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Welcome to Helsinki 2005 Day 7 |
Day 7 of the Helsinki 2005 World Track Championships, would see the semi-Finals of the Men's 800m and heats of the Women's 1500m.
Men's 800m semi-Finals :
Three semi-finals; the first 2 finishers from each semi go through and then 2 further places on time.
First up; you had a field suitable for the final itself, with Djabir Said-Guerni the Paris 2003 and defending Champion and Yuri Borzakovski , Olympic Champion in Athens 2004. Not to mention, Kenya's William Yiampoy and the recently crowned Helsinki 2005 1500m Champion, Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain.
But despite having a stellar field, the most important ingredient for all, is an athlete who likes to shoulder the responsibility of providing the pace and that athlete was USA's Khadevis Robinson. With an opening lap of 51.18, the chances of the 2 fastest finishers coming from semi 1 was highly likely. And they did.
In semi2; we had South Africa's Mbulaeni Mulaudzi expected to make progress to the final. Unfortunately, for Mulaudzi the field didn't hand it to him on a plate and then he didn't help himself much, going out of the Championships with barely a whimper in 3rd spot. The grateful Mansoor Belal Ali and Mehdi Baala progressing, with the South African left to answer the expectant and mundane questions.
Semi3, now had the athletes knowing exactly what time they needed to qualify for the final, as well as the eager front running Kenyan, Wilfred Bungei, to provide a suitable pace. Bungei eased up just before the line, allowing Canada's Gary Reed to take first place in a National Record (NR) time of 1:44.33. The remaining six runners failed to qualify, with Iran's Sadjad Moradi being most content with a NR in 6th place time of 1:45.88. Britain's James Mc Ilroy was also one of the casulaties not making the finals in a time of 1:45.91. | results |
Women's 1500m heats :
The two fancied runners to take the title, Maryam Jamal, of Bahrain, and Yuliya Chizhenko, from Russia, both won their heats.
Both heats were won by the respective athletes in simialr circumstances, a strong finish. Which makes for an intriguing final, with the question of who will break first?
Helen Clitheroe (GBR), qualified with 4:09.13 but did not look smooth in the process.
Also in the final will be France's Ghezielle Bouchra, who has shown great aggression in her races the season. Canada's Carmen Douma-Hussar also booked her place in the final with her time of 4:08.73.
Chizhenko will be joined by her compatriots Tatyana Tomashova, Yelena Soboleva and Olga Yegorova, making the Russian presence formidable and a concern for the other athletes.
Spain's Natalia Rodríguez was most content to be in the final 12 and we only question her choice of hairstyle.
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