Maria Mutola’s bid to regain her world 800m crown is under serious threat. It’s not that she’s out of form – her time in the third of tonight’s semi-finals tells you that: 1:58.98, a season’s best by more than a second.
Nor has she lost her tactical nous, she made her way into Tuesday’s final tonight as everyone expected.
It’s just that she appears to have come up against a woman who is simply flying.
Kenya’s Janeth Jepkosgei’s quickest time this year before tonight was 1:58.95, and that was in yesterday’s heats. But pitched against Mutola she simply stormed away at the front to win in 1:56.17, the fastest in the world this year by almost 1.5sec and a PB by more than 2.5sec.
It was an extraordinary run, but the manner in which she strode across the line, looking fresh as a daisy, must have left her opponents bewildered. Mutola couldn’t get close. And she tried. Hard.
But the effort of trying to stay with the Africa champion left her heavy legged and gasping for breath, and she was even pipped for the second automatic qualifying spot by Morocco’s Hasna Benhassi, who finished strongly in 1:56.84, her best of the year by more than two seconds.
Not surprisingly, those were the quickest three times of the round. Even Brigita Langerholc of Slovenia, who finished fourth in 1:58.41, set a PB. She will also be in the final.
The first two races seemed rather tame by comparison. Not that they were slow.
The Belarussian, Sviatlana Usovich, shouldn’t be overlooked. She was a convincing winner of the first race in 1:58.11, 0.06s inside her personal best, just reward for her front running tactics.
And nor should Svetlana Klyuka be discounted. The Russian showed an impressive turn of pace with 200m to go in the second race to burn off her challengers. She established a five-metre lead around the bend and won easily in 1:58.97.
She’ll be joined in the final by her teammate, the long striding Olga Kotlyarova, who finished second behind Usovich in 1:58.56. Personal bests for Slovakia’s Olga Klovoca (1:58.62) and the gutsy Italian Elisa Piccione (1:58.63) were not enough.
Mayte Martinez of Spain took the other spot in the final. She finished second behind Klyuka after a late run and was rewarded with a season’s best of 1:59.32.
Just edged out behind her were the unlucky Moroccan, Amina Ait Hammou, who ran a season’s best 1:59.51, and Britain’s Marilyn Okoro whose quickest ever run in 1:59.63 wasn’t enough to secure her berth.
With three races, and only the first two in each heat guaranteed a place, qualifying was always going to be tough and casualties were on the cards.
The main one came in the second heat where defending champion Zulia Calatayud of Cuba finished eighth in 2:06.97. That’s nearly 11 seconds slower than Jepkosgei, surely now the outright favourite.
Osaka 2007 News Team/mkb
