Welcome to Helsinki 2005 Day 5

Day 5 of the Helsinki 2005 World Track Championships, would see the Finals of the Men's 1500m and the Women's 5000m heats.

Men's 1500m Final :
Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi moved to the top podium of his athletics career, by capturing the 1500m title at the Athletics World Championships in Helsinki on Wednesday night. .

The defending champion, Hicham El Guerrouj winner in 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003, did not defend his title and Ramzi has moved into position as his successor. What is truly pleasing about Ramzi, is that he does not need to rely on a host of pacemakers and carries quite a range of tactics to achieve success. The race unfolded with Spain's Reyes Estevez, double bronze winner from 1997 and 1999, content to slow the pace down to suit his tremendous finishing kick. Unfortunately, he did not have the luxury of having everything his way, when the USA' s Alan Webb shot to the front at 800m [2:03.78]

The young American, who displayed similar tactics in the first round and in the semi-final, unleashed a 12.4 sec 100m which increased the pace significantly and split the pack. Ramzi had been anticipating an attack and had moved into contention approaching 2 laps to go. When asked through an interpreter; in the Press Conference, what he thought of Webb's attack, he answered that he was expecting it and wondered why he waited so long. The move; he said, allowed the field to spread which made the applying of his tactics easier. Kenya's Alex Kipchirchir was the first to respond to Webb's surge, which would equate to a 53 second lap, Ramzi following.

The Bahrain athlete took control of the race with 325m to go, first to respond was the Ukraine's Ivan Hesko, who would fade over the last 100m out of the medal position. Portugal's Rui Siva tracked Heshko and became boxed on the inside allowing the Moroccan athlete, Adil Kaouch, to steal a march and move into 2nd. Silva was unable to catch the former Junior Champion and had to be content with Bronze.

There was no doubt that Ramzi had superior finishing speed and he now takes his guile into the 800m, where he hopes to win a medal, which has not been achieved in any of the previous World Championships.

In replying to questions at the Press Conference, Ramzi explained his reason for moving to the 7th lane in his heat, as a tactical  manoeuvre so that; specifically, the Kenyans, could not time his finishing speed and therefore his true form could not be anticipated. He rushed past the reporters so as not to answer questions as to why he ran in the 7th lane.

On the question of why the improvement of 8 seconds over a period of 1 year, he attributed it to a change of training routine and more mileage.

And in replying to the question as to running for Bahrain, he said that Bahrain and Morocco are the same to him.

The 800m awaits | results |

Women's 5000m heats :
The performance of the heats was undoubtedly that of Belarus' athlete, Olga Kravtsova, who was unwittingly tripped by Tanzania's Mrisho Zakia. She stood up, after a tremendous crash to the track and fought her way back into contention and into a final birth achieved on time her time was 14:56.16 which is a new National Record (NR)

Britain's Joanne Pavey ran a controlled game plan to qualify for the finals after taking the pace with 2 laps to go.

The Ethiopian favourites progressed to the final with the minimum of fuss, setting up the expected duel between Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar with 2 further Ethiopian athletes likely to be contesting the Bronze. The Kenya challenge fizzled out and Isabella Ochichi was lucky to qualify via time.

Norway's Susan Wigene unknowingly progressed to the final, after spending a fair amount of time in the Mixed Zone answering questions of her countries eager reporters. | results |