Ramzi wins blue riband for Bahrain

ATHLETICS/World Championship: After a night like this it's standard protocol to start with the blue-riband event - but not when you're in Helsinki. They hadn't queued outside the old Olympic Stadium from early afternoon to witness the first new 1,500-metre champion in eight years, and really only cared about the first gold medal chance for Finland.

Javelin throwing is practically a religion in these parts and last night proved why. Tero Pitkamaki has been heralded as the saviour of Finnish athletics and the atmosphere in the stadium was electric whenever the youngster lined up to throw.

Yet as the rain finally eased off so did Finland's chances for gold. Pitkamaki briefly got himself into bronze-medal position with a throw of 81.27 metres, but then Andrus Varnik of Estonia threw a massive 87.17 - good enough to win his first world title while relegating Pitkamaki to fourth.

Finland couldn't win a medal of any colour at either the Athens Olympics or the previous World Championships and now it appears they'll end their own athletics party on a similar blank. Their disappointment showed when many of the crowd left after the javelin and before that above-mentioned blue riband - the men's 1,500 metres.

That ended as expected though, the former Moroccan Rashid Ramzi succeeding his one-time compatriot Hicham El Guerrouj, the winner of four successive titles from 1997-99. In the process he provided the first World Championship medal for his adopted country, Bahrain.

The 25-year-old sprang to the front with just over 300 metres remaining, winning in 3:37.88 while just holding off another former compatriot, Adil Kaouch.

Rui Silva of Portugal took bronze, as he did in the Athens Olympics, with Ivan Heshko of the Ukraine fading from second to fourth in the home stretch.

Ramzi's form has been a little suspect since he switched allegiance. He was born and raised as Rachid Khoula, and won a silver medal for Morocco at the African Juniors in 1999. But he soon found himself unable to break onto the senior team, so he took a friend's advice and gained Bahraini citizenship in 2001 by joining the armed forces. When they realised he was a fine runner they gave him as much money as he needed and total freedom to train.

For the second night in succession then a track title went to a "defector". The IAAF have taken a harder stance on the matter, and just before the championships ruled athletes must get new passports before starting a three-year waiting period. That might slow the deals but won't stop them.

"Most athletes in Kenya die poor," said steeplechase winner Saif Saaeed Shaheen, who transferred from Kenya to Qatar. "It's one thing to be patriotic, but you need to think about your future."

Still, maybe the IAAF need to think harder too about the future of their sport.

Earlier in the evening Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas timed her finish perfectly in the 400-metre final, just like in Athens last year. She held off the American Sanya Richards to take gold in 49.55 seconds, her fastest time this year.