Zurich (Switzerland), Aug 16: World and Olympic champion Maria Mutola is just one race away from collecting a million dollar jackpot after she majestically won the 800 metres at the Weltklasse Golden League meeting here.
After recording her 16th successive win over the distance the Mozambican now only needs to win at the final golden league meeting in Brussels on September 05, to collect the cash windfall awarded to athletes who win their event at all six meetings on this circuit.
Mutola was tracked by her Austrian rival Stephanie Graf before unleashing her familiar kick finish 50 metres from the line to secure a valuable victory in 1min 59.93 sec.
"The hardest race of my career awaits me in Brussels," said Mutola.
Kenyan-born Steeplechaser Stephen Cherono ran and won his first race for his adopted country of Qatar under his new name of Saif Saeed Shaheen.

Shaheen, who will compete for the oil-rich Gulf state in the world championships in Paris later this month after controversially switching nationality this week, held off his former Kenyan teammate Ezekiel Kemboi in a thrilling finish to the 3,000 m steeplechase.

With two laps to go, Shaheen was joined at the front by Kemboi and the pair sprinted side-by-side to the line with the new Qatari prevailing by just one hundredth of a second in 8 min 02.48 sec, the fastest time in the world this year although well short of the world record he had hoped to set.
Bureau Report