© 2009 The Runner's Tribe, all rights reserved. Published Thursday August 13, 2009

Brought to you by Edward Ovadia who is in Berlin with official IAAF accreditation covering the championships for Runnerstribe.com

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Kleinert Interview - Berlin World Champs

For six days, the world championships have been about letting your head go. On night seven, as real storms raged around the stadium _ not surreal, Lightning Bolt storms _ lightning flashed, thunder rolled, rain pelted down, it was a night for keeping heads.

Dani Samuels notably kept hers and the Sydney 21-year-old became a world champion in the discus _ more of that later. Many others lost their heads, or had them scrambled by the rain delays and the accompanying cold snap. Only four men cleared higher than 2.23 in a high jump competition hit particularly hard by the wet weather.

As ever, there were also some amazing brain snaps in the middle-distances, the semi-finals of men's 800 metres and women's 1500.

I have to admit to an intense dislike of the competition model which produces three semi-finals of the 800. Having only two automatic qualifiers from a semi-final seems to me at least one too few, and the two non-automatic qualifiers usually come from the same race. So instead of 2-2-2 and two more, it is invariably 2-4-2.

It also means that you cannot afford the slightest mistake. One wrong move and you're out.

That said, one thing I love about the system is that it usually ensures three cracking races. The first round and the final can be tactical; in the semi it's just run, run, run as fast as you can.

Somehow, the second semi-final here was jam packed with superstars, while the first and third were comparatively thin. Semi-final two had the defending world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Alfred Kirwa Yego, the Olympic silver medallist Ahmad Ismail, the Olympic fifth placegetter and new world 1500 champion Yusuf Kamel, 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy and perennial medal contender Mbulaeni Mulaudzi.

Talk about loaded: if the second semi were a ship, it would have been sinking way beyond the Plimsoll line.

As it turned out, all three semis produced carnage and, surprisingly, the fastest winning time of the three was Kamel's 1:45.01.

In the first, Abubaker Kaki unusually took the lead, presumably to eliminate the chance of being boxed. Instead, he was clipped from behind by Bram Som of the Netherlands. He clattered to the ground, Som came over the top of him and Poland's Marcel Lewandowski, unable to avoid the pair, came down as well.

This at least meant only two could qualify from the race, but the drama continued into the loaded dog of semi-final two as Ismail pulled out at the bell and Kiprop inexplicable stopped running at 600. Kamel, Borzakovskiy, Yego and Mulaudzi all got through from the race.

The third semi was tame by comparison, but still saw a dramatic change in the final few strides as David Rudisha lost form completely and was tipped out of second by Yeimer Lopez of Cuba.

Phew! The women's 1500 semis followed the men's 800 and saw the entire field in the second heat dawdle around and rely on a kick when they knew exactly what time they had to run. Chief casualty was Olympic champion Nancy Langat, who crashed literally, falling heavily to the track as she lunged through the finish line.

All this demonstrated one of my favourite sayings: "Never under-estimate the collective stupidity of a field of middle-distance runners.

Anyway, back to Samuels, who amply demonstrated the value of keeping cool, but also that triumph and disaster are two sides of the same coin.

The long rain delay meant she did not have any warm-up throws, and Samuels' first effort in the final wobbled out of her hand and outside the sector on the right scarcely more than 30 metres from where she stood.

It could have rocked her, but Samuels steadied and threw 59 metres in the second round. This still left her vulnerable to finishing outside the top eight until she improved to 62 in the third round. A 64-metre throw in the fourth _ the first of two personal bests _ put her into a medal, and a 65.44 in the fifth saw her vault into the gold medal position.

Cool, calm and collected the gold. What more can you say?


 

Len Johnson was The Melbourne Age athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, 10 world championships and five Commonwealth Games. He is the author of The Landy Era, From Nowhere to the Top of the World, and a former national class distance runner (2.19.32 marathon) who trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella.

© 2008 The Runner's Tribe, all rights reserved.

