Guerrouj lesson for pretender Noah

There was a win too for Maurice Greene, who controversially refused to talk after winning $100,000 at the London Grand Prix meeting last Saturday, though he again came under pressure from Barbados’ Obadele Thompson.

However, just as he had in Stockholm, the American, whose training partner Ato Boldon of Trinidad pulled out of the World Championships with a hamstringinjury yesterday, found a bit extra to pull slightly away at the end.

But it was Guerrouj, plagued by hemorrhoids since he broke the mile world record in Rome last month, who took the eye and stormed clear of Ngeny, who tried and failed to break several records including El Guerrouj’s 1500m mark, and came home in the best time of the year three minutes, 28.57 seconds.

Thompson, bronze medallist in the Commonwealth Games 100m last year, also had to give second best in the 200m as Namibian veteran Frankie Fredericks stormed home to victory and the 31-year-old must be eyeing a second World 200m gold medal to add to the one he won in Stuttgart in 1993.

Jones, who will attempt to win four titles at the World Chammpionships, was also pushed all the way in the 200m as Inger Miller, a training partner of Greene’s and Boldon’s, stayed right on her shoulder throughout the race with the 23-year-old Jones just hanging on to keep her hopes alive of sharing the Golden League bonus for a second successiveyear.

Szabo, who is the reigning 3000m indoor and outdoor champion, looked down and out going into the final lap as Moroccan Zara Ouaziz took the lead, but the diminutive Romanian came back at her and kicked away in the straight to land a superb win.

Jerome Young coasted home in the 400m to lay down the gauntlet to reigning world champion Michael Johnson, who is currently recovering in America from a thigh injury.

The 22-year-old Jamaican-born naturalised-American, a two-time US champion, beat home his former coach Antonio Pettigrew, who will re-oppose him in this month’s World Championships, in the fifth fastest time of the year 44.33s.

Kipketer, the world indoor and outdoor record-holder at 800m, never looked troubled as he took it up from pacemaker David Kiptoo and was several yards clear of South African Hezekiel Sepeng with Japtheth Kimutai, the man who ended Kipketer’s two year unbeaten streak here last year, fading into fourth.

However, Kipketer, who says his age is 28, although severaldifferent records state that he is anything from 27 to 31, refused to play up expectations that his poor form last year after suffering from malaria and liver problems was gone for ever.

Another American youngster Angelo Taylor, 20, showed again that his skipping university to become a full-time athlete was a good decision as he won the 400m hurdles inflicting South Africa’s 1997 world silver medallist Llewellyn Herbert’s first defeat in 18 races although Herbert was clearly still feeling a quadriceps injury that kept him out of the Monaco meeting.

Barmasai, who is also the world record-holder in the 3000m steeplechase, had to really battle to maintain his interest in the Golden League bonus as Christopher Koskei showed that he is the young pretender by reeling him in with metres to go although Barmasai just held on.

Benjamin Kipkurui, runner-up in the world junior 1500m last year and a stablemate of Kimutai’s, broke the world junior mark in the 1500m coming home clear in the B race in a time of 3m,33.16s.

The 18-year-old, who also broke the world junior 1000m record in Nice in July, said he now felt he belonged with the big boys in the major races.

“I wasn’t thinking about the record and didn’t realise what I had done until after the finish line,” he said.