Hyderabad, India - World championship bronze medallist Shadrack Korir was defeated at 1500m by fellow Kenyan Gideon Gathimba,  while hosts India collected its second medal through Chatholi Hamza who took bronze behind this pairing at GMC Balayogi Stadium on Wednesday (17 Oct).
 
The penultimate day of athletic competitions in 4th CISM World Military Games witnessed a close battle between the Kenyan duo from start to finish. Gathimba (27), who finished fourth in this year’s All-Africa Games at Alger, ran a tactical race and beat his compatriot, 3:41.01 to 3:41.56.  
 
Hamza, the South Asian Games champion, who won a silver medal in Asian GP circuit at Bangkok with a career best 3:40.19 last June, could not able to repeat his best timing but still managed with a podium finish in 3:42.84.
 
The men’s High Jump final turned out to be an all-European affair.  All the medallists equalled the Games record held by Italian Ettore Ceresoli since the inaugural edition in 1995, with identical 2.26m jumps.  World Indoor silver medalist Andrey Tereshin of Russia won the event on ‘count-back’ from Aleksander Walerianczyk (Poland) and Viktor Shapoval (Ukraine).
 
Poland’s Daria Korczynska halted Russia’s Yelena Bolsun’s dream of winning a sprint double.  Clocking a personal best 23.44 secs, the Polish athlete took the women’s 200m crown from Bolsun (23.48).  Korczynska’s team-mate and last year’s World junior bronze medallist, Ewelina Klocek, came home again with a bronze.
 
Kenyan Peninah Arusei, better known as a road runner, returned with a career best 15:42.20 to win the 5000m (16:04.3 - 2007 her previous best).  Nadia Ejjafini, who won the 10,000m bronze on the opening day, earned a silver today, while her Bahraini compatriot Karima Saleh Jassem, 19,  the 5000m/10,000m gold medallist in this year’s Asian championships - got the bronze. 
 
Aleksey Drozdov (Russia) became the best all-round athlete of the Games’ athletic events while winning the Decathlon with 7712 points.  Drozdov, after a superb fourth place at the World Championships in Osaka with a PB of 8475, will be  eagerly looking forward next year’s Olympic Games at Beijing.   Poland’s Marcin Drozdz finish second, while Asian champion Ahmed Hassan Moussa (Qatar) claimed the third spot.
 
In Javelin Throw, Finland’s 2006 World junior silver medallist Ari Mannio, 20, was expected to take the top position.  However his best yesterday was 76.77m, someway off his PB (80.31m – 2007) and was short of the best of Romania’s Balkan championship victor Levente Bartha (78.66 PB) who took home the gold with a season’s best 77.16m.  The Romanian is ten years older than the Finn with a PB of 78.66 (2004).
 
Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF   
 

Results:
 
Men

1500m: 1. Gideon Gathimba (Kenya) 3:41.01; 2. Shadrack Korir (Kenya) 3:41.56; 3. Chatholi Hamza (India) 3:42.84;
 
High Jump: 1. Andrey Tereshin (Russia) 2.26; 2. Aleksander Walerianczyk (Poland) 2.26; 3. Viktor Shapoval (Ukraine) 2.26;
 
Javelin Throw: 1. Levente Bartha (Romania) 77.16; 2. Ari Mannio (Finland) 76.77; 3. Yeoryios Iltsios (Greece) 73.23;
 
Decathlon: 1. Aleksey Drozdov (Russia) 7712; 2. Drozdz Marcin (Poland) 7396; 3. Ahmed Hassan Moussa (Qatar) 7173; 
 
Women
 
200m (0.2): 1. Daria Korczynska (Poland) 23.44; 2. Yelena Bolsun (Russia) 23.48; 3. Ewelina Klocek (Poland) 23.73;
 
5000m: 1. Peninah Arusei (Kenya) 15:42.20; 2. Nadia Ejjafini (Bahrain) 15:48.74; 3. Karima Saleh Jassem (Bahrain) 15:53.07.