That Wacky 800

By LEN JOHNSON

The 800 metres is the flakiest event in track and field. It's official. The demise of Pamela Jelimo _ even if it proves no more lasting than the Olympic champ's next race _ confirms it. Traditionally flukey events like the pole vault and the javelin are rock-solid by comparison.

You remember Pamela Jelimo? Came out of nowhere; never run an 800 before last year, or maybe just one at an obscure Rift Valley school sports. She starts by beating Maria Mutola in the African championships; then she runs the fastest 800 for yonks; then she wins the Olympic gold medal; and, finally, she takes out the Golden League jackpot and wins the World Athletic Final. Absolute sensation; should have seen this coming; only 18, will rule the event for years; and so forth, and so on.

So what happens? First Jelimo gets beaten in her 2009 season debut in Morocco, running sixth behind Britain's Jenny Meadows (a semi-finalist in Beijing OG). That was Jelimo's first-ever loss at 800 and was swiftly followed by her second when she slowly sank from first to last in the final 200 metres at the Prefontaine Classic, running 2:05.57 behind the American Maggie Vessey's winning 2:00.18.

Perhaps we should have foreseen this. Both the manner of Jelimo's arrival and the history of the men's event for the past 10 years indicate it was possible, probable even. Jelimo last year displaced her countrywoman Janeth Jepkosgei at the top of women's 800 running. Jepkosgei had dominated 2007, winning the world championships in Osaka after a bold display of front-running, in much the same way as Jelimo dominated the Olympic year. We mere observers couldn't see Jepkosgei losing for years either; then along came Jelimo.

Women's 800 running has been rock-solid compared to men's, however, with a fairly clear choice for world number one most years: 2000-2004 was mostly Maria Mutola (though Kelly Holmes memorably won at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games) followed by successive, albeit shorter, periods of dominance by Cuba's Zulia Calatayud, Jepkosgei and Jelimo.

The only certainty in the men's 800, however, is the lack of certainty. Last year, for example, Wilfred Bungei won the Olympics, but was no better than 15th-fastest man for the year. Alfred Kirwa Yego won the World Athletics Final, but was only ninth-fastest. And the fastest man in the world last year, Abubaker Kaki, was no better than an Olympic semi-finalist (as was the next fastest, defending champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy).

The same applied in 2007, when Kirwa Yego was world champion (but only 13th on the world list), Youssef Saad Kamel won the WAF race and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was fastest.

In fact, you have to go all the way back to Andre Bucher in 2001 to find a man winning the major championships gold medal and the World Athletic Final (then the IAAF Grand Prix final, and held in Melbourne) in the same year. The mid-year in the Olympic cycle does not have a major championship: Mulaudzi ran year's fastest time and won the WAF in 2006, but was only third in the World Cup and sixth in the African championships.

You have to go all the way back to 1999, and the current world record holder Wilson Kipketer, to find a man dominating a year. The incomparable Kipketer was world champion that year (one of his three), world's fastest, won the Golden League jackpot (seven races then) and also took out the Grand Prix final.

Why is the 800 so flaky. Well, apart from the rare combination of physiological gifts the event demands, there is the reduction from four rounds to three in championships. That makes progression from heat to semi and semi to final a matter of first two plus fastest losers. It's pretty easy to find yourself third in the wrong race _ Borzakovskiy suffered precisely that fate in Beijing. And two cut-throat races to get to the final can result in your throat's being cut by the time you line up in the final!

Also, you fancy, there is a growing disconnect between the manner most races are run on the world circuit and championship racing. When Kaki ran 1:43.10 at Hengelo recently, the rabbit went through 400 in 48.90. No-one sets the pace for you in a championship race.

There now seems to be two types of 800 runner _ those who can run fast, and those who can run championships, with their conflicting demands of speed and endurance (both to handle the rounds and to handle the speed better). Interestingly, the same appears to be happening at 1500.

A consequence of this is that the 800 looks like remaining one of the most unpredictable events on the championship roster. And that's no bad thing!


 

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.