By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

BEIJING (16-Aug) -- Competing in her sixth Olympic Games and in her final year of elite competition, Maria Mutola will compete in her fifth Olympic 800m final next Monday here in Beijing's National Stadium, the Bird's Nest.

In tonight's semi-finals, Mutola survived some rough stuff on the final turn of the first heat, when Tetyana Petlyuk stumbled, extended her right hand and contacted Mutola's chest.

"It's very hard work to get into the final," said Mutola after the race.  "I almost fell over there.  I just struggled to finish it."

Mutola, 35, has compiled an unmatched record of Olympic performances in the two-lap event.  In her first Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, she finished seventh in heat 2. In Barcelona in 1992 she made the final for the first time, and finished fifth.  In 1996 in Atlanta, she won her first Olympic medal, taking bronze.  She won her first --and only-- Olympic gold medal in 2000 in Sydney.  In Athens in 2004, she finished fourth just 8/100ths of a second out of the medals.

"There are some big rivals out there," she said of Monday's final.  "I'll just do my best."

The favorite for gold is Kenya's teenage sensation, Pamela Jelimo, who won the second semi-final easily in 1:57.31.  Incredibly, it was only her 11th 800m race of her life.

"I did feel some competition," said Jelimo who said that spotty mobile telephone service was making it difficult for her to get calls from her mother.

Also advancing to the final was last summer's world champion Janeth Jepkosgei, Jelimo's Kenyan teammate.  She won the third heat, holding off Ukraine's Yulia Krevsun, 1:57.28 to 1:57.32.

The remaining qualifers for the final were Russia's Svetlana Klyuka, who won the first semi; Morocco's Hasna Benhassi, who took second in the second semi; and Russia's Andrianova and Jamaica's Kenia Sinclair, who qualified on time out of the third semi.

ENDS