OSAKA 2007: A Spectator's Guide to the Men's 1500m

Getting to Know the Front Pack

Heats:  Saturday, August 25th, 2007 @ 11:25am
Semis: Monday, August 27th, 2007 @ 8:40pm
Finals: Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 @ 10:05pm

From 1990 to 2004, the men's 1500m/Mile event was dominated by two men: Algerian Noureddine Morceli (1990-1996) and Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj (1997-2004). Both milers not only set world records in the 1500m, Mile and 2000m, but also won all the World Championship titles during that time and took home two of the four Olympic Golds. As a result, the mentality of a lot of their competitors come championship time was that they were running for silver, not gold. Following his historic 2004 double 1500m/5000m Olympic victory, El Guerrouj capped off 15 years of North African dominance by announcing his retirement the following year. His departure has left a bit of a void in the event as no one has stepped up to dominate as the two had done since 1990.

This makes this year's 1500m World Championship event especially exciting as there are no less than seven hot contenders all vying to fill the vacuum left by El Guerrouj. As in the women's 1500m event, the race is a solid mix of new athletes, veterans and wildcards. Accomplished, older athletes such as Bernard Lagat and Mehdi Baala, who are looking to pick up their first WC gold medal, are pitted against newcomers such as Bilal Monsour Ali and Asbel Kiprop, who have been tearing up the circuit recently. American Alan Webb has shown excellent form winning both fast and tactical races.

What complicates singling out some favorites is how infrequently many of the top guys have faced off so far this season. For example, Alan Webb has the fastest 1500m and Mile times but has yet to run against heavy favorites Ali and Kiprop. In fact, Ali and Kiprop themselves have only raced each other twice! Rachid Ramzi, who many pegged as El Guerrouj's successor after his dominating 1500m win in the 2005 World Champs, has been inconsistent the last two years, and his form is a real mystery this year since he hasn't raced yet. Mehdi Baala has raced four times, with only one being against heavy competition (Paris, where he lost to Webb).

Also interesting (and potentially confusing) is the fact that three of the seven main contenders have changed nationalities in the last three years. Bernard Lagat is now a US citizen and former Kenyan Bilal Monsoor Ali and former Moroccan Rachid Ramzi now run for Bahrain.

The following is a spectator's guide to the top athletes expected to contend for a medal in the 1500m in Osaka. After the bios you'll find statistics about each athlete (personal best times, age, etc.) and a listing of the top 10 performers so far this year. For information on the previous World Championships in Helsinki, visit the IAAF site for their race summary. 

Alan Webb
USA - 3:30.55 - 5'9/141lbs

The newly minted American record holder in the Mile (3:46.91), Alan Webb has had his best season ever by virtue of recording the year's fastest times over 1500m and the Mile, and the second fastest time in the 800m, all of which make him a heavy favorite in the final in two weeks.

Although he is one of the younger athletes in the field, Webb already has had a long (up and down) career reminiscent of some of the veterans. Webb stepped onto the world scene in one of his last races in high school: the Prefontaine Classic where he destroyed Jim Ryun's High School Mile record with a run of 3:53, finishing fourth to Hicham El Guerrouj. After several years of minor setbacks and injuries, he appeared to fulfill the promise of his record mile with a 3:32.73 1500m PR and two Grand Prix wins in Europe in 2004. However in Athens, poor tactics prevented him from qualifying out of the heats.

In 2005, Webb improved to 3:32.52 and qualified safely for the final in Helsinki. Hoping to turn away the kickers, he made a memorable surge just past the 800m mark after a slow early pace to gap the field, but the surge eventually backfired as he faded to ninth at the finish. The next year he started off well, running one of the fastest 10000m times by an American but then a hamstring injury ended his season prematurely.

This year, Webb appears to have gotten things right. The over-distance training and finally being consistently healthy has paid off as he has won a whopping 11 out of 12 1500m/Mile races (his only loss was in the winter at the Millrose Games). This last month he definitely has been in peak form as he set 4 PR's over 800m, 1500m, and the Mile and only lost once (an 800m). Also impressive is the way that Webb has won his races: usually by running right from the front and exhibiting an amazing ability to change gears in the last 50-100m. In the past, a slow race would usually not favor Webb, but recently he has shown he can be quite comfortable in these situations making him one of the heavy favorites in Osaka.