La Habana CUB - Cuba's two-time Olympic 800m finalist Zulia Calatayud, now 25 years of age, who has opened her season with a couple of marks that peppered the 2 minute barrier, is intent on winning the 800m Final at the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland, 6-14 August. She also aims to improve her personal best of 1:56.09, set in 2002.

After an unofficial 1:59.3-minute time trial in training over the two-laps, the runner from Havana had a good official 2005 season start at 800m with a 2:00.2 win at a local meet (date not known). She then took another comfortable victory at the Barrientos Memorial in Havana (20 May) with 2:01.34, ahead of 2003 Pan American champion, Adriana Muñoz who is also Cuban.

“I wanted to run under two minutes in an official race as I already did it alone in a test over the same track. But I know I am in good form and I will improve progressively", commented Calatayud about her first two outings of the year.

In March, she tried the 1500m and finished third at the National Championships with a personal best of 4:23.84 (17 March).

Injury hit career

“I have been able to train very well this year, not like 2004 when I had to work some magic in just six months to be in good form. Luckily, I am now injury free.”

Calatayud stopped competing for a year a half after she fractured her fibula in both legs and had to carefully follow a treatment to avoid surgery.

Her first race after the 2002 World Cup in Madrid was the 2004 National Champs over 400m. She made some progress and made it to her second Olympic 800m final in Athens, where she finished eighth. Her Olympic placing and five runs under two minutes (best of 1:59.21) catapulted her to the ninth spot of the IAAF World Rankings.

Better prepared

Asked about the World Championships in Helsinki, the 1999 Pan American Games silver medallist believes she is better prepared physically and mentally to reach the final. Once there, “we'll see what happens.”

In her only previous World Championships, she failed to qualify for the final in Edmonton 2001 after she finished fifth in her semi-final. “Honestly, I don't want to remember the 2001 World Champs,’ while she missed Paris 2003 due to her fibula fractures.

Not just a one-off win

She wants to prove her 1:56.09 win in Monaco 2002 over Mozambique's great Maria Mutola was no fluke.

“If I had seen the chronometer, I would have made an extra effort to run under 1:56.09 in that race,” she recalled. That time is still the third swiftest a woman has produced in the 800m outdoors since 2000. Only Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak (1:55.19 in 2002) and Mutola (1:55.55 in Madrid 2003) have run faster.

However, with four women running under 1:57 and even Mutola off the podium in the 2004 Olympics, Calatayud is certain that she will have a difficult path to follow in order to move up into the world elite again.

“My rivals are obviously preparing as well as I am, but I am sure of one thing that will go better this year. As in 2004, they will be ready to run around 1:56 and I hope to repeat that mark, too.”

“Fast legs, but also a sharp mind”

The national record (1:54.44), held by two-time World champion Ana Fidelia Quirot since 1989, is her long term goal.

“I still have a lot to learn in this event. My speed obviously helps, but the 800 is not just a matter of fast legs, but also of a sharp mind.”

A former national junior record holder at 400m (52.39 in 2002), she shows the fastest 400m time of all the 800m runners today with a personal best of 50.87 (2001). Last year, she ran 51.01.

“I love that (400m) distance. That was my event before I focused on the 800m.” The two laps “has become a speed event and I have to be fast to pass the first lap around 56 seconds with the leaders.’

At the Barrientos Memorial, she stretched her legs with a 52.39 win in the 400m semifinal. She did not start the final in order to focus on the 800m.

European racing campaign is still open

Although the schedule of her European campaign is not finalised, she will have 5-8 tune-up races before the Worlds. “I am looking forward to running against the world's best to test my form.”

Calatayud trains under coach Faustino Hernandez' guidance. Her training partners include 1999 World 400m Hurdles champion Daimi Pernia, who took a sabbatical year in 2004 to recover from her physical problems.

Hernandez also trains the women's 4x400m relay team, which features 400m national champion Libania Grenot, who is very close to the IAAF ‘A’ qualifying mark (51.50) for Helsinki, with her 51.56 run at the Barrientos semi-final in May.

Sixteen-year old Aymée Martinez (52.57), Ana H. Peña (52.58) and 19-year old Indira Terrero (53.07) are also in the squad.

Peña, Calatayud, Terrero and Grenot ran 3:31.36 at the Barrientos Memorial and they need to run 3:31.00 or faster at an international meet, preferably the CAC Championships in the Bahamas, to qualify for Helsinki.