Stuttgart GER - The fourth edition of the IAAF World Athletics Final takes place in Stuttgart, Germany, on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 September. We continue our Event Category Previews with the MIDDLE and LONG DISTANCE EVENTS.

The entry list of the IAAF World Athletics Final (WAF) is decided according to the World Athletics Tour (WAT) Standings. The top 7 athletes with the greatest number of points from their five best results (4 for throws) will qualify for each event of the WAF. For races of 1500m and over, 11 athletes will be qualified.

After the last qualifying meeting, the IAAF Golden League meeting in Berlin (Sunday 3 September), the process began to contact all the athletes concerned to ascertain that they are fit and willing to compete. Not until those answers are received, wild card entries are decided, and the usual technical meeting is held on the day before the World Athletics Final, can the final start list be made available. Consequently, our previews are as accurate as possible before that time.

Click here for the final World Athletics Tour Standings 2006

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800m

Since finishing a close second at the World Indoor Championships, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi has lost just once in seven contests, and made up for his sixth place finish at the African championships in fine style with four successive high calibre wins: in Zurich, Monaco, Rieti and Berlin. In Rieti, he produced the world's fastest time, a sizzling 1:43.09 and in his last outing in Berlin, was the overwhelming winner. Momentum is definitely on the 25-year-old South African's side.

Wilfred Bungei, the 2003 and 2005 winner, cruised to wins in seven of eight races after winning the World Indoor title, but has lost his last three. Third in Zurich and a distance sixth in Monaco, he bounced back in Rieti with a season's best 1:43.31, finishing second to Mulaudzi.

24-year-old Moroccan Amine Laalou has pieced together a solid season, capped by his 1:43.25 victory at Rome's Golden Gala, a national record. He's dipped under 1:44 twice since, most recently in Rieti where he was sixth (1:43.84) in the year's deepest race.

Others in the mix include Kenyan William Yiampoy, most recently second at both Monaco and Berlin and Stockholm winner Youssef Saad Kamel (1:43.61).

1500m

Five different winners emerged from this year’s six Golden League contests, illustrating that little was accomplished in the battle to succeed Hicham El Guerrouj as the event’s preeminent force. The only athlete to win a pair of the big races, Zurich and Berlin winner Augustine Choge, is still widely considered stronger in the 5000. But the 19-year-old Commonwealth champion over the longer distance will most likely contest only the 1500m in Stuttgart and will be considered a serious threat.

Alex Kipchirchir has probably been the most consistent. The winner of Oslo's Dream Mile (3:50.32), he took the African title in early August, won in Monaco, and finished second in Paris (3:31.36, SB), Zurich and Brussels.

Daniel Kipchirchir Komen the world leader after his career best 3:29.02 win in Rome, is the only runner to dip under 3:31 more than once this season, and with a runner-up finish in Lausanne and a third place showing in Oslo and Zurich, is also among the favourites.

French star Mehdi Baala followed up his successful European title defence with an impressive victory in Brussels, and looks to be a factor. World Indoor champion Ivan Heshko, the winner in the Paris leg of the Golden League, was disappointed with his runner-up finish to Baala in Gothenburg. It should be noted, however, that Heshko has won the previous two editions of the WAF, last year with a meet record over a very strong field.

3000/5000m

About the safest prediction one could make about this weekend’s competition is that the winners of the 3000 and 5000 metre contests will hail from either Kenya or Ethiopia. Of the 22 men who occupy the top 11 positions at each event in the current World Athletics Tour standings, all but three are from the two east African countries.

Kenenisa Bekele, who won six of his eight races this year, has spent most of his summer being chased, a pursuit that will continue this weekend in Stuttgart. If his recent outings are any indication, the Golden League Jackpot winner will be difficult to beat.

A solid favourite at either distance - or perhaps both? - is Isaac Songok, the 22-year-old Kenyan whose convincing win in the Oslo 5000 ended Bekele’s six-for-six Golden League ambitions early. In each of his three 5000 races he ran faster than 13 minutes, topped by his 12:48.66 runner-up finish in Zurich. He’s won two of his three outings over 3000 in 7:28.72 and 7:28.98, the season’s two fastest times.

Bekele’s younger brother Tariku, is this year’s third fastest in the 3000 (7:29.11) and has twice dipped under 13 minutes in the 5000, most recently finishing a strong second to his brother in Berlin. Still only 19, the World Junior champion is already primed to move from out of his brother’s shadow.

Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge leads the standings in both events, but has collected just one win this summer, in the London 3000, and will be looking to end his season on an up note.

The best bet to spoil the Kenyan and Ethiopian party will be Ugandan Boniface Kiprop. In his last race, he cruised to a 26:41.95 performance in the Brussels 10,000, indicating he’ll arrive in Stuttgart in solid form.

3000m Steeplechase

With World record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen choosing to sit this weekend out to rest for his upcoming double at the World Cup, the Steeplechase will focus primarily on competitors from Shaheen’s native Kenya.

