El Guerrouj hopes he’ll get third time lucky

El Guerrouj is the undisputed king of middle distance racing: He owns the world records over 1,500m and the mile at 3:26.00 and 3:43.13 minutes, respectively. He has won 83 of 87 races over 1,500m and the mile since 1996, has four straight world 1,500m titles 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2003 and is a three-time World Athlete of the Year.

But the Olympics have been a nightmare for the 29-year-old. In 1996, he tripped and fell going into the final lap in Atlanta. In 2000, he was pipped for gold by Kenya’s Noah Ngeny — his only two 1,500m defeats over the years until the Rome race.

A gold in Athens has been his obsession ever since — or better, a double, as El Guerrouj also plans to compete over 5,000m, where he got world championship silver last year. The only other runner to win Olympic 1,500m and 5,000m gold at one Games was Finnish legend Paavo Nurmi in 1924. ‘‘Winning an Olympic gold medal is the only way to dry my tears from Atlanta and Sydney,’’ he said in spring.

But now the outlook has changed dramatically. Guerrouj told the media in Lausanne that he can train properly but that neither the strongest cortecoids nor a lung specialist in Toulouse, France, have been able to cure his breathing problems. In Rome a few days earlier, he faded dramatically on the home stretch from first to eighth place.

‘‘This is not the beginning of the end’’, El Guerrouj insisted. But at the same time he even admitted that he won’t go to Athens at all if he doesn’t believe in success. ‘‘I won’t travel to Greece if I am only the number 5 in the rankings’’, he said.

If all goes well in Athens he plans to continue until the 2008 Games in Beijing, but eyes the 10,000m there. “I can’t say that I will win the 10,000m. There will be younger runners. That is why my objective is to win two titles in Athens,” he told The Times in April.

(gms/dpa)