Where Your Dreams Become Reality
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Where Your Dreams Become Reality |
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Ivan Heshko's Win Highlights Final Day of European Indoors BOGDANOV, ZHAO AND CHOJECKA ALSO WIN By Bob Ramsak (c) 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved March 7, 2005 MADRID - A dominating performance by Ivan Heshko and thrilling down-to-the-wire wins by Larisa Zhao, Dmitriy Bogdanov and Lidia Chojecka capped a thoroughly entertaining and fiercely competitive final day at the European Indoor Championships in the Spanish capital. With a trio of talented Spaniards in the race, Heshko, a pre-meet favorite in the 1500, decided to control his own destiny from the outset. Moving into the lead just 200 meters into the race, the Ukrainian pounded out successive sub-29 second laps to slowly wilt his opposition en route to a 3:36.70 win, breaking Thomas Wessinhage's championship record of 3:37.54 set 25 years ago. "I had two plans for this race," said Heshko, who finished fifth at the Olympics last year. "A slow pace and to make use of my finishing speed, or to set a fast pace. I chose the second." Juan Carlos Higuero and Arturo Casado immediately made chase, shadowing Heshko through the half (1:56.57) and through the kilometer mark (2:25.12), when Reyes Estevez, bronze medallist in yesterday's 3000 final, joined the leading trio. But at the bell, the Ukrainian left the parade of Spaniards behind, building a substantial lead as he approached the final turn. With Casado beginning to fade, Higuero was the best of the rest, finishing second in a season's best 3:37.98. Sensing Casado's struggle, Estevez closed the gap and edged by the 22-year-old to capture his second bronze in as many days, clocking 3:38.90, a mere 4/100s ahead of Casado. Belgium's Joeri Jansen was a distant fifth with a PB 3:40.12 , just ahead of James Thie's 3:40.76. Russian Dmitriy Bogdanov emerged from a sometimes brutally physical race to take gold in the 800, clocking 1:48.61. Here too a pair of Spaniards, spurred on by the vociferously enthusiastic sell-out crowd of nearly 10,000, played key roles. Antonio Manuel Reina, who raced to a national record to claim the World Cup title in Madrid in 2002, and Juan de Dios Jurado were in near the middle of pack, furiously jostling for position. But the race didn't begin to fully unfold until the final lap when Briton James McIlroy forged to front for a very short-lived lead at the bell. Behind him, Bogdanov and the Spaniards tussled for position, with Bogdanov winning the key battle off the penultimate turn. Steadily adding to his lead down the backstraight. Fighting valiantly, Reina moved into second at the end of the backstraight, but ran out of room to catch the Russian, reaching to line in 1:48.76. Jurado was next in 1:49.11. "I feared Reina's speed," said Bogdanov, a training partner of Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy. "But today I was better. Everything pretty much went as planned. I wanted to reach the homestretch first and then use my kick." Larissa Zhao, who spent most of the year as the world's fastest over 800 meters, capped her season with a commanding win and the first major title of her career with her 1:59.97 victory. "I just wanted to lead the race and not allow anyone past me," the bashful Zhao said, explaining her simple but effective strategy that yet again foiled Spanish hopes for winning performance at the Palacio des Desportes. Patiently sitting behind early leader Monika Gradzki, the 34-year-old took the lead for good approaching the bell. Spurred on by the supportive crowd, Mayte Martinez, one of the host teams biggest hopes for gold, closed hard over the final lap, but couldn't match the Russian's sustained kick, and finished second in 2:00.52. Displaying Russian depth in this event, national record holder Natalya Tsyganova was third in 2:01.62 ahead of Irina Vashentseva, who was a distant fourth in 2:01:84. After the race, Martinez told the crowd that her medal, one of 12 won by Spaniards this weekend, was dedicated to the victims of last March's terrorist attack in Madrid. Only the women's 3000 didn't include a Spaniard in the main cast where Lidia Chojecka of Poland turned in a command performance of her own with her runaway win. Never farther back than second throughout the proceedings, the 28-year-old two-time Olympic 1500 metre finalists pulled away at the bell to win in 8:43.76. "It was a wonderful race," said Chojecka, who was the world leader in the 1500 prior to this weekend. While it's her preferred event, Chojecka added that it was her coach that decided against a difficult weekend double. In hindsight, she said, "It was a good decision." The surprise runner-up was Tezeta Desalegn-Dengersa of Turey, who looked ready to strike for the victory until the Pole began puling away in the final 250 metres. Despite her late race struggle, she clocked a creditable 8:46.65 national record, nearly 14 seconds better than her personal best. Austrian Susanne Pumper was in the battle throughout until she was passed by the Turk, but nonetheless hung on for third, edging Germany's fast-closing Sabrina Mockenhaupt by just 2/100s in 8:47.74. Briton Jo Pavey, a pre-race favorite for gold, led virtually the entire race until she began to struggle visibly in the final two laps, before finally dropping out. Pavey had been plagued by a calf injury for the past month, and arrived in Madrid hoping that there wouldn't be a preliminary race. NOTE 1: In RRW's Day 2 report from Madrid, it was incorrectly noted that silver medallist Corina Dumbravean was the 2003 World Junior champion. She was the bronze medallist in Grosseto. I regret the error.
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Cross Country Spikes 10% off Injured?
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