With 32 athletes entered and only nine spots available for tomorrow’s final the three first-round heats of the men’s 1500m resulted in highly contested races.
20-year-old Ethiopian Deresse Mekonnen took top honours in 3:39.74 to win heat one with New Zealand’s Nicholas Willis running a PB 3:40.66 to secure the second automatic qualifier which left early pace setter Belal Mansoor Ali of Bahrain, a 1500m Osaka finalist out of the final.
The reigning silver medallist, Daniel Kipchirchir Komen obviously meant business when he lined-up for heat two, the Kenyan self coached athlete taking the lead from the gun to a 3:39.07 winning performance. There was a loud roar when 2007 European Indoor champion Juan Carlos Highuero made his move to take second in 3:39.46 taking in his wake Morocco’s Youssef Baba whose 3:39.89 was enough to get through.
As often is the case, the last heat proved the fastest as athletes were running after the remaining qualifying times. This played in favour of Arturo Casado, the second Spaniard in the field, who grabbed the last spot at 3:40.99 in fourth. Ahead of him Mekonnen Gebremedhin of Ethiopia and Suleiman Kipses Simotwo of Kenya out-sprinted Helsinki’s 2005 double World champion Rashid Ramzi on the line, all three athletes already guaranteed a lane in the final.
With two Ethiopians, two Kenyans and two Spaniards taking on Ramzi, Willis and Baba the Valencia crowd is guaranteed a fine battle in tomorrow’s final.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
