Diaz in form to challenge for 1500m
gold
27 February 1999 - Monaco – With less than eight laps of the "Peace
and Friendship" Stadium in Piraeus on Wednesday night, Spain’s Andres Diaz went
from relative anonymity to becoming the proud holder of a new European indoor 1500m
record.
The 29 year-old’s time – 3:33.32 – not only erased the mark of one of the legendary British middle distance men of the 1980s and 90s, Peter Elliott, but currently tops the world list for the event. Diaz, from La Coruna in the north west of Spain, is the latest in a long line of great Spanish 1500m runners like 1992 Olympic champion Fermin Cacho and current European champion Reyes Estevez, to Jose-Manuel Abascal and Jose-Luis Gonzalez, whose medal winning exploits in the 1980s helped inspire the current generation.
Diaz had originally planned to attack Cacho’s national record of 3:35.29: "I am more surprised than anyone," he admitted in Athens: "I thought I was in shape to run around 3:35, but I didn’t expect so much because I have been training really hard for the summer season rather than on peaking for the indoors." Yet Diaz had already showed his indoor form by running 3:35.57 for 1500m in Stuttgart on February 7 and 4:56.87 for 2000m (a national record) in Birmingham on February 14.
Once in Maebashi, Diaz will be anxious to exorcise the ghost of the European Championships in Budapest where – despite being touted as a possible medallist – he finished 11th in a race won by his countryman Estevez. Diaz left the stadium in tears on that day.
Diaz’s main rivals in Maebashi will be Kenyans Laban Rotich and William Tanui, although Portugal’s Rui Silva is also a formidable competitor and has run 3:35.59 this season. Rotich, who ran 3:33.39 in Stockholm just two days ago, looks like the man Diaz has to beat for gold. But at least the Spaniard is not scared of Kenyans – his final sprint in Athens took him past two of them: David Lelei and Tanui.
Yet whatever happens in Maebashi, Diaz knows he is in the shape of his life and likely to be in contention for more honours in Seville at the World Championships in August.
