But although he and his rival John Mayock are pre-eminent in the event domestically his experience of last

But although he and his rival, John Mayock, are pre-eminent in the event domestically, his experience of last year has taught him to take nothing for granted.Whiteman’s problems began at the Stockholm Grand Prix five days before Britain’s world championship trials, when he was bitten on the ankle by a mosquito and suffered an unusually severe reaction after starting a course of antibiotics.Two days before the trials began he developed a flu-type virus and sought the advice of Britain’s team doctor, Malcolm Brown, who told him not to run.On the Monday after the trials, at which Mayock and Kevin McKay claimed two of the three 1500 metres places automatically, he rang the national coach, Malcolm Arnold.”I asked him how much I needed to do to protect my place,” Whiteman said “I said if my position was in jeopardy I would run. If I can go into a championship and click into the kind of feeling I had at the World Student Games again it will give me a big advantage.”That assumes that Whiteman will be picked for the European Championships. “It was not so much the guys I raced against, who were maybe a level below those I had been meeting regularly on the European circuit.”It was the fact that I dominated the whole thing from the beginning of the competition. It was always obvious that I had the chance to win comfortably, but I still had to deliver the victory. I regard it as a dress rehearsal for something bigger.”That something is likely to be the European Championships in Budapest towards the end of August.

“In the European Championships you need to stamp your authority early on,” he said “It becomes a real war of psychology. What more could he do?Although the timing turned out to be unfortunate, the experience in Sicily was one which Whiteman, whose international career only began in earnest two years ago, hopes to turn to good advantage this year.”I was very satisfied with the way I performed there,” he said. After striding away to an easy win, Whiteman, who is studying sports science at Brunel University, halted his lap of honour to bow to the Union Jack as a mark of respect. His achievement in becoming the first British middle distance runner for seven years to win a global title coincided with another event which guaranteed him the minimum of attention.
On the day the 26-year-old from Isleworth won the 1500 metres gold medal at the World Student Games in Sicily, news of the death of Princess Diana was announced.For a few hours, the British team were unsure whether they would compete or not, but they eventually went ahead. The US economic model that Americans like to describe as free-market capitalism (but which entails considerably more government regulation and subsidies than either term would suggest) is vindicated and the ideological victory over communism has only to be consolidated in the economic arena.

A Japanese bloke finally won the seat with an impassioned aria by, I believe, Verdi. Those who’d struggled through all of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” were understandably (and unseasonably) hacked off.. Controversially left out of last year’s World Championships, Anthony Whiteman plans to get his own back this year and help put British middle distance running back on the map Mike Rowbottom reports

It was absolutely typical of Anthony Whiteman’s luck. “Come back at 4pm with a prepared carol,” they said, “and whoever sings the best will get the seat”. Dore himself would be pushed to capture the Purgatory of karaoke warblings that rang round the bureaux de change and the luggage carousels.