Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain wins the women's 3000m at the Oslo Golden League meeting (© Getty Images)
Even with defending champion Tatyana Tomashova among questionable starters, Russian middle distance talent will be prominently on display in the women’s 1500m.
25-year-old Yuliya Chizhenko, this year's world leader in the event, looks poised to follow Tomashova as she continues her breakout season. Entering the 2005 season with a 4:04.58 best from last year, the 25-year-old debuted with a 4:03.35 PB in late May, won the European Cup in mid June, improved to 4:00.09 a week later, before winning the national title in 3:58.68, the only sub-3:59 performance of the year.
Her teammate Olga Yegorova, the World champion at 5000 metres in 2001, has focused primarily on the shorter event this season, and she too has impressed: after her 3:59.47 PB at the Znamenskiy Memorial on 25-June, Yegorova followed up with a convincing 4:01.85 win at the Gaz de France Golden League meeting, and was nearly as fast at the national championships, where she finished second in 4:00.63. Russian number three, Yelena Soboleva, has been an even bigger surprise. Just a 4:11 runner last year, the 22-year-old has improved by more than 10 seconds this year to 4:01.14 for third at the national championships.
But another newcomer, Bahraini Maryam Yusuf Jamal, may provide one of the biggest surprises of the championships. In her first full international season, the 20-year-old Ethiopian emigre (the former Zenebech Tola) has displayed strong range in each of her races while producing four national records in the middle and long distance events –at 800, she’s run 1:59.69, joined the sub-four ranks in the 1500 with her solid 3:59.13 win at the Athens Super Grand Prix, reached the line unchallenged in the Bislett Games 3000 with a world-leading 8:28.87, and opened her season with a runner-up finish in the Hengelo 5000, fighting through a strong wind en route to a 14:51.68 clocking.
Seven other non-Russians have run faster that 4:04 this season, with recently-minted French record holder Bouchra Ghezielle leading the charge. The 26-year-old Moroccan native improved to 4:01.90, but also has 2:00.29 and 8:35.41 personal bests to her credit as well this year. Other possible medal threats include Alesia Turava of Belorus (4:02.21), Kenyan Nancy Langat (4:02.31) and Wioletta Janowska of Poland (4:03.68).
Persistent injury sidelined Great Britain’s double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes, suggesting that Helsinki may signal the start of a new era in the women’s middle distances.
Helsinki 2005 media team
