Distance Recap of World Indoor Day 1: Maria Mutola on Fire
By Bob Ramsak (c) 2004 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
March 6, 2004

*Event by Event Results here   *Full text file of full Day 1 Results here
*Photos from Day 1 here 

BUDAPEST (05-Mar) -- If there was any doubt about Maria Mutola's preparations for an unprecedented sixth world title, the reigning Olympic champion quickly put them to rest after a stunning 1:57.72 solo effort in her heat of the 800 meters.

"I was just testing myself," said Mutola, whose 200 meter splits of 27.37, 56.35 and 1:26.94 were briefly under world record pace. "I spent the last week and a half only training in the pool and felt that this was a good opportunity to run a little faster and see what I could do," she said, before adding, "running 1:57 by myself is very good.  So I still think I'm in pretty good shape."

While Mutola's fierce effort recalled Wilson Kipketer's world indoor record in the heats of the 800 at the 1999 World Indoor Championships, the three-time world outdoor champion said she wasn't planning such a fast first round solo effort. "To be honest, no. I was just trying to go fast from the front and try and pace myself." Mutola said she felt a "little shaky" prior to race after not hitting the track for more than ten days, and was instructed by coach Margo Jennings to aim for 29 second laps.

"I was afraid that my fitness would go down.  As an athlete, you always worry, so I was very happy," she said, "I was very impressed."

Leading from the break, world indoor record holder Jolanda Ceplak won heat two in 2:01.48 after a sub-60 second first half, just ahead of Belgian Sandra Stals (2:01.88) and Tetyana Petlyuk (2:01.90) of Ukraine. Canada's Aimee Teteris, who was a step behind Ceplak for nearly 700 meters, faded to fourth in 2:03.75, but wound up advancing on time.

Besides Mutola's scorcher, no surprises emerged.  Spanish record holder Mayte Martínez (2:02.78) inched past Seltana Ait Hammou (2:02.83) in the final steps to win heat three.  Staying near the back of the pack through 700 meters, Olga Raspopova forged ahead off the final turn to win race four in 2:03.67, with Jo Fenn of Great Britain a few steps behind in 2:04.01. Marian Burnett of Guyana, third in  2:04.48, lowered her own national record.

In heat one, American Jen Toomey's coming-out indoor season nearly reached a disastrous conclusion when she was tripped up from behind just 100 meters into the race. Nearly falling, she trailed by a substantial margin before gaining the lead past the halfway point and eventually winning in 2:04.84.

"It totally caught me by surprise," said Toomey, the first ever double U.S. indoor champion at 800 and 1500 meters. "I was just glad I was able to get back into it - basically I came to a complete stop. After that it was really easy. It's really a relief."  Fast-finishing Tatyana Andrianova (2:05.04) of Russia finished second, with and Agnes Samaria (2:05.05) of Namibia third. That one-one hundredth of a second difference would keep the Namibian from advancing to tomorrow's semi-finals.

As a follow-up to Maria Mutola's solo run in the last heat of the women's heats, the men's qualifying round was almost anticlimactic by comparison.

As expected, the heats were close, with no surprises emerging. Brazil's Osmar Barbosa dos Santos turned in the quickest performance of the evening with his 1:47.67 win in heat one, ahead of Belgium's Joeri Jansen (1:48.10) and American Michael Stember (1:48.66). The U.S. indoor champion advanced to tomorrow's semi-finals.

Spaniard Antonio Manuel Reina (1:49.72) and South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (1:49.83) advanced from the second and slowest heat, while the year's second fastest runner, Kenyan Joseph Mutua (1:47.86) and 21-year-old Dutchman Arnoud Okken (1:47.88) crossed the line in a virtual dead heat in race three.  The fourth was taken by Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain (1:48.25) with Bram Som of the Netherlands a few steps back in 1:48.55.

Jean-Patrick Nduwimana (1:47.71) of Burundi was the winner of heat five, just ahead of Ethiopia's Berhanu Alemu, who was later disqualified.  In race six, Florent Lacasse of France built a substantial mid-race lead to take the sixth heat in 1:48.01.  Moroccan Mouhssin Chehibi was second in 1:44.44, edging William Yiampoy and giving the Kenyan a brief scare before it was determined that his 1:48.49 would be enough to advance.

The top two from each heat plus the six fastest losers moved on.

World leader Kutre Dulecha of Ethiopia and defending silver medallist Kelly Holmes were the comfortable winners in the semi-finals of the women's 1500 meters.

