AFTER more than two years out of competitive athletics, the Moroccan
middle-distance world record breaker, Said Aouita, is attempting a
comeback. More magic or just a mirage?
THE Arabian Knight, Said Aouita, most prolific athletics world
record-breaker of the past decade, will emerge from retirement tomorrow
in Ontario for a race which will determine whether the sand has run out
on his competitive career.
The Moroccan is to contest the 3000 metres, a distance at which he
once was world indoor champion and held the world outdoor record, in the
Hamilton Spectator meeting, first major event on the international
indoor circuit this winter.
Aouita, arguably the world's greatest distance runner ever, has not
raced in two years, but approached meeting officials himself, agreeing
to appear for a fee well below the $30,000 which was his asking price
during his supreme era which embraced six world records.
With the modesty which typified him during that time, the 35-year-old
Aouita confesses to having done just six weeks' training, but asserts:
''I am in very good shape and want to run indoors. If it goes well, I
will race outdoors, too.''
Cynics will link Aouita's return to the loss of his job as national
director of coaching. The Moroccan federation president is a member of
King Hassan's bodyguard and knows nothing of the sport, but Aouita's
proteges defeated the Ethiopians and last year threatened Kenya's world
cross-country supremacy.
Or perhaps it is the need to pay the bills at his second home, in San
Diego, while maintaining the family's palatial establishment on the
outskirts of Casablanca. The furnishings of one opulent Moroccan salon
alone cost $140,000 from his mid-eighties winnings.
A devout Muslim, you could always spot Aouita in a bar. He was the man
putting ice on his legs, not in his drink. He nevertheless buried his
principles to pile up a fortune running in the colours of Larios, the
Spanish drinks conglomerate, while claiming not to be a wealthy man.
He insists his return -- nearly 21 laps of Hamilton's 143-metre
circuit -- is serious, though he is nervous about its tight bends.
Leading milers such as John Walker, Sydney Maree, Steve Scott, Mike
Hilardt, and Marcus O'Sullivan have all run there, but only O'Sullivan,
former three-time world indoor 1500m champion, has ever broken four
minutes.
The track record for 3000m is 8min 02sec, but Aouita has indicated he
will be happy only with a time inside eight minutes.
''He is also nervous about flying in here in a light aircraft,'' said
Paul Gaines, one of the meeting organisers. ''There are too many plane
crashes in North America. I'll only come if it is a jet,'' Aouita warned
Gaines, who has made the appropriate travel arrangements.
Hamilton, of course, is famous for comebacks. It is where the Seoul
Olympic 100m drug cheat, Ben Johnson, made his ill-fated return, a
stumbling performance by the mumbling Canadian.
But fluency off track is guaranteed by Aouita, who is comfortable in
five languages and determined to prove he can still run as good a race
as he talks. Though he has been sharpening up in California for just six
weeks, he says he had never stopped running.
After Canada, he will tackle the Millrose Games in New York then,
possibly, some European events. That might, he says, tempt him back for
the World outdoor championships, in Gothenburg this summer, perhaps at
1500m rather than 5000, which was his most consistent distance.
''Everything has changed so much,'' said the Casablanca Express. ''Ten
years ago there was 20 seconds between me and the rest of the world at
5000m. But now there are 20 men capable of doing 13-05. On the other
hand, in the 1500m, after Noureddine Morceli and Venuste Nyongabo, there
is a huge gap. Maybe I can still plug that.''
There was little to hint at Aouita's future prowess in 1978 when, for
4000m, he led the World Junior Cross Country Championships in the mud of
Glasgow's Bellahouston Park before fading to finish thirty-fourth.
''It was very cold, and I was very unhappy because I wanted to win,''
he recalled. ''I vowed I would never run so badly again.''
Injury, and operations on both legs, explain Aouita's failure to
fulfil the Olympic promise hinted at after 5000m gold in Los Angeles.
But gold at that distance in the 1987 World outdoor championships, and
the World indoor 3000m crown in 1989, confirm a championship status to
match his record breaking.
He set word bests at 1500m and 5000m in 1985; at two miles, and 2000m
and 5000m in '87; and at 3000m in '89. At his peak, Aouita held two of
the three best times at 1500m and the mile, five out of seven at 3000m,
and six out of 10 at 5000m.
He was unbeaten at 5000m from 1979-89, finally losing to Yobes
Ondieki. After his defeat by Steve Cram, when the Geordie broke the
1500m world best in Nice in 1985, Aouita won 44 consecutive races at all
distances, and remained unbeaten at 1500m and the mile until 1991.
What makes a man such as this, with nothing to prove, come back again?
Ask Ali, Sinatra or Foreman. But on the track there is no hiding place.
The clock cannot lie, nor conceal a croaking voice. Gaines has promised
a pacemaker to ensure a real race. The Moroccan ambassador has been
invited.
As a boy, Aouita always lost at running games, but became so good at
them that his king bestowed honours and titles, the keys to the city of
Casablanca, and the use of his private helicopter.
Volatile as a desert sandstorm, like any Arab he is fiecely conscious
of his dignity, almost obsessed. So his indoor return will be no sham.
But further titles or records would require the magic of a tale from
Scheherazade. They will surely remain a mirage.
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