Past meets present as Crystal Palace
prepares for World mile Record attempt
Chris Turner for IAAF
4 August 2000 - Top of the bill at this Saturday’s Norwich Union British Grand Prix will be Hicham El Guerrouj’s attempt on his own world mile record of 3:43.13 minutes during the 48th running of the famous Emsley Carr Mile, the final event in a packed programme of athletics at London’s Crystal Palace stadium.
Today, in an effort to seek inspiration for the record attempt and to fulfil a lifetime’s ambition El Guerrouj who is captivated by the history of the mile event, travelled to Oxford to meet British mile legend Sir Roger Bannister at the scene of the latter’s most famous triumph.
The pair met at Oxford University’s Iffley Road Stadium where on 6th May 1954 Bannister achieved one of most momentous breakthroughs in athletics history when he became the first man to beat the magical four-minute barrier for the mile.
El Guerrouj confirmed that "today is very special for me - to meet Sir Roger and see where it all began. It would be fantastic to break the record at Crystal Palace this weekend. As I grew up Coe, Ovett and Cram were my heroes. I have a video of all the mile records and I always dreamt of being one of those guys. Britain has such a wonderful history at the mile and it is my pleasure to come over here and try to become a part of that history on Saturday"
The 1999 IAAF World Male Athlete of the Year may have to break the record just to win the race as he faces young Kenyan rival Noah Ngeny for the first time this year. The last time the pair met over a mile in Rome they re-wrote athletics history when they both broke the previous world record.
El Guerrouj went on to beat Ngeny to gold over 1500m at the world championships and Saturday’s race represents their next - and probably only clash - before Sydney. With both agreeing to pace makers it looks set to be both a fantastic head to head showdown and another record breaking onslaught.
Yet the mile is just one of the many highlights on offer at Crystal Palace on Saturday. Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie, the long distance equivalent to EL Guerrouj who incidentally won last year’s Emsley Carr mile (held in Gateshead) will take on a world class field at 5,000 metres. Gebrselassie, the four-time World 10,000 metres Champion will be joined by a phalanx of strong Africans including fellow Ethiopian Assefa Mezgebu who was 10,000m bronze medallist behind Gebrselassie in Seville last summer and sub 13 minute Kenyans Sammy Kipketer and Richard Limo who have both run faster than Gebrselassie at 5,000 metres this year.
The men’s sprints see Trinidad’s Olympic favourite Ato Boldon take on European 100 metres champion Darren Campbell who ran the fastest time by a European this season (10.06) when finishing third in Stockholm behind Boldon (10.01) on Tuesday. Also in the field are the silver and bronze medallists from 1999 World Championships, Canadian Bruny Surin and Britain’s Dwain Chambers.
A large US sprint squad will also be close in contention, as even with Maurice Greene’s withdrawal due to injury, the men’s 100m & 200m at Crystal Palace still boost the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th place finishers from the American 100 metres trials.
The sprint hurdles have seen the withdrawal of Britain’s World Champion Colin Jackson, but he has been replaced by Allen Johnson the Olympic Champion. Johnson recently qualified for the USA team to defend his Olympic title in Sydney and is the only man to have dipped under 13 seconds so far this season.
Hoping to make up for Jackson’s absence Britain’s new 400 metres hurdles star Chris Rawlinson will be out to further establish his Olympic credentials and will face recently crowned USA champion Angelo Taylor.
The high jump sees Russia’s World Champion Vyacheslav Voronin take on reigning Olympic Champion Charles Austin. Yet the two men’s field events which will mainly have the spectators focus will be the triple jump and javelin. These events see the return to competition of two stalwarts of the British team, world triple jump record holder Jonathan Edwards and three time European javelin champion Steve Backley. With only a week to go before the British Olympic trials in Birmingham the performances of both athletes will be closely watched to see if their recent technical and injury problems are at last behind them.
Following Marion Jones’ 10.68 second windy run in Stockholm on Tuesday night, the women’s programme is sure to centre on the American world champion’s appearance in the 100 metres. Jones will be up against the last two World 200 metres Champions, the 1997 champion Zhanna Pintusevich-Block (UKR) who was second behind Jones in Sweden, and the 1999 Gold medallist and fellow American Inger Miller.
The two athletes carrying the Olympic 400m gold medal hopes of both Britain and Australia, Katharine Merry and Cathy Freeman meet in the one lap event and will be strongly challenged by American trials third placer Michelle Collins.
However, the women’s middle distance brings together one of the most interesting clashes of the night with Romania’s Gabriela Szabo the 5,000 metres world champion and Mozambique’s Maria Mutola three time world indoor 800 metres champion, racing against each other at the intermediate Olympic distance of 1,500 metres. Mutola’s powerful 800 metres win in Stockholm earlier this week when she trounced the rest of the world’s 800m elite in a quick 1:56.98 minutes proves she is in fine form. Yet will it be enough to vanquish Szabo, who we must not forget took the world indoor title at 1,500 metres only last year?
The women’s long jump also offers the prospect of a clash between Italy’s 1995 World champion Fiona May who also took the silver medal last year in Seville and American Dawn Burrell who was second to Marion Jones in the USA Trials and has been peppering the underside of the 7m mark most of this season.
Back on the track, Paula Radcliffe, Britain’s world 10,000 metres silver medallist will be hoping to get the home fans cheering when she takes on a high class 5,000 metres field. Ireland’s Double European Champion Sonia O’Sullivan and marathon star Tegla Loroupe of Kenya will be sure to offer a stiff challenge.