Dulecha, the World 4K cross country champion in 2000, was in control of the first race from the outset en route to a 4:08.23 win, just ahead of steeplechase world record holder Gulnara Samitova of Russia, who clocked 4:08.48. Bulgarian Daniela Yordanova made her seasonal debut an auspicious one, running 4:08.50 and moving on to Saturday's final. Ukrainian Nataliya Tobias (4:08.96), Lidia Okninska of Poland and Carmen Douma-Hussar (4:09.28) of Canada all advanced on time.

Holmes looked to be in strong command of the second semi final, crossing the line in a relaxed 4:11.15. Equally at ease were the second and third place finishers, Alesya Turova of Belarus and Russian Yuliya Kosenkova, who clocked 4:11.36 and 4:11.37 respectively.  Sonja Roman of Slovenia was fourth in a personal best 4:11.72, but not fast enough to move onto the next round.

The most notable non-qualifier was hometown favorite Judit Varga.  The Hungarian record holder finished a disappointing seventh in the first heat in 4:10.71.

Markos Geneti of Ethiopia and Kenyan Bernard Lagat emerged the winners from two extremely tight races in semi-finals of the men's 3000.

Geneti, the World Youth champion over the distance in 2001, took control of the lead at the bell, to finish in 7:52.01.  Rui Silva of Portugal looked strong finishing second in 7:52.14, ahead of Antonio David Jimenez of Spain (7:52.25).  The Spaniard was nearly dealt a mortal blow just as he was approaching the bell, when he was knocked off the track by the much larger Gert-Jan Liefers. Managing to stay on his feet while displaying form more suitable for a steeplechaser, Jimenez leapt across a multitude of cables and hurdled the finish line clock and finished to finish ahead of Liefers (7:52.75).  Visibly perturbed after the race, Jimenez showed Liefers the back of his hand as the two left the track. In his first national team appearance, Kenyan Boaz Cheboiywo, who controlled much of the pace, finished sixth in the 7:53.69, and was the fastest non-qualifier.  American Bolota Asmerom made a brief attempt to catch the lead pack in the final 200 meters, but fell short, finishing seventh in 7:53.86.

Bernard Lagat took control of the heat two's tempo from the outset for a gun-to-finish win in 7:47.70.  The next four finishers closed within two-tenths of a second of each other, with Australian Craig Mottram second in a national record 7:48.09.  Ethiopian number two Abiyote Abate was third in (7:48.25), just two one-hundredths ahead of Sergio Gallardo's 7:48.27 PB. Sergey Lebed was another hundredth behind in fifth, just ahead of Canadian record holder Kevin Sullivan (7:48.38) and Moroccan Mohammed Amyn (7:49.92) who also advanced. U.S. champion Jonathon Riley was never in the hunt, and finished eighth in 7:55.58. The final rounds out the program tomorrow night. The women's 3000m races were contained efforts controlled entirely by the eventual Ethiopian victors, signaling that a 1-2 sweep might be in the works.

In the first race, defending champion Berhane Adere jumped to the lead from a tightly wound pack with three laps to go to win in 8:49.76. Russian Yelena Zadorozhnaya sprinted to the line in the final 50 meters to finish second in 8:50.73, ahead of Ukrainian Maryna Dubrova (8:51.04).  Finishing fourth and taking the final automatic qualifying spot was defending silver medallist Marta Domínguez (8:51.05) of Spain. Both Zadorozhnaya and Domínguez clocked seasonal bests.

The pack in the second race didn't break up until the final 400 meters, with Meseret Defar, the year's second fastest, sprinting in for the win in a slowish 8:57.39, with British hope Jo Pavey second in 8:58.08.  The slower pace helped Irish cross country standout Maria McCambridge, who arrived in Budapest with the second slowest seasonal mark in the field. She finished third in the mad dash (8:59.11), just ahead of Russian 10,000m record holder Galina Bogomilova (8:59.65).

With the second race considerably slower, the second foursome from the first heat advanced on time: Briton Hayley Tullett (8:51.27), Sabrina Mockenhaupt (8:52.03) of Germany, Belgian record holder Veerle Dejaeghere (8:55.97) and U.S. champion Shayne Culpepper (8:57.48). "I was just really tired out there," Culpepper said, adding that she only slept a few hours last night. "Not training tired, but sleepy tired. I just didn't feel well.  I hope I feel better the next time around."

Casualties of the slower pace were Pole Wioletta Janowska (9:02.58) and Moroccan Zahra Ouaziz (9:05.19).  The final is on Sunday afternoon.

*Event by Event Results here   *Full text file of full Day 1 Results here
*Photos from Day 1 here

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