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Feisty Szabo stoops to conquer
BUCHAREST, Aug 16 (AFP) - She may be diminutive in stature and runs with an ungainly stoop but Romanian middle and long distance athlete Gabriela Szabo is one of the biggest names in athletics and one of the hottest favourites for gold in the Sydney Olympics. The pint-sized star from Bistrita in northern Romania has the heart of a lion and a self-belief to match - last year she insisted she was so good that only an athlete doped up to the eyeballs could give her a run for her money. "My most dangerous opponents have always been athletes helped by doping who exhibit unpredictable behaviour during the race and produce surprise results," Szabo said in Japan last year. "I am an honest competitor and believe in maximum punishment for athletes who fail doping tests." Szabo has certainly been the dominant runner at the 5000m over recent years but the one omission on her list of honours is the Olympic gold - something that she will be hoping to put right in Sydney. In Atlanta she had to settle for silver in the 1500m behind all-conquering Russian Svetlana Masterkova but since then it has been in the 5000m that she has really shone. She has won gold medals in consecutive world championships in 1997 at Athens and in 1999 in the Spanish city of Seville. In fact 1999 proved to be her best year yet and she was named IAAF Athlete of the Year. Few could dispute that the award was merited. She won two golds in the 1500m and 3000m in the World Indoors Championship before clocking up her gold medal in the 5000m. She scooped a half-share of the 1 million dollar jackpot after seven victories in the 3000m and 5000m in Golden League meetings and becoming overall IAAF Grand Prix champion. Unsurprisingly given her size and Romania's excellence in that department - notably Nadia Comaneci - Szabo started out as a gymnast. But she switched to athletics and - having left Bistrita for the famous Rapid Bucharest sports club - she quickly excelled her. Despite her elfin features and blonde locks she is an ungainly figure on the track with a trademark style of running where she appears to be almost hunch-backed. But what she lacks in style she more than makes up with a single-minded approach that borders on the fanatical. 'Gabi' does have friends off the track within the sport but in the stadium will employ the mind games more common in the build-up to a world heavyweight title fight. "Athletics is about individuals not teams and countries," she has said. "Inside the stadium I do not think about my mother or my father nor my friends. I fight for a medal and everyone else is my enemy who must be beaten." Last year Szabo married her coach Zsolt Gyongyosyi and when her best years are behind her she plans to set up her own athletics academy in her native Bistrita. At 24 there is plenty of time yet for Szabo and those plans may be put on hold for some considerable time yet.
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