Nerves put paid to El Guerrouj

Olympic silver medallist Steve Cram gives BBC Sport Online his thoughts on the latest athletics action.

Friday was a day of upsets - and none was bigger than Hicham El Guerrouj being beaten to gold in the men's 1,500m.

That was probably the shock of the entire Olympics, at least as far as athletics is concerned. It is like Maurice Greene or Marion Jones being beaten - he was that hot a favourite.

He did not run with any real authority, and his last lap was just not good enough to put the rest of the field under pressure.

Normally he simply gets faster and faster in the last part of the race and outlasts the rest, but that did not happen this time.

There is a lot of pressure in the Olympic Games, and if you have to run from the front like that it is difficult.

Nervous energy

I know him quite well, and he's quite a nervy character, and if you use up a lot of nervous energy before the start, sometimes there is nothing left.

And this season he has not been running as well as last year.

I don't want to take anything away from Noah Ngeny, who is a great athlete who normally finishes second to El Guerrouj.

He's a world record holder at 1,000m and that was the key. He has better pace than El Guerrouj over 800m, and the Moroccan was not able to make the race quick enough to stop the Kenyan being able to outsprint him at the end.

El Guerrouj is quite a nervy character, and if you use up a lot of nervous energy before the start, sometimes there is nothing left

  Steve Cram

You've got to hand it to Ngeny. He did brilliantly, and it was a real battle right to the line - El Guerrouj certainly didn't give up.

The other big surprise was the failure of the British 4x100m team to get beyond the first round.

I still don't know what went wrong. I thought maybe the combination of Allyn Condon and Jason Gardener on the first two legs had not been tried often enough.

But I spoke to the coach a little later and he said it was just one of those things, and it probably was. If you don't get the baton to hand the first time, you're history.

Worried

It was a huge disappointment, especially as we were all pretty sure they would win a medal. They were unlikely to beat the Americans, but the rest was up for grabs.

Fortunately, the 4x400m squad have got through to the final even though it did not look that good after the first round. It was obvious they would have to go faster if they were going to get any further.

When I saw that the same four guys were going to run the semi-final, I was a bit worried that they might not be able to deal with two races in one day, but Iwan Thomas picked himself up and Jamie Baulch ran better. The first two lads were great both times.

There is absolutely no chance of them winning the final, though. The Americans would win it without Michael Johnson, and with him it will be a cakewalk.

The problem when you come to the Olympics saying you're going to win five gold medals. Now people will say: 'Well, that wasn't very good, was it?'

  Steve Cram

It should, though, be a different story in the women's event.

The other big event of the day was the women's long jump, and I can't say I'm surprised that Marion Jones did not win. Most of us thought she would not manage it.

Marion doesn't do the long jump often enough to be consistent, and that's what we saw on Friday.

You need to be able to hit the board most of the time. Marion's last jump was long, but she was well over the board.

It was great to see Heike Dreschler win the gold - she is very popular within the athletics fraternity.

I never really thought Jones was going to win five golds. The 100m and the 200m were always going to be hers, but the relays were always suspect with the Bahamians and the Nigerians running so well.

Great athlete

She got the bronze, and it was a pretty tight competition, so Jones is probably sitting there tonight thinking: "That one got away from me."

She shouldn't be too bothered, though. This is the problem when you come to the Olympics saying you're going to win five gold medals. Now people will say: "Well, that wasn't very good, was it?"

But she won the sprint double, which is fantastic, and there are not many chances to do that, and she did it by a great margin.

If she comes away with two or three gold medals, she would be wrong to think she had not done very well. She is a great athlete.