Ecker and Prah set new season’s standards in
Erfurt
Jörg Wenig for IAAF
2 February 2001 - While snow was falling heavily outside, international season’s bests this time were not falling quite as heavily inside. A year ago seven new marks were set in Erfurt’s indoor arena, this time there were four. 2 800 spectators in the once more packed arena were happy that Germans achieved two of them – Kofi Amoah Prah jumped 8.13m and Danny Ecker cleared 5.85m.
Other highlights at the 7th Teag Indoor Meeting in Erfurt included Falk Balzer’s 7.57 in the 60m hurdles, Paolo dal Soglio’s 20.22 m in the shot put and Elena Zadorozhnaya’s 3000m in 8:41.44 min (season’s best). Marko Koers (NED) took the fourth seasons best in running the 1000m in 2:18.76.
Kofi Amoah Prah, the long jumper who had placed fifth in the Olympics, was very happy with his competition. Four of his attempts were slightly overstepped, while he left out another. But his second attempt was a great one. Jumping 8.13m Prah managed his first 8 metre jump indoors.
The 26-year-old athlete from Berlin had jumped a personal indoor best of 7.86m just six days before in Berlin’s local championships. And what’s more on that occasion his spikes were half a size too big. Prah changed his shoe sponsor from Adidas to Nike in December, as with several others including Nils Schumann, he had joined LG Nike Berlin. The first spikes he received were too big, but he had managed to organise a better size for Erfurt’s indoor meeting. So once he gets the right model in the right size he might jump even further.
"For me it was a great success in Erfurt, because it was the first time that I have won an international indoor meeting", Prah said. But he expects that he can do better.
"The problem with the overstepped attempts is that my run up is not consistent enough. I think that is because the break after the Olympics has not been long enough. I had to start training early to get ready for the indoor season. And because of the hard training, I am not yet relaxed enough", Prah explained.
Although he had achieved the longest jump so far this year, Prah would like to improve first before thinking of taking part in the World indoors in Lisbon.
"I will only go there if I could reach the final. I think I will have to be able to jump further than in Erfurt to manage this."
Danny Ecker would really like to go to Lisbon, but he has decided to have an operation on his foot at the end of this month.
"For me Edmonton is more important than Lisbon", Ecker explains. Jumping 5.85 m he was clearly the number in the pole vault in Erfurt – currently number one in the world this year. His victory was assured after he cleared 5.70m. He then managed 5.85m on his third attempt, but failed to set a new German record. 5.96m was a bit too high in Erfurt for him.
"To win in Karlsruhe and then here in Erfurt, which is a sort of a home ground for me, is great – I wish it would continue like that", Falk Balzer said, after an impressive 7.57 win in the hurdles.
"It all went fine, although I could have been a bit faster", Balzer said. He comes from Jena, which is not far from Erfurt. Beaten by three hundredths of a second was Tony Dees. "Falk’s win is ok – but my time is not. I wanted to run 7,48 or faster. But this will come either in Stuttgart or in Chemnitz next week", Dees said.
After setting a fine pace for Johan Botha, Mark Eplinius dropped out of the 1000m with just 300m to go. But the South African could not quite stand the pace in the end. So Marko Koers snapped victory on the home straight in 2:18.76. A very strong looking Elena Zadorozhnaya (RUS) held back the attack of Gete Wami (ETH) in the 3000m, winning in 8:41,44.
"With that I have bettered my outdoor best by ten seconds", she said. After the great success in Sydney and a number of honours afterwards Heike Drechsler is not in top form. The Olympic champion was beaten by Dawn Burell (USA/6,69 m).
Results from Friday night:
Men,
60 m: 1. Freddy Mayola CUB 6,62, 2. Dennis Mitchell USA 6,68, 3. Alexander Kosenkow GER 6,73, 4. Ronny Ostwald GER 6,75, 5. Ricardo Williams JAM 6,79, 6. Marcin Krzywanski POL 6,90, 7. Martin Lachkovics AUT 6,97.
