Maria Mutola of Mozambique in action in the women's 800m semi-final (© Getty Images)
Maria Mutola qualified for the final of the women’s 800m which takes place on Tuesday (9) as one of the two fastest losers in 1:59.29, caught before the line for one of the two automatic spots by America’s Hazel Clark. It hardly seemed the strong, absorbing, and at times aggressive racing that we have come to expect from the reigning World indoor and outdoor champion from Mozambique over her years of domination.
Last season marked a watershed in the illustrious career of arguably the greatest ever women’s two lap runner in history. Gone seems to be that do or die, all or nothing determination which has taken her to Olympic and World glory.
Her sixth World Indoor title in Budapest in the winter of 2004 is now seemingly the last global two-lap hurrah for the 32-year-old. It wasn’t that she particularly lost form later in 2004, but rather that the other women simply closed the gap with her slightly fading aura. With a time of 1:56.51 for fourth place in the final no one can ever suggest Mutola of having run badly in the Athens Olympics. Three women just managed to match and then surpass the Mozambican’s brilliance in the greatest ever 800m final. Mutola had suffered hamstring problems earlier in the Olympic outdoor season, and at her athletic age the injuries seem just to be catching up with her.
As she spent a considerable time answering questions after tonight’s second semi-final heat, the third of the three 800m semis was taking place in the Olympic stadium, a competition on whose pace her qualification or non-qualification for the final as a fastest loser depended. Yet despite the knife edge on which her hopes rested, there Mutola stood with a broad smile on her face. She was a picture of calm answering questions as if she was already confident of her progression.
Why the composure? Well it seems this is a lady content with her position in track and field history. It is not that she doesn’t care, as she is too fine a competitor for that, it is just that she recognises that its not always possible to win, and one senses that the height of her career has closed out.
“It is never easy to come back from a hamstring injury of course because it restricts your speed work,” Mutola confirmed. “I am just happy to be able to have got back in the arena at all after all my problems.”
Was she confident of qualifying?
“That really doesn’t matter. What ever happens, happens,” she smiled.
Can you imagine the Mutola of even last year saying that!
“For this year, yes I am certainly more relaxed, as you say perhaps even ‘laid back’. But I will go back into to training and see if I can still do something in the future.”
“I don’t have motivational problems, and of course it would have been a disappointment to have missed the final.”
And with that Mutola walked calmly away without looking at the TV screen on which her fate was playing out.
Ultimately, Mutola qualified for the final but one senses that her smile and her calm, reflected that she is now a different type of competitor, and that her world famous winning edge might have lost some of its sharpness.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
