What Next? - A Column By Len Johnson

I’m one of those who have always preferred the descriptor athletics for my favourite sport to the grander-sounding track and field.

One reason is that the latter term does not even encompass one of two of the more popular forms of competition _ road and cross-country. A more basic one is that athletics is a more holistic sort of word, implying a whole that is more than just the sum of its parts, while, to my taste anyway, track and field suggests two fundamentally different sports under the one umbrella.

It’s all a matter of semantics, but results at the recent continental championships, particularly the African and European championships, indicated that perhaps there is a disturbing element of truth to the two sports/one umbrella concept. Specifically, if you want to see field athletics, go to Europe; if you want to see track, go to Africa, the Caribbean, the US _ but go somewhere else.

In looking at the results from Nairobi (African champs) and Barcelona (European), this distinction virtually leapt off the page. As some have already observed (notably Pat Butcher in his www.globerunner.org blog), the field event results in Spain were right at the top of world-class, but the track results were spotty; in Kenya, the opposite was true.

There was a gender divide _ the women’s track results in Barcelona were generally superior to those in Nairobi _ but there are other social and cultural factors operating here. Women’s middle and long-distance performances were also better at the Europeans, but female African runners have joined their male counterparts in dominating those events at world level.

Pat Butcher also commented on the implications of these outcomes for the sport in Europe. Track events, he argued, are far more marketable than field events, so it cannot be a good thing that Europeans are virtually invisible on the world stage in track events.

Be that as it may, a quick comparison of the men’s events at the African and European championships shows the medal performances _ not only gold, but all medals _ in Nairobi were generally much superior to those at Barcelona.

Amazingly, one event in which they were not was the 3000 metres steeplechase. Good as the French pair who went 1-2 in Barcelona _ Mahiedine Mekhissi and Bob Tahri _ are, fast as they ran (8:07.87 and 8:09.28 and despite the fact that they have both been very competitive in recent global championships, I don’t think anyone would argue they are a threat to the Kenyan hegemony in the event.

Still, one other thing which was apparent in Barcelona was the strong performances by British athletes. No doubt this level of performance is rising as a home Olympic Games draws ever closer. Hopefully, there will be a wash-over effect into other European countries. After all, an Olympics in London in 2012 is also far more a “home” Games for French, German and Scandinavian athletes than was Beijing in 2008.

With the post-championship phase of the Diamond League and European season about to start up as I write, the other major thing to ponder is what the results in Nairobi and Barcelona imply for the remainder of the season. Freed of the mental and physical burden of preparation for the year’s major objective, what performances might some of the champions now produce (not to mention others spurred on by failing to achieve desired results).

In Nairobi, David Rudisha ran 1:42.84, leaving 2007 world champion Alfred Kirwa Yego some two seconds behind (Abubaker Kaki did not run). Now he is free to resume the chase after Wilson Kipketer’s world record.

Silas Kiplagat and Aamine Lalou excited us with the year’s first sub-3:30 1500 metres performance in Monaco recently, but in Nairobi Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop handled them both. What will they produce when the chase for fast times resumes, I wonder.

Sadly, one thing we won’t get to find out is how fast Wilson Kiprop might run at sea level. For the second time he produced an amazing 10,000 metres performance at altitude (Nairobi is around 1700 metres above sea level). In the Kenyan trials it was 27:26.93. In the championships, he was just as impressive, winning in 27:32.91. But there is no Brussels 10k this year, due to the fact that it is the Diamond League final and the distance is 5000.

The women’s distances seemed more affected by the altitude than the men’s, but Olympic champion Nancy Lagat, who has lost just once this year, again defeated Ethiopia’s Gelete Burka in the 1500 and world champion Vivian Cheruiyot produced a 2:46 final kilometre to win the 5000 metres from Meseret Defar in 16:18.72.

From the Europeans, Blanka Vlasic finally got a European title with a 2.03 win in the high jump, Natalya Antyukh ran under 53 seconds to win the 400 metres hurdles, Andreas Thorkildsen continued to rule the men’s javelin, Phillips Idowu showed his best form when it counted to win the triple jump with a personal best 17.81, Christian Reif produced a world-leading and championship record 8.47 to win the long jump and Renaud Lavillenie was untroubled to win the vault at 5.85.

With the big pressure off them, some of these athletes will be out to produce something out-of-the-ordinary in the remainder of the season.