The Hindu : Greene gunning for fourth gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 23, 2003

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Greene gunning for fourth gold

By K.P. Mohan

PARIS AUG. 22. Maurice Greene has thrown down the gauntlet. He is once again ready to take on his challengers and critics.

And when the ninth World athletics championships get going at the imposing Stade de France here on Saturday he will be gunning for his fourth successive gold medal in the short dash. That is a record even the great Carl Lewis has not achieved.

Of course, record is not what Greene is after. Not even the World record that Tim Montgomery snatched away from him last summer with a stunning 9.78m here.

"Nothing else matters,'' Greene said on Thursday as he discussed his gold medal chances. The record can wait perhaps.

If he gets his fourth, Greene will be joining the likes of pole vaulter Sergey Bubka, the greatest one-lapper of our times Michael Johnson, German discus thrower Lars Riedel and distance king Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia as quadruple gold medallist in a single event at the Worlds.

Bubka has six. Overall, including relays, Michael Johnson has the maximum golds — nine. Carl Lewis tops the medals chart among men, with 10, including eight golds. Jamaican Merlene Ottey has 14 medals to head the women's section.

Greene is not getting any younger, however, though his enormous experience at this level should stand the American in good stead. On the minus side is his absence from big meets during the past one and a half months. He won only once this season and at best came third in the big meets.

There is an array of sprinters out to grab Greene's throne, though there is no clear favourite in a season that has seen quite a number of topsy-turvy results in the sprints. Briton Dwain Chambers must have fancied his chances better than anyone else after he beat the top names in London, but his own form has been as fickle as the English weather.

With Tim Montgomery suffering a few humiliating defeats, American Bernard Williams as inconsistent as ever, and Nigerian Deji Aliu not yet a name to reckon with, though he has almost all notable scalps under his belt this season, the men's 100 is very much an open race. And that makes it all the more exciting.

Excitement will not be lacking elsewhere though there will be a few notable absentees who would otherwise have provided additional glamour and class to these championships. Marion Jones for one, Paula Radcliffe for another.

All eyes on Gebrselassie

Men's hammer is just one of the field events that should throw up an absorbing contest. There are several others, especially in the women's section but before we wander onto the field, one should get back to the track, if only to focus on another great champion of our times — Haile Gebrselassie.

Gebrselassie will be looking for his fifth title in the 10,000 metres. No, not on the trot. For, his sequence was broken last time in Edmonton by a little-known, dapper, thin Kenyan with the broken tooth. A man named Charles Kamathi. Not many might have heard his name till then.

That defeat forced Gebrselassie to weigh his options all over again, whether to go to marathon never to return to track or whether to keep himself in the 10,000m shape if only to seek revenge. It has not been an easy decision since the marathon, as Gebrselassie has pointed out time and again this season, has robbed him of some of his speed.

It was not Kamathi who did the damage to Gebrselassie's pride this season, but another Kenyan, Abraham Chebii. Two defeats to Chebii and one to countryman Kenenisa Bekele, the two-time double gold medallist at the World cross country championships, has raised the question, "have we seen the best of the Emperor on the track?' Or is Gebrselassie going to produce one last devastating kick on the straight to destroy his young challengers? We will know on Sunday.

Just as everyone is waiting for the Ethiopian-Kenyan battles to resume in the distance events, there is one man who is aiming for a historic double at the 1500m and 5000m. Hicham El Guerrouj is no stranger to the metric mile. He has achieved everything over that distance bar the Olympic crown. But 5000m is going to be a relatively new territory for the redoubtable Moroccan.

Many in the past had tried this double on the global stage, but only the peerless Finn, Paavo Nurmi succeeded, at the 1924 Paris Olympics.

El Guerrouj's has his task cut out. Surely he will remain the overwhelming favourite in the 1500 metres, where he showed his form with a 3:29.76 in Rome. He also has the second best mark this season for the 5000m, 12:50.24, clocked in Ostrava in June.

The man who beat him there, Stephen Cherono of Kenya, has since moved to Qatar which has promised to pay him $1000 per month even after his retirement apart from an undisclosed sum at present. He changed his name to Saif Saeed Shaheen and has been entered here in his speciality, the 3000m steeplechase. Kenyans better watch out!

El Guerrouj will have to watch out for a whole set of young Ethiopians and Kenyans in the 5000 metres, notably, Kenenisa Bekele, Gebre-egziabher Gebremarim and Hailu Mekonnen of Ethiopia and defending champion Richard Limo and Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya.

Outside of the traditional battles among Ethiopians, Kenyans and Moroccans, the spotlight should be on a few field events this time, especially in the women's section. This is not to suggest that competition will be lacking in any event, men or women. At this level, getting through every round is equivalent to scaling a small peak and when it comes to the fight for the medals there are no easy pickings.

But to shift our focus slightly away, it is essential to bring in women's pole vault and high jump, both potentially capable of producing high-voltage action. Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia all but hijacked the women's pole vault event this season with a world record of 4.82m at Gateshead, England, after teammate Svetlana Feofanova and American Stacy Dragila took turns in updating the world mark the past two years.

Isinbayeva starts the favourite, Feofanova has the consistency while Dragila should be hoping that she gets out of the lean patch she has been in for some time now.

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