Interviews 23 August
- Andrew Owusu (Ghana) - qualified for the triple jump final with a 16,88m season's best.
"I changed coach two months ago. Three weeks ago, I pulled my hamstring and I had to rest for a week. My result today shows that everything is workingn and I still feel I've got something left in me to do better in final".
- Sofiane Labidi - qualified for the 400m semi-final in 46"07.
"I have to run below 45"50. I was tired in the last 150m, where I'm usually strong. I ran a 300m last week in 32"83. Normally on 400m, it should convert to 45"20..."
- Seltana Aït Hammou (Morocco) - qualified for the 800m semi-final in 2'04"01.
"I'm happy with my performance because I don't have experience at that level of competition. Now I've already done half of the way to the final where I hope to compete with my sister Amina so that we can help each other".
- Akosua Serwaa (Ghana) - qualified for the 800m semi-final in 2'01"17
"When I was in Ghana, I used to run around 2'04 because of the lack of facilities to train properly and because there was no one to push me to faster times. Now I train in Köln (Germany), and my times have been improving fast. I improved the national record several times this season. For the moment, I still tend to prefer tactical races though, because I'm not strong enough to sustain too fast races".
- Werknesh Kidane (Ethiopia) - silver medallist in the 10000m with a time of 30'07"15.
"We prepared very well for this race. Besides, whenever a race is fast, it's good for the Ethiopians"
- Berhane Adere (Ethiopia) - gold medallist in the 10000m with a time of 30'04"18.
"Although I had only run one 10000m this season, I was confident in my ability to do a great performance. Besides I still had in mind that I was defeated by one second two years ago. We realised that the Chinese was very strong so we had to test her during the race. Once I had followed her until the last 700m, there was no way I could lose. I was aware that the pace was fast, but as I'm used to run 5000m, it was quite comfortable actually. (About Paula Radcliffe) There's no reason to say that the race was easy because anyone was absent".
Other informations
- The heats of the 100m had to be run from lane 2 to 9 because a hammer had landed on lane 1 and made a hole in the track earlier in the morning.
- Kenyan Bernard Lagat, one of the favourites for the 1500m podium, wasn't at the start of the heats due to illness.
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