By the end of 1997, Hicham El Guerrouj had established himself as the world's premier 1500m/1 mile runner, having finally emerged from the shadow of Algerian Noureddine Morceli. In 1998, El Guerrouj moved further ahead of the rest of the world, clearly placing himself in a class apart. He was undefeated during the year, and the closest that anyone got to him in any one race was 1.01sec, at the Grand Prix final in Moscow late in the season. With little opposition from other athletes to worry about, El Guerrouj set about challenging the clock, and he achieved success in this with devastating effect in a mere five day period in July. At the Golden gala meet in Rome on 14 July, El Guerrouj produced one of the greatest performances in the history of athletics. Competing in the 1500m, and aided by ideal weather conditions and excellent pace-setting, Hicham produced a final lap of 53.5sec to finish in a time of 3min 26.00sec, taking a massive 1.73 seconds off Morceli's world record set in 1995. Two days later in Nice, El Guerrouj attempted to also break Morceli's 1 mile record of 3min 44.39sec. Although Hicham beat his personal best and national record set the year before, he finished just short of Morceli's world record in the second fastest time in history of 3min 44.60sec. Only another three days later, and clearly in a world record-breaking mood, El Guerrouj travelled to Gateshead where he made an attempt on Morceli's 2000m world record. Unfortunately the elements were against him, and Hicham had to contend with a wet and windy evening (see photo above), but he nevertheless performed excellently under the conditions to finish in 4min 48.36sec, less than half a second short of Morceli's record, and the second fastest time ever run. (George Herringshaw)