HELSINKI: Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain won the men’s 1500 metres title here at the world athletics championships last night to give the Gulf State its first world title and first ever medal at such an exalted level.The 25-year-old athlete timed 3minutes 37.88seconds while Adil Kaouch of Morocco took silver (3:38.00) – his season’s best – and Olympic bronze medallist Rui Silva of Portugal finished third (3:38.02).
However, despite even the atrocious weather, the final did not suggest that the natural successor to four-time Hicham El Guerrouj – Ramzi’s former compatriot – has been discovered.
“I’ve been working for this since being knocked out of the semi-finals in the Athens Olympics,” said Ramzi, who moved to Bahrain in 2002 wanting to join the Bahraini army.
“It is very important for me. I was hoping it would be better weather so I could run a faster race and spread the field out more,” added Ramzi.
The opening pace was a slow one until the vastly experienced Reyes Estevez took up the pace with three laps to go.
The 29-year-old led along with American Alan Webb with the only Kenyan Alex Kipchirchir in third.
Webb took a gamble down the back stretch with just over a lap remaining by speeding away but was quickly reeled in by Ramzi and Kipchirchir.
Ramzi said that Webb’s move had helped him enormously.
“But the race was not fast until Webb surged and that helped me because I rely on my fast finish,” said Ramzi, who plans to run in the 800m heats this evening.
The bell rang and Ramzi went past Webb while Ukraine’s Ivan Heshko went onto his shoulder and briefly threatened to go past.
However, Ramzi took off round the final bend and as Heshko weakened Kaouch came into the picture but had too much ground to make up.
Silva produced one of his trademark finishes but it was too little too late as he lost out in a photo finish to Kaouch.
Meanwhile, Ramzi is in action again tonight in the opening heat of the 800m and has a year and personal best time over the distance of 1:44.37 set last month in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Two other Bahrainis will be looking for glory with Yousif Kamel and Bilal Mansour running in heat four and heat six respectively.
Kamel has a personal best of 1:43.11 set last year in Zurich, Switzerland and has run a best of 1:44.26 in heat four of the same event and has a personal best of 1:44.26 in Seville, Spain this year.
Mansour set his best time and personal best this year of 1:44.34 at the Connedliano Veneto meeting in Italy.
MEN’S 1,500M FINAL
1. Rashid Ramzi (BRN) 3:37.88
2. Adil Kaouch (MAR) 3:38.00
3. Rui Silva (POR) 3:38.02
4. Ivan Heshko (UKR) 3:38.71
5. Arturo Casado (ESP) 3:39.45
6. Juan Carlos Higuero (ESP) 3:40.34
7. Alex Kipchirchir (KEN) 3:40.43
8. Tarek Boukensa (ALG) 3:41.01
9. Alan Webb (USA) 3:41.04
10. David Nyaga (QAT) 3:43.48
11. Reyes Estevez (ESP) 3:46.65
12. Yassine Bensghir (MAR) 3:50.19
MEDALS TABLE G S B T
US 6 3 0 9
Ethiopia 2 2 1 5
Sweden 2 0 1 3
Russia 1 2 3 6
Belarus 1 2 0 3
Jamaica 1 2 0 3
Cuba 1 1 0 2
Estonia 1 1 0 2
Bahamas 1 0 0 1
Bahrain 1 0 0 1
Ecuador 1 0 0 1
Lithuania 1 0 0 1
Qatar 1 0 0 1
Uganda 1 0 0 1
Morocco 0 2 0 2
Kenya 0 1 3 4
France 0 1 2 3
Spain 0 1 1 2
Czech Republic 0 1 0 1
Netherlands 0 1 0 1
Norway 0 1 0 1
Germany 0 0 2 2
Portugal 0 0 2 2
Ghana 0 0 1 1
Hungary 0 0 1 1
Japan 0 0 1 1
Mexico 0 0 1 1
Poland 0 0 1 1
St Kitts 0 0 1 1