The Golden League season resumed in Rome on Friday and the highlights were a world record in the pole vault by Yelena Isinbayeva and Jeremy Wariner squeaking out a thrilling duel with LaShawn Merritt in the 400. In the distances, teenagers stole the show. Teen 800m phenom Pamela Jelimo continued her perfection by dominating an 800 field that all broke 2:00, and teen phenom Asbel Kiprop got the biggest win of his career in the 1,500. We start with Isinbayeva and Wariner/Merritt, then recap the distances.
Women's Pole Vault: World Record for Isinbayeva
When you win your event at a Golden League meet by 28 centimeters, and
that event is the women's pole vault, you are officially a
badass. When you win by a foot, set a world record, and do it
all in your first meet of the year, you are a super-badass.
Yelena Isinbayeva is in a universe of her own right now, no offense to
Jenn Stuczynski.
Men's 400m: Merritt Passes Wariner, Leans and Loses Jeremy Wariner / LaShawn Merritt ... & Blade Runner.
Wariner vs. Merritt round 3 for 2008. Merritt was 2 wins, 0
losses in 2 big events. This time, Wariner ran a faster first 250
from lane 4 (Merritt was in lane 5) and came into the last 100m (even
the last 50m) with a substantial lead. Merritt, however, runs a
great last 100m usually, and this race was no different. He
closed the gap and leaned for what looked like the win!
Unfortunately, he leaned a couple of feet too early, and Wariner leaned
correctly to get him by 1/100th of a second. It looked to us that
Wariner was beaten, but the FAT proved us wrong. Wariner must
have spent the last week working on two things: getting out harder
(check) and leaning (check). He seemed to run his race, but
barely (luckily?) held off Merritt. He does not look unbeatable,
in fact he was pretty fortunate to avoid going 0 for 3 vs. Merritt this
year. Unless Wariner gets gold in Beijing, his decision to dump Clyde Hart will be criticized, but part of Wariner's problem this year is unrelated to Hart. Merritt has definitely raised his game in 2008.
In Paralympic news, Oscar Pistorius, Blade Runner, came up a second short of the
Olympic standard, coming in 7th in the B race in 46.62, a substantial
improvement over his time from this weekend.
The women's 800m was a one woman show put on by the seemingly
unbeatable Pamela Jelimo. Following the rabbit right from the
get-go out of lane 8, Jelimo gapped the field within 150m and made the
field look ridiculously bad. Jelimo won in 1:55.69. The
rest of the field was bunched up the entire way, and Jelimo was way out
in front running strong. The amazing thing is that the rest of
the field, 25m behind with 100m to go, ALL broke 2:00. American
Hazel Clark was entered in the race but did not start. An
interesting note - the rabbit took Jelimo through 400m very well, but in
the ensuing 100m totally fell apart. Instead of stepping off the
track, the rest of the field, still clumped together as they were for
the remainder of the race, had to pass her on the outside before she
stepped off. Apparently her rabbit contract wanted her to go 500m.
Men's 1,500m: Young Kiprop Gets the Biggest Win of His Career The 1,500m featured a strong field highlighted by Asbel Kiprop (19-yr-old Kenyan), Mehdi Baala (FRA), Abdalaati Iguider (MAR) and Canadian
Nate Brannen (who needed the A standard to go to Beijing). The
rabbits did a nice job and there was a big pack of guys in contention
still with 200m left to go. Asbel Kiprop cruised alertly through
this race, won with a cool finger point after a 55 second lap, and
calmly walked off the track. He looked like he had done that
about 20 times, when in reality it was one of his first even half-way decent races ever in Europe (last year, his best European finish was 5th) and he's still a teenager. Baala ran very smart
(he went out in the middle of the pack and slowly moved up as compared to Kiprop who went out near the front) and turned in a nice 3:32.00 4th-place clocking. Iguider from Morocco held
the lead for much of the last lap, but was overtaken by the long-legged
phenom from Kenya who will likely battle Lagat, Baala, Ramzi and others
for an Olympic medal in August. Brannen is probably the happiest
12th place finisher of the day because he hit the A standard and can
now compete in Beijing. He beat it by a bunch, too, running
3:34.65. He ran from the back and stayed in the race
mentally. 3.01 seconds separated him from first, but so did 10
competitors.
Dibaba Wins Bizarre Race As expected, Tirunesh Dibaba won the women's 5k but it was an unusual race. Olga Komyagina took the field out at quick pace (2:52 for 1k, and 5:42 for 2k (14:15 pace)). But when she dropped out the pace slowed considerably, as the fast early pace took its toll on every one including Dibaba.
Dibaba and Meselech Melkamu were the only two up front but they slowed the next 2 kilometers, running 2:59 the next k and 3:03 the fourth k.
