Wilson
Kipketer
One of the many Stars at the
Paris World Indoors
20 February, 1997
MONTE CARLO - Monaco - The 6th IAAF
World Indoor Championships, which will be held in
the Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy (Bercy
Omnisports Stadium, Paris) from 7-9 March promise
to be the scene of great excitement in the middle
distance as well as in the sprints and field
events. Wilson Kipketer (DEN) has confirmed that
he will be running in the 800m, and the presence
of this great champion is a certain guarantee of
great suspense and a great show. Will Kipketer be
able to beat Paul Ereng’s (KEN) World
Indoors Record of 1:44.84 which has stood since 4
March 1989?
 The story of 26 year old
Wilson Kipketer is that of a young emigrant
determined to achieve recognition through hard
study and great success in Athletics. Thus,
Kipketer left his native Kenya in 1990 to study
at the Copenhagen Polytechnic and, eventually,
decided to take Danish nationality. Consistent
with his determination to achieve this aim,
Kipketer - who won gold in the 1995 world
championships - renounced his chance to compete
in the Atlanta Olympics as a result of the never
ending delays of the bureaucratic path to his new
nationality.
In the Olympics,
the 800m was one of the hardest and greatest
ever, ending in the victory of Vebjørn Rodal
(NOR) and four athletes running under 1:43. But
what would have happened if Kipketer had been
there?
The answer came a
few weeks later in Rieti, when Kipketer was just
half a stride away from Sebastian Coe’s
(GBR) world record: 1:41.83, against Seb
Coe’s 1:41.73 which the British
Parliamentarian ran in Florence on 10 June 1981.
There is not a
doubt that Kipketer has everything it takes to
break what is, today, the longest standing world
record. Just as there is no doubt that this
meticulous planner will have a dual target in
Paris: the gold medal and his first world record:
the 800m Indoors.
 Another prime performer in
the exciting programme in Paris will be Emma
George, who took the women’s pole vault
world record (outdoors) to 4.55m just today. This
is the first time that the pole vault figures in
the women’s timetable of an IAAF World
Championships and it will be interesting to see
just how much progress has been made. On the face
of it, the progress has been exceptional to date:
16 women have already jumped over four metres
indoors so far this season.
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