At 29 years old, has marked three firsts. She is the first to have won an 8 kilometre race in a World Championships. First to win the short cross: this was the inaugural event. First to win both events in the same championships. She is also first in the winnings table in Marrakech. her two golds will bank her 80,000 dollars - 40,000 per race.

She has made a spectacular comeback into the international limelight at a time when few people really believed that she was capable of competing at the top. Another surprise worthy of note is that she alone has been able - in this great festival of distance running - to counter the absolute domination of the African nations in these events, and to have done so on the African continent lends still more shine to the achievement. One could almost harbour a doubt: did she overtake the nigh invincible armadas of Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco, or are the African women taking a break? We must accept that the former is the case as we have witnessed the return of a champion who has dominated all the distances from 1500m to 5000m.

A large part of the explanation is psychological. The misfortunes and defeats she has suffered since Atlanta discouraged her and were hampering her full recovery. At the end of last year she went to train in Australia, just outside Melbourne, with manager Kim McDonald, Bob Kennedy (USA), Martin Keino and a number of other Kenyan athletes. She rebuilt her courage and her confidence and gained strength from the hard training in the hills around the city. In January she set her sights on the World Cross Country Championships.

"At first, I was concentrated on the short cross. Then, from January on, I thought about the long one too. Here in Morocco, I only really decided to try the double after my first win."