Kiwi record holder and former Providence star Kim Smith was leading Kenyan Priscah Cherono in the battle for 3rd. They were probably 70 meters behind at one point, but were closing on Dibaba and Melkamu. The pace was uneven up front as Smith and Cherono would get closer and then Dibaba and Melkamu would pick it up again.
By the bell, however, Smith and Cherono were only 1 second behind Melkamu and Dibaba. Then Dibaba, who has run an incredible 14:11 this year, did what you'd expect - she blew everyone away on the final lap. Melkamu stayed closest but was no match for Dibaba the final 200. Dibaba went 60.03 the final lap to finish 2 seconds ahead of Melkamu and nearly 9 ahead of Cherono and Smith. Smith ended up with a nice 14:45 personal best which serves as an area record.
Men's 5k: Mr. Silver Gets Rare Win The men's 5k was totally a Kenyan and Ethiopian show. The matchup came down to world 10k silver medallist Sileshi Sihine (ETH), former 5k World Champ Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) and little brother Tariku Bekele
(ETH). Bekele had the lead in the last lap, pushing the pace hard.
But he was overcome in the last 110m by Sihine, who would be known as
one of the greatest runners ever if not for Kenenisa Bekele. Sihine
clocked 53.8 for his last lap. The plan was to go through 3,000m in 7:38
or 7:40, but that pace was not hit (7:53). Overall, times were not that fast
across the board in the Rome meet. That being said, the 5th Kenyan
finisher was 13:13, so they were still moving pretty fast.
It was stated on the American broadcast that this race was going to serve as the Ethiopian trials for the Olympics, but we don't know (and they didn't seem too confident themselves) about that.
Men's 800: Laalou Loves Rome After the rabbit Sammy Tangui took the field through a respectable 50.69 and 1:17.6, Youssef Kamel (World Indoor bronze medallist, son of double world champ Billy Konchellahof Kenya) was in the lead.
He led down the homestretch, but 1:42.89 800m man, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, was closing slowly on him and Amine Laalou was coming up fast on the outside. Both would pass him the final 30, but Laalou closed the fastest for a nice win.
Laalou clearly likes the Rome track as the other big win of his career and his PR came in Rome back in 2006. Mulaudzi's consistent 2008 continued as he was 3rd in Bislett and 2nd in Berlin. Defending World champ Alfred Kirwa, third at the Kenyan Trials, but named to the world team over teen sensation David Rudisha, was fifth in 1:45.05.
1
LAALOU, Amine
MAR
SB
1:44.27
2
MULAUDZI, Mbulaeni
RSA
1:44.61
3
KAMEL, Youssef Saad
BRN
1:44.68
4
MANSEUR, Nadjim
ALG
PB
1:44.75
5
KIRWA YEGO, Alfred
KEN
1:45.05
6
ISMAIL, Ahmed Ismail
SUD
1:45.23
7
AL-SALHI, Mohamed
KSA
1:45.94
8
RIFESER, Lukas
ITA
PB
1:46.12
9
SOM, Bram
NED
SB
1:46.83
10
SCIANDRA, Livio
ITA
1:48.03
11
OLMEDO, Manuel
ESP
1:49.15
TANGUI, Sammy
KEN
DNF
Intermediate times:
400m
47
TANGUI, Sammy (KEN)
50.69
600m
47
TANGUI, Sammy (KEN)
1:17.60
Men's Steeple: World Champ over Olympic Champ
The steeple was not blazing fast today, aside from a meteoric 58-high last circuit from Brimin Kipruto, the 2007 World Champ, who defeated the 2004 Olympic Champ Ezekiel Kemboi.
There is one name, and one name only in the women's high jump these
days. The Croatian bombshell Blanka Vlasic is in the running for
the Golden League Jackpot, is the favorite for the Olympic gold, and
even her celebratory dance has become famous around the world.
She took down the Rome Golden League meet, and appears to be accustomed
to beating all comers on all days.
1
Blanka Vlaic
CRO
2.00
20
2
Elena Slesarenko
RUS
1.98
16
3
Tia Hellebaut
BEL
1.98
14
4
Marina Aitova
KAZ
1.95
11
4
Antonietta Di Martino
ITA
1.95
11
6
Ruth Beitia
ESP
1.90
6
6
Anna Chicherova
RUS
1.90
6
6
Emma Green
SWE
1.90
6
9
Amy Acuff
USA
1.90
10
Iva Straková
CZE
1.85
11
Tatyana Kivimyagi
RUS
1.85
Women's 100 Hurdles: Onyia's Golden Chances Gone
Some impressive times were laid down here by the Jamaicans, but the
story here was Josephine Onyia losing out on her shot for the Golden
League jackpot. She finished 6th, well-beaten.
