Abel ANTON

Abel Anton showed early promise as a track distance runner when he won the 10000m at the 1987 European Cup in Prague. Although he continued to be well ranked at both the 5000m and 10000m in subsequent years, he seemed destined to see out his Olympic/World Championship career as a minor player. He finishing respectively 14th, 11th and 11th in the 5000m at the 1987, 1991 and 1993 World Championships and at the Olympic Games, 8th in the 5000m in 1992 and 13th in the 10000m in 1996. His best year had been 1994 where he won the 10000m at the European Championships and came third in the 5000m.

Anton's fortunes, however, took a marked turn for the better when he took up the marathon at the age of 33. In his first marathon, at Berlin in 1996, he won in an impressive 2hr 9min 15sec, beating, amongst others, the defending champion Sammy Lelei, who had run the second fastest marathon in history. Anton also won his second marathon, at Kyongju, Korea in 2hr 12min 37sec on 16 March 1997. At the 1997 Athens World Championships, Anton’s fellow countryman Martin Fiz attempted to become the first marathoner to retain a world title, having won at Gothenburg in 1995. Fiz and Anton broke clear of the rest of the field in the 29th kilometre and opened a substantial lead.

Anton shadowed Fiz all the way to 300 metres before the finish, where he used his superior track speed to sprint past Fiz and win by 5 seconds (see photo above). For the first time, the World Cup, a team title awarded to the nation with the lowest aggregate time for its first three finishers, was held in conjunction with the individual race. Spain won the title easily thanks to Anton, Fiz, and Fabian Roncero who finished sixth. (Ron Casey)

After his success in the marathon during 1996 and 1997, which included winning the 1997 World Championships in Athens, Abel Anton thenceforth concentrated solely on road racing for the remainder of his career. He ran one more marathon in 1997 after the World Championships, and his first non-winning finish, running a fast 2h 10min 27sec in finishing 4th at Fukuoka on 7 December. In 1998, he attempted two marathons, winning the first in London on 26 April in 2hr 07min 57 sec. This was the fastest time of his career and brought his marathon record to four wins from five starts. However, he failed to finish in his other marathon that year, at New York, on 1 November.

On 18 April 1999, he attempted to win the London marathon for the second successive time, but could manage only third place in a time of 2hr 09min 41sec. At the 1999 World Championships in Seville Anton tried to become the first marathoner to successfully defend a world title. Nobuyuki Sato (Japan) had established a big lead in the second half of the race, with Anton in a small group behind. During the 38th kilometre, Anton broke away from the others in an individual pursuit of Sato, eventually catching and passing him just before 39km, and the Spaniard went on to easily retain his world title (see photo above).

In addition, his victory made him the oldest athlete, at 36 years 300 days, to win a World Championships gold medal. With two world titles to his credit, Anton was expected to make a good showing at the 2000 Olympic Games held in Sydney. However, he succumbed to the heat on a hot Sydney day, finishing well down the field in 53rd position in a time of 2hr 24min 04sec. (Ron Casey)