Previews17 Aug 2005


Gatlin the man turns to Sheffield – Super Grand Prix PREVIEW

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Justin Gatlin of the US celebrates winning gold in the men's 100m final (© Getty Images)

“It changes you, being a champion. It turns you into a man.” Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin was talking before last month’s London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace where a day he later became the fastest sprinter ever on a British track.

A champion’s responsibility

“You’ve got to go out there and take responsibility,” he said. “You want to go and hang out with your friends. A lot of my friends don’t run track so they are out socialising, going to clubs, hanging out, drinking, being young men and women – and obviously I can’t do that right now. I’m a champion and I’ve got to act like a champion. I’ve got to prepare myself for races.”

In Helsinki last week Gatlin showed just what he was talking about. The 23 year-old proved his maturity when he not only won the World 100m title in 9.88, by the biggest margin in World Championships history, but returned to claim the 200m in equally impressive fashion, a double sprint triumph to match Maurice Greene’s in 1999.

200m is Gatlin’s first love

Few were surprised that Gatlin won the 100m – in the absence of World record holder Asafa Powell, he was the outstanding favourite. But the margin of his victory in that final, and the manner of his quiet, professional approach to the 200m were less expected, and no less impressive for that.

In fact, Gatlin admitted in London that the 200m is his first love, and winning at that distance an especially important goal.

“This year I have more fire for the 200m,” he said. “There is a very competitive field in the 200, so I will have to strategise, make my way through the rounds to be victorious.

“The hardest part for me won’t be the running, it will be preparing myself for the rounds.”

Those were prophetic words. Having so dominated the 100m final in Helsinki, Gatlin managed to slip through the 200m heats and semis almost without notice. While his compatriots Tyson Gay and John Capel battled against the wind and rain to record the fastest times, Gatlin contented himself with getting through each round race by race, finishing third in the heats and second in the quarters and semi-finals.

So when he lined up for the final on 11 August he was ready to turn it on. Gatlin won in 20.04, 0.16 seconds ahead of defending champion Capel. But for a couple of celebratory strides at the end, he would surely have gone under 20 seconds – a superb run given the cool, wet weather and minor headwind.

“Two down, one to go,” he said afterwards, his eyes set on a third prize in the 4x100m relay. But Gatlin never got back to the track after the USA’s disastrous relay heat.

Helsinki final re-run

On Sunday Gatlin does return to the track, and to the UK for the second time this summer, now an even hotter star than he was just a month ago. Having lowered the UK all-comers’ record at 100m, it seems appropriate that he should tackle the 200m at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Sheffield.

The race will be a near re-run of that Helsinki final in which US sprinters filled the first four places, the first time ever in a World Championships event. Capel, who took the bronze medal, and Tyson Gay, who finished fourth, will be Gatlin’s chief rivals in the Don Valley Stadium.

But the hugely talented Jamaican teenager Usain Bolt, who pulled up injured half way down the final straight, will also be running. And with Stephane Buckland of Mauritius in the line-up as well, the race includes four of the first five from the Helsinki final.

More than 50 Helsinki finalists

It’s far from the only high quality race in Sheffield. While post-Helsinki attention inevitably turns to Zurich this week it would be easy to overlook this second-string UK meeting. But the Sheffield fields are packed with World Championship medallists – there are 25 at the latest count, including 11 champions, and more than 50 finalists.

5000m World record attempt

Gatlin was one of three double World champions in Helsinki, and one of the others, 19 year-old distance marvel Tirunesh Dibaba, is also running. No sooner had the Ethiopian claimed her second gold medal in the 5000m last Saturday – like Gatlin, leading home a “four sweep” for her country – than she was asked about her desire to attack the world record.

Dibaba looked so comfortable winning the Helsinki final in a championships record 14:38.59 that the question seemed almost inevitable. After all, she set the World junior record of 14:30.88 in Bergen just a year ago behind Elvan Abeylegesse’s World record of 14:24.68. And since then she has become a double World Cross Country Champion and now a double World champion on the track.

Sheffield may not seem the obvious place for a distance record, but Dibaba says she is in the mood and shape to give it a go.

