Weltklasse Golden League Meet Features Increased Prize Money, Less Appearance Fees and No Rabbits By Bob Ramsak (c) 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved
ZURICH
– When the IAAF Golden Series resumes on Friday night, Zurich’s rebuilt
state-of-the-art Letzigrund Stadium won’t be the only new development
at one of the world’s richest single-day meetings. For the first time
in the sport’s professional era, the annual Weltklasse competition will
not employ the services of pacemakers.
And that suits Bernard Lagat, the recently minted world champion at 1500 and 5000 meters, just fine.
“It’s
fantastic,” said Lagat, who will contest the 3000 on Friday. “People
always run fast and they get personal bests with pacemakers, but then
again it’s so important that the race becomes tactical.”
“Fans
want to see who is going to win,” Lagat, who ended a 99 year middle
distance gold medal drought for the U.S. when he captured the 1500
title, continued. “Because when there’s a pacemaker, they know Kenenisa
Bekele is going to win, or as Hicham El Guerrouj used to win. But now,
with no pacemakers it’s up to somebody else. It’s going to make us
learn how to run these races. And the athletes who don’t run well with
pacemakers, can do extremely well when the race is controlled without
pacemakers. It helps athletes of all styles. We learn and we appreciate
every kind of race that way.”
Lagat’s race will largely be a
rerun of the Osaka 5000, with the five men who finished behind him on
Sunday returning to action in Zurich: Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, Uganda's
Moses Kipsiro, rising American star Matt Tegenkamp, Ethiopian Tariku
Bekele, and Briton Mo Farah. It will also provide an opportunity for
Australian Craig Mottram to bounce back from his poor performance. The
defending bronze medallist and a solid pre-meet medal favorite, Mottram
was never in the hunt and finished a distant 13th in the 15-man field.
With
Lagat contesting the longer race, and Rashid Ramzi and Shedrack Korir,
the Osaka silver and bronze medalists, respectively, taking the weekend
off, Zurich organizers have nonetheless lured half of the 14 men who
reached the world championships 1500m final.
The man with
perhaps the most to prove is Frenchman Mehdi Baala, who was
disqualified in his Osaka semi-final for barreling through the field in
the race’s waning moments. But so does U.S. champion Alan Webb, the
world leader at 3:30.54 after his win in the Paris Golden League
fixture, who was eighth in Osaka after barely squeaking into the final.
Kenyan speedster Daniel Kipchirchir Komen will also seek redemption
after missing his second straight world championships final.
Janeth
Jepkosgei and Maryam Yusuf Jamal, the recently crowned 800 and 1500
meter world champions, vividly illustrated in Osaka that races for
major titles needn’t necessarily be slow. And both contests will be
largely remembered as among the finest of the championships.
Jepkosgei,
whose gutsy gun-to-tape performance in Osaka resulted in a 1:56:04
Kenyan national record, returns to action where she’ll face Spaniard
Mayte Martinez, the Osaka bronze medallist, Russian Olga Kotlyarova and
Slovenia’s Brigita Langerholc, fourth and fifth in Osaka.
Another
anticipated Osaka rematch comes in the 1500 as well, where Jamal, an
Ethiopian-born Bahraini who lives and trains in Switzerland, will again
face Russia's world leader Yelena Soboleva, the Osaka runner-up, and
Ukraine's Iryna Lishchinska, the world bronze medallist. In all, eight
of the top-10 finishers from Osaka will toe the line.
Another
new development introduced by Zurich organizers, and met with mixed
feelings by some athletes and managers, is a redesign of their prize
money and appearance fee structure. Prize money will be doubled this
year to nearly $1.4 million, distributed evenly among all events, with
$25,000 the top prize. The promotional payments, or appearance fees,
were cut in half from 2006, but not eliminated entirely. Additionally,
organizers have also assured that no athlete leaves Zurich
empty-handed. Each athlete participating on the main program will
receive a promotional payment of $1000, and those in the national
events, will receive half that amount.
Three athletes remain
alive in the hunt for a slice of the $1 million IAAF Golden League
Jackpot: Russian pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva, American 100m
hurdles world champion Michelle Perry, and American Sanya Richards in
the 400.