THERE were no miracles or no bizarre upturns in form when Niall Bruton and Shane Healy sought to span the huge gap in class in the semifinals of the men's 1,500 metres in Atlanta early this morning.

Bruton finished last of the 12 starters in the first race won by Noureddine Morceli and Healy was just one place higher when Hicham El Guerrouj threw down the challenge to Morccli for tomorrow's final with another decisive win.

To Bruton's credit, he gave the best of what he had and, for the first 1,100 metres, he was running just off the pace in fourth place. To hold it, he had to run to the limit of his potential and, when the tempo was increased approaching the bell, he was quickly roped in by those behind him.

From then on, he went backwards, eventually finishing in three minutes 42.88 seconds, 10 seconds behind the brilliant Morceli, who was running the fastest semifinal in history.

The world champion, as usual, physically dwarfed by those around him, required some time to pick his way through the traffic but, once he saw daylight, he went on to an emphatic win.

Judged on the quality of the race he ran, the Algerian was obviously anxious to make a point to his arch rival El Guerrouj, but the Moroccan was only marginally less imposing when streaking home in the second semifinal.

As in the case of Bruton, Healy resolved that the most likely tactic was to put ambition before caution and gamble on hanging in with the leaders for as long as he could.

He managed to hang on for marginally longer than his fellow Dubliner, but the end product was much the same as he found himself out paced over the last lap when El Guerrouj decided it was time to turn on the tap.

The winner's time of three minutes 35.29 seconds was almost three seconds slower than that of Morceli, but it would be unwise to read too much into that in the context of the final. Healy, who had only the Briton, Kevin McKay, behind him, was timed at 3:39.81.

Sincad Delahunty's lack of acceleration cost her a place in the final of the women's 1,500 metres after she had run a sound tactical race in the first of the semi finals.

Delahunty, at the back of the field in the early stages, suddenly emerged at the head of affairs with two laps to go and proceeded to stay there for the next 450 metres.

The hope was that she could sap the pace of the big finishers, but that was never more than a pious hope and once she had been passed going down the back straight, it was all over for her.

Up front, a tremendous battle was ensuing between four athletes, but it was the improving Austrian, Theresia Kiesl, who eventually showed the way home to Gabriele Szabo and the 800 metres title holder Svetlana Masterkova in four minutes 09.44 seconds. Delahunty eventually finished ninth in 4:12.5.

The big talking point of the race was the misfortune of Hassiba Boulmerka, the defending champion, who was, it seemed, catapulted out of the pack with 400 metres to go and eventually finished last.

There was a similar incident in the second semi final won by Britain's Kelly Holmes in 4:05.88 when the Kenyan, Naomi Mugo, was the innocent victim of some jostling involving Catalina Gheorghiu of Romania and the American Regina Jacobs.

The incident was indicative of the growing turbulence in athletics but Mugo, with a shoe ripped off, still won the admiration of the crowd by battling on gamely to finish in last place.

No less courageous was the performance of Holmes who, threatened with a stress fracture, still found the strength and the resolve to see off the challenges of these bearing down on her and win cleverly.