2008 World Indoor Championship: 800m Notes & Numbers Review

Three days of hurried pace, ups and downs and spectacular athletics performances have now left an emptiness in Valencia which the Qatari capital city of Doha hopes to fill when it plays host to the 13th edition in 2010.

Now that athletes have taken their final dives at the tape, picked their feet out of the sand boxes, spun one final time on a circular concrete slab and both jumped up to and over bars with their feet and with the use of fiberglass poles, one is left to ponder exactly what took place during a packed week-end of activities which provided one world record and drew the curtain on several athletes' careers.

Yelena Soboleva earned headlines on the final day of competition with her spectacular world record run on Sunday, reaching the tape in the 1.500m in 3.57,71 to eclipse her own world indoor record set at the Russian national indoor championships in February.

Abubaker Kaki, the surprise 800m find, dispensed of a quality field which set personal bests in all finish spots, running 1.44,81.

Blanka Vlasic defeated the reigning world indoor champion, Yelena Slesarenko, in the high jump and added one more victory to her 23-meet win-streak.

Yelena Isinbayeva won the pole vault, Dwain Chambers won a medal, and Susanna Kallur, the world indoor 60m hurdles record-holder, never made it to the starting line to contest the semi-final.

There was more than enough drama to fill the tabloids, but were there enough good performances to fill interest in a sport where not all the top atheltes compete - especially in an Olympic year?

The IAAF put together a handy historical blueprint of the previous world indoor championships, one which will be heavily utilised in the analysis below.

The information is not to be taken as a prediction of what is in store for certain athletes, simply as an interesting side-note to understanding how certain athletes have performed against their peers both prior to - and at - the World Championships.

So, let's continue on in the world indoor analysis and compare apples to apples (and oranges), and see what the Men's 800m and 1.500m had to offer at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships compared to previous seasons.


800M RUN

The Men's 800m was one of the most-anticipated events of the three-day, three-round week-end, and the final did not disappoint with Eighteen-year-old Abubaker Kaki, a former Sudanese goalie in a local league, blasting South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi - 2004 World indoor titlist and 2006 World Indoor Championships silver medalist - 1.44,81 to 1.44,91 in a tantalizing display of youth mixed with the splendid poise of a veteran.

Kaki tripled his lifetime total of indoor races in Valencia, and did not disappoint, leading each of the six athletes in the final to personal bests.

Kaki lowered the Sudanese record from 1.48,69 to 1.46,09 in the first indoor race of his life in Leipzig last month, then demolished his new national record by another 1,28 seconds in only his second 800m final ever contested indoors.

Not only had Kaki made a smashing success, he left his opponents helpless by skipping completely through the 1.46 barrier in his victory in Valencia.

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