If you were looking to find a story of inspiration, hard times and persistence, which finished with a happy ending, you would need not go further than that of Youcef Abdi. After fleeing his home country at a young age, he switched allegiances to Australia, and has represented his adopted country with pride. Abdi, a former Commonwealth Games bronze medalist over 1500m, switched to the steeplechase three years ago, much to the surprise of most of the Australian Athletics world. Many thought he would not be able to make the transition smoothly, but Abdi has come up against the odds, and was rewarded with a spot in the Beijing 2008 team. Justifiably so, as he finished the final in 6th position, only 0.24sec off the long standing Australian record. We had a brief chat with Youcef while he was in the Olympic Village.

RunnersTribe: First off, congrats on the selection. It's been a long time coming and well deserved. How satisfying was it to finally see your name on the team list?

Youcef Abdi: I was over the moon when I realized I was going to go down in history as an Olympian. I went through a lot of stress to get there, and our governing body (Athletics Australia) made it bloody tough to get in, which probably needs to be addressed if they want to improve the development of our sport. Running is a fairly simple thing, and I don't know why it has been made so complicated!

RT: The switch to the Steeple has seemed to be paying off; you've run 8:18 twice, only two seconds off the national record. How different is the running you are doing now compared to the 1500m training you were used to?

YA: Basically I'm just doing more mileage in my runs and sessions. On top of that, I am finding more core work is the key. You can throw in a few coffees into the equation; it gives you a great buzz.

RT: Considering the circumstances you had to go through to make the Olympics, what do you consider as your best performance…making the Beijing Games, or the Bronze Medal you won at the 2002 Commonwealth Games over 1500m?

YA: That's a tough question, but I will go with Olympic Selection. There is no greater feeling than being part of this huge spectacle. The Olympics is the only event that stops the world for a period of time, and there is no greater satisfaction than knowing you are part of that event.

 

 

 

Beijing Olympics

RT: Still on the topic of the Olympics, how is the atmosphere in the Olympic Village? Can you tell our readers a bit about the village and what its like?

YA: I think if the perfect world existed, this would be it. We are here to do what we love (run) and the rest is done for you. The food hall is open 24/7 and has a wide range of foods from all different countries. The rooms are made up daily, your laundry is looked after, and there is an endless supply of PowerAde. Everywhere you go you see athletes, whether they be walking, running, riding, carrying their hockey equipment around etc. Sometimes it just feels like you are in a fantasy land!

RT: What are your thoughts on the exclusion of Marty Dent after his B Qualifier and National Title? Would you like him to be on the start line at Beijing alongside you?

YA: It would have been nice to have Marty on the team, and more Australians in general. I believe if he has run an A qualifier he would have been guaranteed a selection.

It would have been nice to have more Australians...I believe if any one had run an A they would have been added to the team.

RT: You're pretty passionate about your tattoo. Can you tell us the meaning of it?

YA: Tattoos were never something I thought I would get into, but this one was special to me. The symbol represents BERBER (indigenous people of North Africa) which I am one of. It means a lot to me as the Berbers struggled throughout the centuries to live free but unfortunately some places in the world are not fair and just.

RT: After working so hard to get into the Australian team, you blew us away with your 6th place in the final! Can you take us through the race and how you were feeling from the onset of the race, and what was going through your mind with one lap to go?

YA: We always believed I was good enough to final, we had a plan for the heats and it came through. In the final I knew that I was feeling good in my body and my mind. I wasn't nervous, and you could feel a lot of energy just from the magnitude of the event. Walking out through the tunnel into the stadium felt like you were part of the set of gladiators, coming into this huge arena, the noise was deafening!

During the race we were grouped up and moving everywhere, and I knew I had to just stay out of trouble, but keep in contact with the front pack. The plan worked, and with one lap to go you just throw everything you have at it. Many athletes only get one shot at the Olympics, so there is no point wondering what if. I picked up a few athletes after the last water jump, and passed the 2004 Olympic champion on the line. To run a PB in the heat, and then a PB in the final, and be so close to the Australian record was very pleasing.