1,500-Meter Final Pits Impresario and Upstart 

Barbara Huebner 

c.1999 The Boston Globe 

   SEVILLE, Spain - To glimpse the future, Hicham El Guerrouj need only look behind him. There, just a literal breath from his shoulder, the magnificent Moroccan will see - has already seen - a young Kenyan coming perilously close to claiming that future for himself. 
   “I look forward to it,'' said Noah Ngeny, undaunted about facing defending world champion El Guerrouj in the men's 1,500 meter final Tuesday night at the World Championships of Track and Field. 
   As does everyone else. The matchup of impresario El Guerrouj and upstart Ngeny, who staged a rare and precious duel last month as El Guerrouj added the mile world record to his 1,500 mark, is one of the most eagerly awaited of the meet. 
   “Without a doubt,'' said Kim McDonald, Ngeny's agent. “It may be the race of the championships.'' 
   Here's why: World records at the middle distances are usually set with a clock as the only true opponent, but on July 7, when the 24-year-old Moroccan shattered the world mile record in a stunning 3 minutes 43.13 seconds in Rome, Ngeny was ticking just as relentlessly and almost as precisely. 
   Both men actually bettered the record, as the 20-year-old Kenyan's finishing time of 3:43:40 came in under the previous mark of 3:44.39, set by Algeria's Noureddine Morceli in 1993. (Morceli will be in the final, as will favorite son Fermin Cacho of Spain, who is the European champion, and American Steve Holman.) 
   Although no time was recorded at the 1,500 meters in Rome, both men are thought to have also bettered El Guerrouj's world record of 3:26. Nonetheless, Ngeny soon became the third-fastest man in history at the distance, behind only El Guerrouj and Morceli, thanks to a 3:28.84 performance July 23 in Paris. And despite taking a convincing beating by El Guerrouj earlier this month (”I have struck a psychological blow for the world championships,'' El Guerrouj said after that race), Ngeny is seen as both capable of an upset here and of challenging El Guerrouj in the long term. 
   “They are both very young,'' said McDonald. ``I think they will go on and push each other for several years.'' 
   Both camps believe the pair will whittle the mile and 1,500 records by at least another two seconds over the next several years. 
   Not that El Guerrouj has needed a lot of pushing. Often compared to Moroccan great Said Aouita, El Guerrouj won 38 of his 40 races between 1996 and 1998, and is undefeated this season. Despite the two world records, however, he is probably best known for the sickening fall he took just before the bell lap in the 1,500 meters at the 1996 Olympics, when he clipped Morceli's trail leg and fought to regain his balance before dropping to the track. After picking himself up, he finished last; Morceli went on to win the gold. 
   Crushed and weeping, he received a telephone call moments later from King Hassan II, who reassured him he was still a winner to his countrymen. 
   “It was as if another El Guerrouj was born at that moment,'' he said later, explaining the zeal with which he has since run. 
   Although he was sidelined briefly by a severe case of hemorrhoids soon after his record-breaking run last month, El Guerrouj appears back in form. 
   “I think I can run faster than 3.26 here, because I am feeling really good,'' he predicted. 
   Ngeny, who at the age of 18 broke Jim Ryun's 1966 world junior mile record (3:50.41) and was actually a pace-setter in El Guerrouj's world-record 1,500 last year, has little reason to be intimidated by his Moroccan rival. But neither, he insists, is he motivated by him. 
   Seemingly perplexed by the notion, the Kenyan barely out of his teens answered simply: “He's my competition.''