Where Your Dreams Become Reality
|
Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
|
Bislett Games Dram Mile Welcomes a New Generation of Milers by Bob Ramsak (c) 2005 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved July 28, 2005 Oslo, NORWAY -- When the ExxonMobil Bislett Games Golden League meeting returns to the newly-rebuilt Bislett Stadium Friday night, it will be more than just a homecoming for one of the sport’s most respected competitions: it also signals the return of the ‘Dream Mile,’ an event that has defined this competition for nearly three decades, and with it, perhaps the dawning of a new generation in middle distance running. In the house that witnessed world records by Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram in the 1970s and 1980s, some of the young elite milers that have gathered in the Norwegian capital, with their feet firmly planted in reality, have their sights set on some classy performances. Beginning with pre-race favorite Daniel Kipchirchir Komen. “With the great crowd that will come, something fantastic can come tomorrow,” said the 20-year-old Kenyan, the season’s most solid 1500 runner. “I would like to go for 3:44, but I don’t know how it will be with the pace.” He was referring to Hicham El Guerrouj’s 3:44.90 meet record set in 1997, still the fifth fastest performance ever. This season, Komen, still in his first year of serious competition at the distance, has produced three of the year’s fastest 1500 performances: a 3:30.77 win in Doha, his 3:30.01 PB victory in Paris, and a 3:30.37 runner-up finish in Rome. No other competitor this year has more than one foray into sub-3:31 territory. While stopping short of guaranteeing an outright assault of El Guerrouj’s mark, Komen did make a safe promise: an improvement on his personal best, a modest 3:54.03 from July 2004, a period when his 1500 best was just 3:42. “The guys are very strong,” he added, reeling off a start list that includes veteran Bernard Lagat and Qatari Daham Bashir. “I hope tomorrow that we can better the time. The stadium is brand new, and I hope it’s going to produce good results.” Komen’s not the only young gun aiming to leave his mark on the new Bislett track. American Alan Webb and Nick Willis of New Zealand, both just 22, will have some venerable performances in the back of their minds when the ‘Dream Mile’ concludes the evening’s competition. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t [on my mind],” Webb said of Steve Scott’s 3:47.69 U.S. record set here in 1982. “But I think first and foremost, I just want to compete. Compete and set a personal best.” Webb set his best of 3:50.73 last year in London. “That’s usually what my goals are. It just happens to be that I’m inching closer to that record anyways. A PR would put me in the ballpark. I’m just going to try and compete.” Willis, who less than a month ago clocked 3:32.38 to shave 2/100s from mile legend John Walker’s 1500m national record –one that had stood for nearly 30 years-- now has Walker’s 3:49.08 record in the mile on his to-do list. “I haven’t run a mile since Prefontaine last year, so this is a really good opportunity to knock on the door of 3:50,” said Willis, who spent the past three weeks training in Belgium with New Zealand’s Helsinki squad, where among other things, he sharpened up his speed. “I got in a lot with the 400 runners and did a lot of good work with them.” But, like Webb, Willis said that his primary goal is to be as competitive as possible against a strong international field. “I’d really like to get top-three. That would be a really huge goal of mine. And if I did that then I think the time would come naturally along with that. But then again it’s really been a while since I stepped out there and put everything into a race.” But the field doesn’t include only young upstarts. Olympic bronze medallist Rui Silva of Portugal will be in the hunt, as will two-time Olympic medallist Bernard Lagat, who is fighting off a cold. “I’m excited,” said Lagat, who finished second to Ivan Heshko in Stockholm on Tuesday. “I’m going to treat it like I didn’t have a cold. Like I’m coming in fresh, I want to have that in my mind, so I can run with the guys. The guys are looking really strong. Komen has won in Paris, he beat me in Rome. And he looks very strong. And we have Silva. Alan Webb, he’s trying to get that 3:47. So, it should be a very interesting race.” For his part, Lagat too is aiming high, with hopes of approaching his personal best of 3:47.28 from 2001, a mark which would also dip under Scott’s record. “I want to do another [sub-3:48] again. I don’t want to think about the record; if I run a 3:48, that will still be okay. If I was to run tomorrow, and feel good and get a new PB, I will be very pleased.” The requested pacework calls for 1:51.5 through two laps, and the bell at 2:48. “I’m very happy with that,” Lagat said. “That’s perfect,” said Webb, before breaking into a hearty laugh. “If you can hang on ‘til 1200, you’re good to go. It’s getting there that’s the hard part.” “Given that this is a mile, and we are trying to push 2:48 for 1200 in a mile, that is really fast,” Lagat said. “And that is really exciting. Hopefully my body will be strong enough. I was really tired in the last 200 meters in Stockholm, and I hope that tomorrow will not be the same thing.” After several strong recent outings during which he experimented with a variety of tactics, Webb was extremely upbeat on the eve of his first Bislett appearance. “I think it should be good. I’m going to stick my nose in there and see what happens.” After a temporary move to the west coast city of Bergen last year, the meet returns to the newly-rebuilt Bislett Stadium. Originally built in 1922, the old stadium and its six-lane track was last used for the meet in 2003. Razed last year after nearly 10 years of debate over its reconstruction, the facility was rebuilt in a little more than 13 months, at a cost of 450 million Norwegian crowns, roughly 56.9 million euro (USD 68.6 million). Norway’s King and Queen, Harald and Sonja, will be in attendance to kick off the event. A sell-out crowd of 15,400 is expected. Only three athletes survived the quest for the TDK Golden League million dollar jackpot after the Paris and Rome fixtures: Christine Arron of France in the 100m, Lashinda Demus of the U.S. in the 400m hurdles, and Russian Tatyana Lebedeva in the triple jump.
|
Cross Country Spikes 10% off Injured?
|
