Mottram offers hope on the track

ATHLETICS/World Championships: Just when it seemed the Africans were going to leave Helsinki having conquered the distance races on the track up popped Craig Mottram.

Although the Australian couldn't match Eamonn Coghlan's feat in the same stadium 22 years ago, his bronze medal in the 5,000 metres is perhaps an equally defining moment.

Mottram has given the rest of the world some hope, coming home amid a sea of African runners. He was the first non-African to medal in either the men's 5,000 or 10,000 metres at the championships since 1987. Hurry back, Alistair Cragg!

Benjamin Limo took the win in 13:32.55 - giving Kenya their first gold medal - and just ahead of Sileshi Sihine of Ethiopia.

Half a stride behind was Mottram, who'd hauled himself back into the bronze-medal position having dropped to fourth down the home stretch. That defending champion Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya was the last runner Mottram passed heightened his remarkable achievement.

Mottram sat back as the field eased through 3,000 metres in 8:27.74, then darted into third just before the bell. He was chasing Kipchoge and Sihine around the bend, and while Limo's late spurt earned him gold, Mottram's steely determination earned him the bronze in 13:32.96.

"I'm so pleased with that," he said. "The first few laps were so slow, but I just tried to stay calm. Then I just waited for the last 250 metres and gave it my all."

Among the first to offer congratulations was his coach, Nic Bideau, perhaps better known as Sonia O'Sullivan's partner. Mottram does a lot of his training with O'Sullivan.

Africans filled the next eight places behind Mottram, with less than five seconds separating first and 10th. The last lap was just under 54 seconds, and yet they still couldn't outdo Coghlan - who ran 13:28.53 here in 1983.

Tariku Bekele - younger brother of Kenenisa - could only manage seventh, but Ethiopia had no such problems on Saturday when they went one-through-four in the women's 5,000 metres, led home by Tirunesh Dibaba.

An African also managed to win the other men's running final yesterday, even though he was wearing the colours of Bahrain. Rashid Ramzi - the former Moroccan - claimed the first 800m-1,500m double at these championships, winning the shorter distance yesterday in a lifetime best of 1:44.24.

Ramzi ran very astutely, just like he did when winning the 1,500 metres last Wednesday, but the same can't be said of Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, who left himself with a ridiculous amount of work to do and ended up second in 1:44.51.

The women's 1,500 metres proved a rough ride, and while Russia's Tatyana Tomashova won in 4:00.35, her team-mate Yuliya Chizhenko lost her silver medal after being disqualified for barging down the back stretch - promoting Bouchra Ghezielle of France to bronze behind another Russian, Olga Yegorova.

The championships concluded with a third world record when Osleidys Menendez of Cuba threw 71.10 metres to win the women's javelin.

On Saturday Finland got the one medal they so craved when Tommi Evila took bronze in the long jump - and last night the Russian women and the American men won the final track events, the 4x400-metre relays.