Track: German pulls off stunning 800m win

By EUGENE BINGHAM

A 22-year-old German held off the world record holder Wilson Kipketer in the Olympic 800m final tonight.

Nils Schumann, whose previous best performance on the international stage was an eighth at last year's world championships, sprinted off a classy field and just managed to beat the sentimental favourite Kipketer.

The Kenyan-born Dane was seventh with 150m to go and was forced to run out into the fourth lane to get around the field.

But it was not enough and he was unable to salvage the gold that many believe he should have won in 1996 when he was not allowed to take part in the Olympics because the Kenyans would not release him to his adopted homeland.

He settled for silver in a time of 1m 45.14s, behind Schumann's 1m 45.08s.

Algeria's Aissa Djabir Said-Guerni was third.

Schumann, with a tattoo down his right arm and a self-professed ambition to meet Bruce Willis, peaked for the Olympics, running a personal best 1m 44.70s in the semifinal.

Earlier, the 1500m semifinals became a bruise-fest with the reigning Olympic champion Nourredine Morceli and a promising Sudanese runner, Mohamed Yagoub, both stumbling on the track after separate incidents.

Elbows flew and legs clipped each other through the first race which Morceli led as the pack swung around the final bend.

With everyone desperate for a place in the top five to qualify for the final, Morceli was shoved by Jason Pyrah of the United States.

The 1996 gold medallist and former world record holder lost his balance and came to a stop about 100m from the line. Shaking his head, he jogged to the finish line a distant last.

"I am disappointed not to get a medal at my last Olympics," said Morceli. "I came here to get a medal, not just to show myself. Anything can happen, it is just part of sport."

He has not raced much this season and had a best of only 3:38.41 - nine seconds slower than his best.

Yagoub dashed from the stadium in tears after a bad fall at the end of the first lap of the second semifinal.

Having crashed to the track, he picked himself up and carried on but was never able to catch the field.

Still haunted by a fall in the Atlanta final - he tripped on Morceli at the bell - Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj, the hot favourite for the gold, led from the front throughout to avoid the trouble behind him. He comfortably won his semifinal in 3m37.6s.

Noah Ngeny of Kenya won the first heat in 3m 39.29s.

Other defending Olympic champions to fall prematurely by the wayside in Sydney include Syrian Ghada Shouaa, who managed just two hurdles of her opening hurdles heat in the heptathlon, and Norwegian Vebjorn Rodal, the 800m champion, was knocked out in his first heat.

Earlier in the day the defending women's 800m and 1500m champion Svetlana Masterkova of Russia also missed out on the chance to defend her title when she pulled out of her heat with injury.

At the start of the third lap, she stepped off the track clutching her calf and left the track in tears.

Russian Irina Privalova triumphed in the 400m women's hurdles, winning in a time of 53.02s.

Jamaica's Deon Hemmings took the silver in .43s slower, while Moroccan Nouzha Bidouane won the bronze in 53.57s.

The men's hurdle crown was won by American Angelo Taylor. He clocked 47.50s, just pipping Hadi Souan Somayli of Saudi Arabia by .03s in a thrilling finish.

South African Llewellyn Herbert collected the bronze in 47.81s.

Australia got three qualifiers into the final 16 for the women's 200m, including golden girl Cathy Freeman.

Freeman was eighth fastest qualifier in 22.75s, while Melinda Gainsford-Taylor was second quickest in 22.46s, while Lauren Hewitt also sneaked in at 23.12s.

Beverley McDonald of Jamaica was the fastest qualifier in 22.44s, while Marion Jones, shrugging off her off-track problems involving her husband D J Hunter and his doping dramas, was third fastest in 22.50s.

The tall American, seeking to become the first woman to collect five athletics gold medals at one Olympics, eased down to take second place behind Gainsford-Taylor last night.

"That was the easiest 22.50s I have ever run," said Jones.

She ended her busy programme with the long jump, believed to be the event in which she is most vulnerable.

She leaped 6.78m - eight centimetres over the qualifying standard - at her first attempt.

Jones' jumping technique is rudimentary but she can outclass the field with just one jump if she gets everything right.

She did just that and then jogged off with a big smile on her face.