Olympic and world champion Maria "The Maputo Express" Mutola of Mozambique remains in contention for a $1 million jackpot in track and field's Golden League series.
Mutola won her fifth straight 800 meter race at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich Friday night and needs only a sixth and final victory in Brussels on September 5 to win the entire sum. The Golden League jackpot, which is double that of last year, was to be shared between athletes who won each of their six individual league events, and only Mutola remains.
She led her two-lap race from start to finish, crossing the line three meters ahead of archrival Stephanie Graf of Austria. Mutola's winning time was 1:59.93 minutes.
Season best times were set by Turkey's Sureyya Ayhan in the women's 1,500 meters 3:55.60, Qatar's Saif Saeed Shaheen in the men's 3,000 meter steeplechase 8:02.48, by Romania's Gabriela Szabo in the women's 3,000 meters 8:33.95, and American Chryste Gaines in the women's 100 meters.
In the 400 meters, Pan American Games winner Ana Guevara of Mexico, the fastest woman in the world for the last two seasons, won her 23rd consecutive race in 49.11 seconds. Moroccan star runner Hicham El-Guerrouj won the men's 1,500 by more than one second over Bernard Lagat of Kenya.