Whew! Season over. Morceli made it through this rough-and-tumble 97 season by notching two respectable wins at Tokyo and Rieti in the 1500. Unfortunately, he did lose the WC title and was not the fastest miler/1500 of the yea
r. As for the site, there will be updated reports, results, and statistics of Morceli by the weekend to close the 1997 season. Hopefully some more pictures too as well. So stay tuned....
New Pages:
1997 Competition (courtesy Jon Berenbom)
1997 Season Reports
Season Progressions
Honors
Training
7 Sep - Morceli won another 1500, this time at the Super TOTO meet in Tokyo with a time of 3:41.39 over Mohamed Suleiman's 3:41.82....
4 Sep - Morceli finally gets a victory after taking three weeks off from racing. He won the 1500m in Rieti, Italy last night in 3:31.00 comfortably over #2 Kenyan Laban Rotich and a host of others. Daniel Komen and Venuste Ni
yongabo made assaults on the Mile and 2000m (respectively) WR's of Morceli's but neither of them fell. Hicham El Guerroudj, Morceli's main mile foe cancelled out of the meet at the last minute, reasons unknown.....
24 Aug - After Morceli finished fourth in the World Champs, he came back with a semi-respectable 3:30.24 (4th) at Zurich but then really bombed at Monaco three days later with a 12th place 3:33.98. The 12th place is the lowest
he has ever finished in international competition. This is what El Guerroudj's coach Aziz Daouda has to say about Morceli's past performances: "I think it's over for him (Morceli)...If Cram, Coe, Ovett and Aouita weren't able to come back, how is Morcel
i going to come back?"
5 Aug - Morceli looking forward to an epic duel with El Guerroudj, click here. for the full report.
4 Aug - Morceli wins his semifinal round with the fastest time of the day (3:38.82). Trackside observes note that he did not control the race as strongly as he usually does. El Geurroudj won the other semi in 3:39. Click here for report. Go the 1997 season standing s for results of 1500m heats....
3 Aug - Morceli wins his heat for the first round of the 1500 in 3:37.26, one of the fastest times of the day.
30 Jul - According to the IAAF World Champs Site, Morceli had to return Algeria following the death of one of his brothers in a car accident. He is still
expected to run in the 1500 and 5000.
29 Jul - A rather scathing article by the Agence France-Presse on Morceli's chances at Athens and the 1997 season, click here
27 Jul - The roster for the Algerian World Championships Team has just been released. Morceli is slated to run both the 1500m and 5000m in Athens next week.
24 Jul - Check out Aminuddin Ali Khan's Hicham El Guerroudj Page.
16 Jul - Morceli returns to Nice, the site of his 1500m WR and runs 3:48.64 for the Mile, well off of his WR of 3:44.39, but enough to win by close to twoseconds....
Morceli is back - though at half-strength. Diagnosed with anemia, Morceli took three weeks off and made his come back at the Paris Gaz de France meeting with a 3:33 second place behind his fierces
t competitor Hicham El Guerroudj. He fared better in Zagreb where he won by over a second in 3:34. On June 29, Morceli returned to France for the Villeneuve D'Ascq meeting in Lille to claim ano
ther victory in the 2000m in 4:54 over France's Nadir Bosch who set a NR in that race.
Check out the Adidas Site on the 2M duel on May 31.
Some stats stuff: check out mon.html for the top 1500m marks of each month ever. Morceli takes 3 months
Morceli to run the 2Mile against 5000m WR-holder Haile Gebrselassie and possibly also Paul Tergat at the Hengelo Meeting in Belgium on May 31. This will be Morceli's first tour over 2 Miles. The winner picks up $1 million if
he also breaks the 8-minute barrier. The current WR is 8:03 held by Daniel Komen. Click here for more details.