Behind the Qatari, Olympic bronze medallist Paul Kipsiele Koech has been among the season's most consistent. With strong wins in Rome (7:59.94) and Stockholm (8:00.29) the 24-year-old looks to be the man to beat. With consistent top-three finishes in virtually all of his races, Richard Matelong (8:07.50) could be a threat, while Bob Tahri of France, the European championships bronze medallist, will lead the challenge for his continent.

WOMEN

800m

From March, when she won the Commonwealth title, to a few weeks ago when she won in Rieti, African champion Janeth Jepkosgei has been the most consistent two-lapper in the world, and will be among the strong favourites in Stuttgart. She lowered her own Kenyan record twice over the summer, first in Gateshead (1:57:22) in June and again in Lausanne (1:56.66) in July, the latter the fastest performance in the world. She's faltered just twice this season, first in Zurich last month when she finished fourth behind Russian Olga Kotlyarova, Moroccan Hasna Benhassi, and Cuba's World champion Zulia Calatayud, and again in Brussels, where she crossed the line second behind Benhassi.

Benhassi, the Olympic silver medallist, seems to be building momentum on her way to Stuttgart, hoping to regain the WAF title she won in 2004 after finishing second last year.

Calatayud hasn't duplicated the 2005 campaign that led to her World title in Helsinki last year, but she has run under 1:57, and won her most recent outing in Padova last week.

Looking to end their break out seasons on a high note are Jamaican Kenia Sinclair, the World indoor and Commonwealth silver medallist, and Briton Rebecca Lyne, the European championships bronze medallist, who has been remarkably consistent in virtually all of her outings this year.

1500

Russians have dominated the metric mile this year, and with the trio of Tatyana Tomashova, Yelena Soboleva and Yuliya Chizhenko expected to toe the line in Stuttgart, that dominance could continue this weekend.

With a pair of successive World titles under her belt, Tomashova underscored her big meet talent with an impressive 3:56.91 personal best to nab the European title. Chizhenko, the world leader after her career best 3:55.68 in Paris, was outkicked by Tomashova in Gothenburg (3:57.61), but bounced back with a victory in Monaco and another fast performance in Rieti, where she clocked 3:57.29 to finish second behind Maryam Yusuf Jamal. Soboleva, the World indoor record holder, has run under four minutes three times this summer, but faded to fourth in her two most recent outings.

Jamal, on the other hand, may be peaking perfectly. Last year she preceded her World Athletics Final victory with a national record 3:56.79 Bahraini national record in Rieti. This year, her tune up for the WAF was another visit to the Italian city, where she lowered her won record to 3:56.18, the year’s second fastest clocking.

3000/5000m

As with the men’s events, the women’s distance programme in Stuttgart will be a parade of Ethiopian and Kenyan talent; but this year, it’s been the Ethiopian contingent that’s reigned supreme.

The summer highlight has been the ongoing rivalry between Ethiopians Tirunesh Dibaba, the World champion at 5000 and 10,000 metres, and Meseret Defar, the Olympic champion and World record holder at 5000 metres. Dibaba won three of their five meetings this summer, but the last, in Berlin last Sunday, was the costliest. When Defar outkicked her friend and rival with an astounding 56.4 final lap, she took from Dibaba a $125,000 share of the Golden League Jackpot. Prior to this year’s African Championships, the last time Defar outkicked Dibaba was at last year’s World Athletics Final, where the Olympic champion took the 3000/5000 double. Will she double again?

In the 3000, the primary challengers are from Ethiopia: Gelete Burka Bati (8:25.92); Ejegayehu Dibaba (8:35.94) and Berhane Adere (8:33.17).

In the 5000, Kenyans have a slight edge of depth, with Edith Masai (14:33.84), Priscah Jepleting (14:35.30) and Olympic silver medallist Isabella Ochichi (14:46.99) leading the charge. The top European is Briton Jo Pavey, who finished third in Brussels in 14:39.96.

3000m Steeplechase

With no dominant figure emerging from the few races offered on the international circuit this summer, the Steeplechase appears on paper as wildly unpredictable. World champion Dorcus Inzikuru of Uganda and European champion Alesia Turava of Belarus have competed little over the summer, while Poland’s Wioletta Janowska, has pieced together perhaps the most consistent season.

The world leader since her brisk 9:17.15 national record in Athens in early July, the 29-year-old was third at the European Championships, and in her most recent outing, topped a strong field with her 9:22.48 victory in Rieti late last month. The runner-up last year, Janowska is poised to move up a step this weekend.

Russians Tatyana Petrova (9:22.96) and Lyubov Ivanova (9:23.61) have run well, as have Australia's Commonwealth silver and bronze medallists Melissa Rollison and Donna MacFarlane (9:25.05). But Turava, with her 9:20.16 Gothenburg follow-up to win handily in Monaco, may have the edge.