand finale, Michael Johnson made his final racing appearance in Europe, clocking 19.6 for his 200m relay leg.