Maria Mutola (MOZ) - 800m heats (© Getty Images)
In what was, in many ways, a topsy turvy year for many of the established stars of world athletics, there was nothing quite as consistent as Maria Mutola in 2003. The predictability of her victories over 800m was like a steady metronome that kept beating out its rhythm while much of track and field's ruling order collapsed around her.
Mutola powered through a flawless season in 2003, winning all 13 of her outdoor races, including the World title in Paris and, of course, that million dollar Golden League jackpot. As Athletics International said in its review of the year: “She was simply in a different league from everyone else.”
The story was much the same during the indoor season, in which the now 31 year-old athlete from Mozambique claimed her fifth World Indoor title. That was in Birmingham last March, and it’s to Britain that she returns this weekend to begin her 2004 campaign, starting on Saturday (24 January) at the annual Norwich Union International in Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall – the curtain raiser to the UK international indoor calendar.
Mutola will be seeking her sixth World Indoor title in Budapest at the beginning of March (5-7), and the Glasgow meeting should provide her with a fairly comfortable opener to what will be a long hard road to the Athens Olympics this summer.
Mutola, the reigning Olympic champion, will be running for a ‘World Select’ team in Glasgow as part of a five-way match also involving squads from Italy, Russia, Sweden and Great Britain.
Her main threat, if any, should come from Russia’s Irina Vashentseva, for Mutola’s training partner, Britain’s Kelly Holmes, has opted for the 1500m, the distance at which she hopes to challenge for World Indoor and Olympic honours this year. The two are scheduled to clash competitively for the first time in 2004 next month, when they race over 1000m at the Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham.
Holmes, the surprise World 800m silver medallist from Paris, will face tough early season competition from Russia’s Yuliya Kosenkova, a top ten performer on the World Indoors list last winter.
Russia to offer strong team challenge
Russia is expected to make its usual strong showing in the team competition, and many of its leading athletes have already been fighting for selection. European Indoor champion Marina Kuptsova’s place in the High Jump, for example, has been snatched in the last week by the World Indoor bronze medallist Anna Chicherova, whose impressive early season form has taken her over 2.00m twice already this year.
Feofanova versus Isinbayeva – the clash of the day!
Unfortunately, Chicherova won’t be stretched by the challenge of Sweden’s Kasja Bergqvist, as the double World Indoor champion is not competing in Glasgow. In fact, the hottest clash of the day is likely to come in the women’s Pole Vault where the two Russian World record holders will battle it out between the blue pillars of Kelvin Hall, both seeking to maintain Britain’s burgeoning reputation as the place to break the women’s World Pole vault marks.
World Indoor and outdoor champion and Indoor record holder Svetlana Feofanova, who takes the Russian team spot, will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s performance at this meeting, when she set the first of three World Indoor records on British soil.
However, she’ll be hard pressed by her compatriot Yelena Isinbayeva who goes for the World Select. Isinbayeva bettered USA's Stacy Dragila's World outdoor record at Gateshead last year with a vault of 4.82m, but could only finish third in the Paris Worlds behind Feofanova and Germany’s Annika Becker.
Bath Bullet begins campaign
Jason Gardener, the double European 60m champion has consistently been Europe’s fastest man over the dash for the last few seasons, and the Briton was rewarded last year with a bronze medal at the World indoors in Birmingham, to match the won he took in 1999 in Japan. But the so-called ‘Bath Bullet’ has equally consistently failed to turn his indoor form into outdoor success, at least not since he became one of the few Europeans ever to break 10 seconds over 100m in 1999, the year he was also a world outdoor finallist.
Gardener begins the 2004 campaign in Glasgow where he will face America’s Tim Harden, the 2001 World Indoor champion who will be running for the World Select.
Holm in action too
Among the other international stars on show will be Sweden’s two-times World Indoor champion, Stefan Holm, in the men’s High Jump; Jamaica’s 2001 World Indoor champion Juliet Campbell in the women’s 200m; and Russia’s 2003 World outdoor finallist Svetlana Pospelova in the women’s 400m.
The crowd will be looking to Britain’s Commonwealth 1500m champion Michael East to provide some home cheer in the men’s 3000m, or maybe even to former European 400m champion Du’aine Ladejo, who returned to his first event last year after trying his hand with less success at Decathlon and 400m Hurdles.
