Despite his terrible disappointment of tripping and falling in the 1996 Olympic 1500m final, Hicham El Guerrouj had ended 1996 on a high note, finally ending the long winning streak of Algerian Noureddine Morceli begun in 1992. This occurrence seemed to springboard El Guerrouj to another level, and saw the start of his own long period of dominance in the 1500m and 1 mile events. The first signals came in the 1997 indoor season when Hicham sliced nearly three seconds off Morceli's 1500m world record at Stuttgart on 2 February, setting a new mark of 3min 31.18sec. Ten days later, at Ghent, he added the 1 mile world indoor record, with his winning time of 3min 48.45sec. Needless to say, the successful defence of his world indoor 1500m title at Paris on March 8 seemed a mere formality, and Hicham accomplished this easily, with a winning time of 3min 35.31sec. El Guerrouj continued this form into the outdoor season, where he became the first athlete to run under 3min 30sec for 1500m four times in one season, and he also reduced his best 1 mile time to 3min 44.90sec, just missing the world record. The biggest meet of the year was the World Championships in Athens, which provided an opportunity for El Guerrouj to again confront Morceli in the 1500m. They both won their respective semi-finals in almost identical times, but, in the final, Morceli was never a real threat, as El Guerrouj made his break with 600 metres remaining, and then continued to accelerate away from the field, winning in 3min 35.83sec, which included a very impressive final lap of 52.48sec. As El Guerrouj took a well-deserved victory lap (see photo above), there was no doubt that he had now supplanted Morceli as the world's premier 1500m runner. (George Herringshaw)