1
Brigitte Foster-Hylton
JAM
12.60
20
2
Delloreen Ennis-London
JAM
12.62
16
3
Candice Davis
USA
12.72
14
4
Sally McLellan
AUS
12.73
12
5
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep
CAN
12.77
10
6
Josephine Onyia
ESP
12.85
8
7
Reïna-Flor Okori
FRA
12.93
6
8
Micol Cattaneo
ITA
13.16
4
9
Virginia Powell
USA
13.17
Men's 110 HH: Dayron Robles Assuming Role As Olympic Favorite Robles, the new world record holder in the high hurdles, looked smooth,
strong and dominant against this field, stamping himself as at least a co-favorite for the gold in Beijing. He was .35 seconds faster than
David Payne, the 3rd place finisher at the Olympic Trials, and .52
faster than Anwar Moore, the guy who stumbled and lost the 3rd place
position at the U.S. Trials. Robles looked dominant, even though his time
was not blazing into a slight headwind. Again, sprint times and even most distance times
didn't seem too fast across the board.
1 Dayron Robles CUB 13.08 20
2 Sergiy Demidyuk UKR 13.40 16
3 David Payne USA 13.43 14
4 Marcel van der Westen NED 13.50 12
5 Ladji Doucouré FRA 13.51 10
6 Anwar Moore USA 13.60 8
7 Tyrone Akins USA 13.70 6
8 Jeff Porter USA 13.73 4
9 Dominic Berger USA 14.05
Women's 400m: Allyson Felix
We think it's really, really too bad that Allyson Felix can't try the
200/400 double in Beijing, because she is a stunning 400m runner,
perhaps even better than she is at 200. But they can't alter the
schedule of events to make the double possible, so we'll have to be
happy with Felix running the open 200m, and perhaps the 4 x 100 and
4 x 400. Felix was clearly the class of the field, powering to make
up the stagger, and then holding her lead after a blazing first 200
(23.7). Remember, times were modest overall for the day, so her
50.25 would have been much faster on a faster day. She beat
Mary Wineberg (second at US Olympic trials) by 1.02 seconds. The
Jamaicans took 2nd and 3rd.
1
Allyson Felix
USA
50.25
20
2
Novlene Williams
JAM
50.79
16
3
Shericka Williams
JAM
50.83
14
4
Amantle Montsho
BOT
51.17
12
5
Mary Wineberg
USA
51.27
10
6
Kaliese Spencer
JAM
51.56
8
7
Ebony Floyd
USA
51.66
6
8
Libania Grenot
CUB
51.81
4
9
Natasha Hastings
USA
52.30
Men's 400m IH
"Batman" won at the Olympic Trials, but would he trade that win for a win in the
Golden League? Coming into Rome, Bershawn Jackson was in the
running for the jackpot. But as he left the track after
navigating the oval and hurdles, Kerron Clement had spoiled his dreams
with a very strong last 100m. Clement is not known for his
consistency, especially his hurdling in the final straightaway, but he
finished with conviction this time and no one could hold him off.
Danny McFarlane of Jamaica was leading most of the race and the
Americans had to run him down in the homestretch, which they ended up
doing with ease.
1
Kerron Clement
USA
48.23
20
2
Bershawn Jackson
USA
48.34
16
3
Danny McFarlane
JAM
48.57
14
4
L.J. van Zyl
RSA
48.79
12
5
Isa Phillips
JAM
49.31
10
6
Markino Buckley
JAM
49.51
8
7
Adrian Findlay
JAM
49.66
6
8
Pieter de Villiers
RSA
49.82
4
9
Angelo Taylor
USA
50.93
Women's 200m
Super Sanya couldn't keep up today in her 2nd event, losing handily to the Jamaican speedster, Kerron Stewart.
1
Kerron Stewart
JAM
22.34
20
2
Sanya Richards
USA
22.49
16
3
Muriel Hurtis-Houairi
FRA
22.50
14
4
Rakia Al-Gassra
BRN
22.65
12
5
Carmelita Jeter
USA
22.83
10
6
Sherone Simpson
JAM
22.88
8
7
Vincenza Calì
ITA
23.20
6
8
Susanthika Jayasinghe
SRI
23.36
4
Cydonie Mothersill
CAY
DNS
Men's 100m: Asafa Powell Injured?
Obikwelu, the silver medallist in 2004 at 100m, won today, but the story
of the day was the pull-up of Asafa Powell. Powell pulled a Tyson
Gay with groin problems in his heat and didn't run the final.
RUS
POL
GER
BRA
UKR
USA
BAH
JAM
AUS
IRL
RSA
KEN
BRN
SVK
ITA
FRA
SLO
SEN
MAR
ALG
ESP
ETH
CAN
MEX
GBR
FIN
QAT
NOR
CRO
BEL
KAZ
SWE
CZE
CUB 13.08 20
NED 13.50 12
BOT
SRI
CAY
POR
SKN
