Tuesday August 11
By Adrian Warner
ZURICH, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Haile Gebrselassie may be torn between a world record and a $1 million jackpot at the richest meeting in athletics on Wednesday.
Faced with some of the world's leading distance runners in Kenyan Paul Tergat, Morocco's Khalid Boulami and Germany's Dieter Baumann, the Ethiopian holder of the 5,000 and 10,000 world marks knows record bids can be risky.
Gebrselassie, who smashed the 5,000 mark in a pulsating night of action in Zurich last year, cannot afford to take too many chances chasing the clock and may have to concentrate on just beating his rivals.
That is because he is one of five athletes still in the hunt for the $1 million prize to be shared between anyone who wins all seven rounds of their event in the Golden League series.
American 400 metres hurdler Bryan Bronson, middle-distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj, sprinter Marion Jones and women's 400 specialist Charity Opara are the others in contention for the bonus in this fourth and most glamorous leg.
Last year, Zurich witnessed an historic few hours of athletics with world records from Kenya's Wilson Boit Kipketer in the steeplechase, a brilliant 800 record from Denmark's Wilson Kipketer and Gebrselassie's 5,000 best of 12:41.86.
Gebrselassie, who improved his record to 12:39.36 in Helsinki in June, was pushed all the way in one of the greatest 5,000 races of all time by Kenyan world champion Daniel Komen, Tergat, Boulami and Baumann.
Komen, who has decided to run shorter distances this year to sharpen his speed, will not be clashing with Gebrselassie this time. He has opted for the 1,500 where he will meet Moroccan El Guerrouj and Spain's former Olympic champion Fermin Cacho.
Few believe the distance runners can repeat last year's trio of records but the 5,000, the last evening of the meeting, is expected to be one of the highlights.
The men's 100 metres, so often a high-class affair in Zurich in the past, has been greatly weakened by the decision by American world champion Maurice Greene and Trinidad's Ato Boldon, 200 world champion, to miss the meeting after failing to agree terms with the promoter.
Olympic champion Donovan Bailey and fellow Canadian Bruny Surin are in the field, with Namibia's Olympic silver medallist Frankie Fredericks and Britain's world junior champion Christian Malcolm.
World champion Jones, who looked sharp in Monaco at the weekend with a 100 metres victory in 10.72 seconds, believes she can run 10.70 in Zurich because the track is so fast.
Wilson Kipketer, who bounced back with a victory in Monaco after months out of top-class competition because of malaria, is scheduled to run the 800 metres.