“I definitely feel the World record time is within me,” she says. “Clearly the conditions in Helsinki were not ideal for fast times, but if we get the right weather in Sheffield then the field is certainly strong enough to go quicker than 14:24.”

A suitable pacemaker

That strong field includes her sister, Ejegayehu, the bronze medallist at both 5000m and 10,000m, and Britain’s World and Olympic finalist Jo Pavey. Apart from the weather – predicted to be warm, dry and relatively calm – the only problem her agent Mark Wetmore sees is finding a suitable pace maker.

“It’s nearly impossible to find a pacemaker who is fast enough for these girls,” says Wetmore. “Sheffield, a lot of it is about the weather. It’s really a major consideration. If she is there and the weather is good and she wants to try for it, I mean after watching her in Helsinki I don’t think there’s anything she can’t do.”

Bergqvist has record ambitions too

With $50,000 on offer, it could be an expensive day for the organisers, for Sweden’s Kasja Bergqvist is another Helsinki gold medallist who could take a shot at the world record. The high jump champion won with a world leading 2.02 last week and then had three attempts at 2.10m.

“The way feel right now it’s as if anything is possible and I would love to jump even higher in Sheffield,” says Bergqvist, still on a high after coming back from serious injury to win her first World outdoor title. “The World record has always been a target of mine – and if the conditions are right I would love to have another go at it.”

Stefka Kostadinova’s world figures of 2.09 have stood for 18 years now, and Bergqvist’s pb is 2.06 from 2003. She will have to win the competition first, though., against USA’s silver medallist Chaunte Howard and four other Helsinki finalists.

Felix versus Williams around the bend

There are a number of other intriguing clashes. The women’s 200m, for example, pitches Helsinki gold medallist Allyson Felix against her American team-mate Lauryn Williams, the 100m champion who’s making a rare excursion over the longer sprint.

“My gold medal has given me a real taste for the big time,” says Williams. “Sheffield should be a real test.”

Campbell and Greene at the dash

The women’s 100m features the woman that Williams beat for gold, Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell, against the Olympic champion Yuliya Nesterenko of Belarus, plus two other Helsinki finalists, USA’s Muna Lee and Jamaica’s Sherone Simpson.

The men’s race also includes Helsinki medallists – Jamaica’s Michael Frater and Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis – plus USA’s Maurice Greene, who lost his one chance to perform at the World Championships when USA’s relay team dropped the baton. “I guess I just came for a rainy holiday,” he said afterwards. Greene will be keen to show he can still hold his own when given the chance.

Johnson and Richards looking for revenge

Hurdler Allen Johnson is another “old-time” American who’ll be out for redemption, or maybe that’s revenge. Johnson, who was a distinctly unhappy bronze medallist in Helsinki, will face gold medallist Ladji Doucouré of France in a race that features two other finalists.

Revenge will also be in the thoughts of Sanya Richards. The American expected to win the women’s 400m final, but was outrun brilliantly by Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas. The two will meet again in Sheffield.

Helsinki podium in the vault

All three medallists go in the men’s Pole Vault – Rens Blom of Netherlands, Brad Walker of USA, and Russia’s Pavel Gerasimov – and in the men’s discus, which features Lithuania’s Virgilius Alekna, Estonia’s Gerd Kanter and Germany’s Michael Möllenbeck, plus five other Helsinki finalists.

Davis and Phillips in the Triple and the Long

Two outstanding American World champions top the bill in the horizontal jumps – Walter Davis in the Triple and Dwight Phillips in the Long Jump. Phillips will face the surprise silver medallist in Helsinki, Ghana’s Ignisious Gaisah, while the Triple Jump gives Britain’s Nathan Douglas a chance to prove that his form in the Finnish capital was just a blip on his career’s upward curve.

Kelly Holmes takes her final ‘home’ bow

Last and, for the locals anyway, far from least, Sheffield will be the setting for Kelly Holmes’ last ever appearance on a British track. Having missed most of the season through injury, the double Olympic champion is determined to get back in the spikes one last time for a rousing send-off.

She goes in the 800m against a largely domestic field – including Heptathlete Kelly Sotherton – on the track where she set the British record some eight years ago.

Matthew Brown for the IAAF

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