PARIS, 18 August 2003 — Winning a World Championship is never easy but Hicham El Guerrouj has made it appear so by taking the last three men’s 1,500 meters titles with room to spare. Now the world record holder at the 1,500m has decided to stretch himself by tackling not only his specialist event but also the 5,000m at the World Championships in Paris which starts on Saturday.

Last year the Moroccan surprised his legions of admirers by announcing he wanted to attempt the historic double — no man has ever achieved such a feat on a global stage — and he is maintaining his resolve despite the fact that the heats of the 5,000m take place the day after the 1,500m final.

One thing though that will ease El Guerrouj’s fears is that fact that the man who beat him in his first 5,000m for nearly 11 years is not going to be on the start line in Paris. Qatari runner Saif Saaed Shaheen — who a week ago was know as the Kenyan steeplechaser Stephen Cherono until a super-quick change of name and nationality — beat El Guerrouj in Ostrava in June although both runners clocked times which propelled them into the all-time top seven of the event. The World Championships present a golden opportunity for Turkey’s reigning European women’s 1,500m champion Sureyya Ayhan. The front-running athlete who made a huge improvement last year can look forward not only to the gold medal but also a glittering reward if she becomes her country’s first world athletics champion.

Lewis Confirms Worlds Participation

Olympic heptathlon gold medalist Denise Lewis of Britain confirmed yesterday that she will compete at the World Championships. Although Lewis, who has had a baby since winning Olympic gold in Sydney, was selected at the end of July it was not certain that the two-time world silver medalist would compete.

After finishing second and gaining the World Championships qualifying standard in the European Cup of Combined Events at the beginning of July, she suffered a bout of sickness. But after setting up a training camp a fortnight ago on the outskirts of Berlin with controversial former East German coach Ekkart Arbeit, Lewis, who turns 31 on Aug. 27, said she was fit to compete after final workouts at low-key meetings in Belgium over this weekend.

Frank Dick, overall coordinator of Lewis’ training program, said: “It was a mixed weekend for Denise, her best performance coming with a 13.59sec time in the 100m hurdles and an excellent 6.40 meters long jump, marginally disallowed as a no jump.

Indians Master Toughest Marathon

In Leh, young Indian runners cashed in on home advantage to upstage their foreign rivals in possibly the world’s toughest marathon in the rugged landscape of Ladakh here yesterday.

Indians Sonam Angdus, 21, and Ishey Lhamo, 20, emerged as winners in the men’s and women’s sections respectively in the inaugural Great Tibetan marathon run on the outskirts of Leh town bordering Tibet.

Runners from Denmark, Norway, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and India competed for top honors in the 42 kilometer (26 mile) event in a test of endurance and stamina.

Danish runner Gunnar Ebbesen, who had also participated in the Great Wall marathon in China, highlighted the runners’ difficulties. The route, from the ancient Hemis monastery to the Spituk monastery, took the runners over sand, stones and swampy ground.