El Guerrouj at a canter in Turin

Hicham El Guerrouj’s 7:30.23 world season’s best in the 3000m and Magdelin Martinez’s Italian women's Triple Jump record of 14.77, were the highlights of the Memorial Primo Nebiolo - IAAF Grand Prix II - meeting in Turin last night (6 June).

El Guerrouj used the 3000m, his first European race of the summer, to test his condition before his debut next week in the 5000m in the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting in Ostrava (12 June).

The pacemakers clocked 1:26 at the 600 metres, 2:20.38 at the 1 km. El Guerrouj then decided to increase the pace and to break out on his own.

So the king of middle distance left the pack behind, passed 2000m in 5:02.52 and clocked 6:32.06 at the bell, running the final lap in 58.19 to cross the finish line in 7:30.25.

“I hoped to run faster than 7:30 tonight, perhaps I could have clocked 7:26 but the pace set by the pacemakers in the first 2 km was a bit slow, so I decided to increase it. If pacemakers help me keep a fast pace, I can attack the 12:45 barrier in the Ostrava 5000 metres”, said the Moroccan star.

About his plans for the future, he said: “I will make my debut in the 1500 metres in the Rome GL meeting and then I will continue my campaign with the 1500m at the Gateshead Super Grand Prix and the Mile at the Weltklasse GL meeting in Zürich.”

Magdelin Martinez produced a 14.77 leap (second on the world list this year behind Cuban Aldama’s 14.98) on her first attempt. Then she fouled her second and third jumps, and leapt to 14.67 with her fourth before deciding to leave the competition.

Runner-up was Baya Rahouli of Algeria (who competes for the Italian team Atletica Apuana) with 14.43. Simona La Mantia finished third with 14.16, five centimetres off her fresh italian under-23 record set at the end of May in Palermo. Also beaten were the 2003 World Indoor bronze medallist Kene Ndoye of Senegal (14.12), and the World Junior champion Mabel Gay of Cuba (14.08).
 
“It was an excellent runway, so I am not surprised with this record. I will use my next competition in Naples on 10 June as my final test before the European Cup in Florence. This year I aim at a spot on the podium in Paris where I hope to attack the 15 metres barrier. I think that a 15.20 leap is within my reach”, said the Cuban-born athlete.
 
In the first track event of the programme, the women’s 400 Hurdles, double European champion Ionela Tirlea of Romania set the Primo Nebiolo IAAF Grand Prix II meeting off to a fast start by improving the meeting record with 54.10 (third fastest time of the season), which beat the Milan winner Sandra Glover (54.82).and the Jamaican Debbie Ann Parris (55.59).

The Romania also lined up in the 200 metres where she finished second with 22.80, only one hundredth of a second off the winner Juliet Campbell of Jamaica. France’s Christine Arron who started very fast and was first at the 150 metres point, slowed in the final metres and finished third with a 22.93 clocking.

The US triple jumper Walter Davis used the fast Turin runway to leap to a windy 17.46 (+2.2 m/s) in his first attempt. Second was his compatriot Tim Rusan with 17.24. The Brazilian Jadel Gregorio finished third with 17.11.

The Turin meet proved to be a magical evening also for the women's Long Jump, where the Brazilian Maurren Higa Maggi, after jumping 6.51 on her first attempt, produced 6.94 with her second for the win, so continuing her splendid series of form in Italian meetings, after her 7.06 world seasonal best in Milan on Monday.

“I usually need two or three competititions to peak. This year I want to jump constantly between 6.90 and 7.10 and aim for a spot on the podium at both the Pan-American Games in Santo Domingo and at the World Championships in Paris. Competitions in Italy always give me a special motivation because it is the country from which my great grandfather emigrated to Brazil”, said Maggi.
 
Second in the Long Jump was Spain’s Conception Montaner, who with 6.62 headed Russia's Olga Rublyova with 6.59, while World champion Fiona May did not match her recent progress and finished fifth with 6.38.

The men’s 100 metres dash featured two heats and a final. The first round saw Uchenna Emedolu of Nigeria (10.40), the World Cup winner take easy control over Namibian Frank Fredericks (10.41) in the first heat. The second heat featured a win by the powerful US sprinter Coby Miller in 10.26, over Ricardo Williams of Jamaica. Tragedy struck the Canadian Nicholas Macrozonaris who skipped the heats in order to focus on the final but did not get away from the blocks because he thought that there had been a false start.

Miller clinched the win in the 100 metres final with 10.10 ahead of Emedolu (10.19) and Williams (10.29).

”I came here to run a fast time before the US Trials in two weeks time. My aim is to make the team in both the 100 and the 200 metres for the World Championships in Paris. I will compete again in Ostrava in the 100 metres before flyng back the USA”, said Miller.

The Olympic 400m Hurdles champion Angelo Taylor won a photo finish battle against Kemel Thompson, on the way setting his seasonal best of 48.94, one hundredth of a second faster than the Jamaican. The race was very similar to their Milan confrontation earlier this week which had seen the US hurdler win in 48.95.

Lorraine Fenton Graham set the sixth fastest time of the season with 50.45. The Jamaican World and Olympic silver medallist tied Nigerian Charity Opara’s meeting record set in 1998.

France’s Florent Lacasse lowered his 800m PB from 1:45.53 to 1:44.61 (third fastest time in the season) by winning over the Kenyan Nicholas Wachira, runner-up with 1:45.13 and the Algerian Djabir Said-Guerni (1:45.47). The twenty-three year old Italian Christian Obrist, a 1500 metres specialist, set his PB with 1:46.35.

Another French athlete to win was Salim Sdiri in the men’s Long Jump which he won on his final attempt with 8.00m - after four fouls and a 7.77m leap - ahead of  the Italian Nicola Trentin (7.94), Kareem Streete Thompson (7.85). Cuba’s Olympic champion and multiple World championship titlist Ivan Pedroso could not jump longer than a modest 7.76m.

The NCAA champion Ron Bramlett provided one of the major upsets of the meeting by winning the 110m Hurdles with 13.60 in a very close photo-finish battle over South Africa’s Commonwealth Games winner Shawn Bownes, who was second with 13.62. Olympic champion Anier Garcia of Cuba finished a disappointing eighth with 14.06 after knocking down a hurdle.

Mauritius’s Erik Milazar clinched the victory in the 400 metres with 45.28, two hundredths of a second faster than the Jamaican Davian Clarke.