Webb has golden chance

Alan Webb faces the biggest test of his already distinguished running career today when he lines up as one of the favorites in the 1,500 meters at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

While he boasts the year’s top time in the 1,500, a win is anything but guaranteed.

Webb barely made it out of Monday’s semifinal, sprinting furiously from the back of the pack in the closing straightaway to qualify.

“I wasn’t aggressive enough at the start,” said the 24-year-old from Reston, who set the U.S. record in the mile earlier this year. “I had to do something I don’t like doing, being in the back the whole time. It almost cost me a spot in the final. That’s why you don’t do that. I knew I was really close. I tried to count the guys. The last 50, I tried to stay as relaxed as I could. It was hard, and there was so much going on. I just didn’t want to get left out.”

That is exactly what happened to Webb at the Olympics in 2004. After winning the 1,500 in the U.S. Olympic trials in 3:36.13, he failed to move out of the first round in Athens, placing ninth in a slow, tactical affair.

Experience paid off for Webb, and at the last world championships in 2005, Webb advanced to the finals and finished ninth, coincidentally with the same 3:41 time he ran in the Olympics.

This year Webb has been red hot and poised for gold. He owns the top times in the world in the 1,500 (3:30.54) and the mile (3:46.91) and the second-fastest time in the 800 (1:43.84).

Whether Webb actually pulls off a gold-medal-winning performance today is another matter.

The United States has won two medals in the 1,500 in the 10 previous world championships, Steve Scott’s silver medal in 1983 and Jim Spivey’s bronze in 1987.

“It is mentally tough when you’ve run a heat like that in the semis where you have to run hard from behind and then come to the final and you’re hoping to feel good,” Spivey said yesterday.

“It depends how the race is run. You can go in as the favorite and come out without a medal like Noureddine Morceli, who easily won the 1991 worlds and was favored in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He did not even medal. I was eighth, and I finished right behind him. The race was very slow.”

Spivey, the fourth-fastest American in the 1,500 and sixth fastest in the mile, said his 1987 world bronze was earned in a race that also started slowly and ended in a mad dash.

“The advantage in the 1,500 turns to the people who have the confidence and are near the lead when the kicking starts,” he said.

Strength training with his former high school mentor and current coach Scott Raczko probably has been a major contributor to Webb’s marked improvement this year. That included breaking the American mile record Steve Scott set 24 years ago. That race was typical of Webb’s racing strength, set up at a low-key meet in Belgium with pace-setters and little competition.

His race today is loaded with talent, including American Bernard Lagat, the third-fastest 1,500-meter runner ever with his 3:26.34 as a Kenyan citizen in 2001, and defending 800 and 1,500 world champion Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain with his 3:29.14 last year. Webb may have the fastest time of the year, but time means little in the finals if the previous 10 world championships are any indication.

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