Rhede, GermanyAs has been the case for many of the previous 35 meetings in this small town near the German-Dutch border, the long jump took centre stage at 36th International meeting.
Last year’s World Athletics Final champion, Ignisious Gaisah of Ghana, claimed victory in the men’s Long Jump on his final attempt with an 8.11 leap, aided by a slightly excessive wind of 2.1. The jump snared the lead from Botswanan Gable Gernamotse, who had temporarily held the advantage with a fifth-round 8.07.
“I knew right on the take-off it was going to be a good jump,” the Rotterdam-based Gaisah said later. The 21-year-old appeared to be somewhat inconsistent on his foot placement during the afternoon, and even on his winning jump, he gave up 10-12 centimetres.
Gaisah also revealed that his goal for the season is to break the African record, currently the 8.46 by Cheikh Touré of Senegal. With a PB of 8.32 in winning the World Athletics Final last year, Gaisah would seem to have a reasonable chance.
The next two places were claimed by Jamaican James Beckford (7.94) and Martin McClintock of South Africa (7.87).
The women’s Long Jump was a crowd-pleaser, as the lead changed hands three times during the final three rounds. Eventually Sofia Schulte claimed the win with a final attempt 6.51, which catapulted her from fifth place to first.
Paris Pole Vault silver medallist Annika Becker, an involuntary convert to the long jump this season while making a slow recovery from an injury suffered last year in vault training, finished fifth at 6.34.
The top mark on the track came from Thomas Goller in the men’s 400m Hurdles. The 27-year-old Dresdner, whose injury-plagued career has not seen a full season of hurdling since 2000 when he reached the semifinals in Sydney, put on a strong display in his 49.61 performance.
Several other notable track marks came in the women’s events. Birgit Rockmeier barely held on for a 23.17 victory in the women’s 200 metres as Belgium’s Elodie Ouedraogo was closing fast at the end with a 23.19. And after letting Claudia Hoffmann set the backstretch tempo in the women’s 400 metres, Claudia Marx finished strongly for a 52.53 win to Hoffmann’s 52.96.
Ed Gordon for the IAAF
