MONACO, Sept 19: Qatar's world steeplechase champion and world record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen showed what might have been at the Athens Olympics by trouncing the three Kenyan medallists in a dazzling display of solo running at the world athletics final on Sunday.
Shaheen, who competed for Kenya as Stephen Cherono, has emigrated to Qatar for financial reasons but was denied permission by his native country to compete in Athens. On Sunday's final day of the two-day competition, he tucked himself comfortably in third place behind the pacemakers before shooting to the front with 3-3/4 laps to run. His world record of 7:53.63, set in Brussels this month, was briefly under threat until Shaheen stumbled on the final water jump.
His time of seven minutes 56.94 seconds was still the fifth fastest ever and his superiority was such that Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi was more than six seconds behind in second place.
Jamaica's Asafa Powell completed a sprint double by winning the 200 metres but the loudest cheers were reserved for Namibia's 36-year-old former world champion Frank Fredericks who confirmed he had run the final race of his distinguished career after taking second place.
Russian Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva won the women's pole vault comfortably by sailing over the bar at 4.83 metres. She then failed with three attempts at a world record height of 4.93 metres, which would have been her ninth record of the year and also given her an extra $100,000 in bonus money to add to the $30,000 for first place.
Mexico's world champion Ana Guevara gained some consolation for her disappointing year by winning the women's 400 metres. World indoor silver medallist Ivan Heshko of Ukraine won a slow men's 1,500 metres after out sprinting a trio of Kenyans off the final bend.
Heshko held off a late challenge by world junior mile record holder Alex Kipchirchir to win in three minutes 44.92 seconds with another Kenyan, Laban Rotich in third place.
Morocco's Olympic silver medallist Hasna Benhassi won the women's 800 metres in the absence of Britain's double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes. Holmes, who won the 1,500 metres on Saturday in a virtual repeat of the Athens final, pulled out of the 800 on Sunday morning, saying her body and legs felt too sore to run.