400 m (3 races): 1. Darian Clarke JAM 46,41, 2. Leonard Byrd USA 46,75, 3. Piotr Haczek POL 46,98, 4. Ronnie Williams USA 47,15, 5. Sunday Bada NGR 47,35, 6. Ruwen Faller GER 47,54, 7. Marc Raquil FRAU 47,73.
1000 m: 1. Marko Koers NED 2:18,76 , 2. Johan Botha RSA 2:18,88, 3. Pawel Czapiewski POL 2:19,00 , 4. Birhane Alemu ETH 2:19,39 , 5. Wolfram Müller GER 2:20,69 , 6. Thorsten Kühn GER 2:21,75.
3000 m: 1. Jan Fitschen GER 7:48,76, 2. Carsten Schütz GER 7:52,73, 3. Carsten Eich GER 7:54,31, 4. Fouad Chouki FRAU 7:54,87, 5. Yousef Allem FRA 7:59,91, 6. Samir Benfares FRAU 8:02,52, 7. Christian Knoblich GER 8:06,60, 8. Filmon Ghirmai GER 8:06,97, 9. Guido Streit GER 8:08,50, 10. Embaye Hedrit GER 8:08,71.
60 m hurdles: 1. Falk Balzer GER 7,57, 2. Tony Dees USA 7,60, 3. Elmar Lichtenegger AUT 7,61, 4. Yumiel Hernandez CUB 7,76, 5. Jerome Crews GER 7,76, 6. Deworski Odom USA 7,81, 7. Leonard Hudec AUT 7,87, 8. Mike Fenner GER 8,08.
Long Jump: 1. Kofi Amoah Prah GER 8,13 , 2. Younes Moudrik MAR 8,02, 3. Vitaliy Shkurlatov RUS 7,96, 4. Vladimir Maliavin RUS 7,92, 5. Konstantin Krause GER 7,78, 6. Cheikh Toure FRAU 7,77.
Pole Vault: 1. Danny Ecker GER 5,85 m, 2. Aleksey Khanafin RUS 5,50 , 3. Richard Spiegelburg GER 5,40 , 4. Tim Lobinger GER 5,40.
Shot Put: 1. Paolo dal Soglio ITA 20,22, 2. Miroslav Menc CZE 19,72 , 3. Oliver-Sven Buder GER 19,28 , 4. Ralf Bartels GER 19,16, 5. Andy Dittmar GER 19,09 , 6. Rene Sack GER 18,95 , 7. Rutger Smith NED 18,92 , Gunnar Pfingsten GER 18,91.
Women,
60 m: 1. Anzhela Kravchenko UKR 7,16, 2. Karin Mayr AUT 7,24, 3. Nanceen Perry USA 7,34, 4. Melanie Paschke GER 7,39, 5. Sabrina Mulrain GER 7,52, 6. Sylvia Rother GER 7,55, 7. Annegret Dietrich GER 7,57, 8. Martha Adusei CAN 7,62.
400 m (3 races): 1. Florence Ekpo-Umoh GER 52,68 , 2. Julia Sotnikova RUS 52,71 , 3. Irina Rosikhina RUS 52,77 , 4. Claudia Marx GER 52,87 , 5. Lorraine Graham JAM 52,96 , 6. Nicole Mahrarenz GER 53,16.
3000 m: 1. Elena Zadorozhnaya RUS 8:41,44, 2. Gete Wami ETH 8:43,38 , 3. Leah Malot KEN 8:44,33 , 4. Hayley Tullett GBR 8:52,18, 5. Andrea Suldesova CZE 9:04,42 , 6. Sabrina Mockenhaupt GER 9:04,48.
60 m hurdles: 1. Lacena Golding USA 8,13, 2. Anjanette Kirkland USA 8,19, 3. Juliane Sprenger GER 8,19, 4. Sabine Braun GER 8,29, 5. Tessy Prediger GER 8,38, 6. Corina Rehwagen GER 8,41, 7. Rose Rakotozafy MAD 8,53, 8. Jennifer Komoll GER 8,58.
Long Jump: 1. Dawn Burell USA 6,69, 2. Heike Drechsler GER 6,65, 3. Jackie Edwards BAH 6,41, 4. Beatrix Albert GER 6,37.
