This Is Guernsey

By Aaron Scoones

WHAT a performance.

Superlatives and adjectives cannot do Lee Merrien justice as he beat favourite and Olympic marathon runner Janne Holmen in the 5,000m final last night.

The Wiklof Holding Arena in Mariehamn was packed with more than 3,500 spectators.

The Aland public had gathered to watch their hero, who had recently announced that he was retiring from competitive running.

They were stunned when with about 500m to go, the 30-year-old Sarnian turned on the gas to overtake Holmen.

But by the time Merrien had made his way back round the track, he was given a standing ovation by everyone, including Alanders, as he crossed the line.

‘It was great and it was one of the best since the Guernsey Island Games for crowd support,’ said Merrien from the centre of the track after the race.

‘I thought there was quite a lot of the home crowd cheering.’

The 31-year-old Holmen competed in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and his biggest achievement was winning the marathon at the 2002 European Championships.

He took the 10,000m gold with ease earlier in the week.

Merrien had not planned to try and retain his 5,000m title he won in Rhodes in 2007 until he heard that Holmen was taking part.

‘I wasn’t going to do this until Monday,’ he said.

‘The temptation to run against a man of this calibre was too tempting.’

With the race beginning at the 200m start, when the pack came round to the finish line in front of the stand, Holmen, who was stuck in the middle, broke out and kicked on.

Merrien immediately stuck with him.

He was not surprised by the Finnish international’s tactics.

‘I knew it was a pedestrian pace and that it wasn’t to be that slow for too long,’ he said.

‘I knew he was going to attack and I’d have been very surprised if he had taken it any longer. He was probably waiting to see if I was going to take it on.’

Holmen admitted that he had done some research on Merrien, which dictated his tactics.

‘I knew that Lee was quite good and probably a bit better than me [at this distance],’ he said.

‘I expected him to follow me. I have heard of him and I was looking at his blog.’

Merrien was content to sit on Holmen’s shoulder as they broke away from the rest of the field.

The pair crossed the 3,000m mark in a time of 8min. 41.57sec.

With four laps to go, Merrien took the lead briefly but Holmen hit back almost immediately to go in front again.

Holmen kept trying to stretch away. but time and time again Merrien stayed with him.

Then, coming up to the final lap, something amazing happened as Merrien hit the turbo button and left his rival in the dust.

‘Coming off the bend I just ran round the two backmarkers and him and I thought, I’m going now so I might as well go for it,’ he said.

Merrien kept accelerating, much to the astonishment of the crowd.

It is estimated that he completed the final 400m in an astonishing 55sec.

He smashed the previous record of 14-38.69, set by Aland’s Mikael Nordblom in 1991, by more than 17sec., when he went over the line in 14-21.35.

Holmen finished in 14-33.10.

Merrien’s attention now turns to today’s 1,500m heats while Holmen is taking part in tomorrow’s half-marathon.

Merrien was not the only Sarnian medal winner on the track yesterday evening.

Earlier in the evening, Louise Perrio and Martine Scholes won gold and silver respectively in the 5,000m.

Felicity Johnson-Deeley, 16, of Jersey, led the field for the majority of the race while the two Sarnians were content to sit back.

With five laps to go, Scholes, with Perrio on her shoulder, made her way to the front and, as expected, the 26-year-old Perrio made her move in the final lap to cross the line first in 17min. 37.15sec.

‘When you’re at the Games, it’s not nice to beat your own teammate but of course everyone wants to win,’ said Perrio.

‘It’s great that we got gold and silver.’

Her gold medal goes with the one she won in the 10,000m on Monday.

She could end up with four from the Games, with tomorrow’s half-marathon individual and team medals to be run for.

Scholes, 38, had three fourth placed finishes to her name from previous Games.

‘I’m relieved,’ she said. ‘In Rhodes, I was trying the whole Games to do as many events as I could but nothing was happening.’

The evening got under way with victory for Guernsey in the heats of the 4×400m men’s relay.

The team of Matt Bailey, Ross Hanley, Nathan Stevens and Dale Garland, who had flown in by private jet earlier in the day, won their heat in a time of 3-23.31.

Article posted on 2nd July, 2009 - 3.42pm