LaShawn Merritt beats Jeremy Wariner over 400m in Berlin (© Getty Images)
LaShawn Merritt and Pamela Jelimo took some prized scalps this afternoon in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 67,124 spectators at the DKB-ISTAF Berlin, the opening meeting of the ÅF Golden League in Berlin’s Olympic stadium (1 June).
Three world season leads were established (400m, 1500m, 5000m) and another one (women’s High Jump) was equalled.
‘The plan is to beat Jeremy again’
Yesterday, the Meeting Director Gerhard Janetzky suggested it might happen – click here – and so it came to pass today that Jeremy Wariner, the third quickest 400m runner in history, lost to compatriot LaShawn Merritt in one of the biggest upsets at a one-day meet in recent years.
The two-time World and reigning Olympic champion came well out of the blocks and had a clear advantage on all the other seven lanes after the first 100m had been run. Then Merritt began his counter attack which saw the World silver medallist draw absolutely level with Wariner at the opening of the final 100m.
Duelling down the middle of the final straight, with Merritt in lane three and Wariner in the next outside him, neither man was prepared to give quarter. But with about 20 metres to go the champion’s posture seemed to stiffen up, and with that break in his usually fluid style his challenger opened up some daylight between them and moved away decisively for a world season lead of 44.03 seconds with Wariner closing out in 44.07.
“Beating Jeremy Wariner is a good feeling,” said the winner. “But this season is still early, so the time means nothing. I know I can go much faster this year. The plan is to beat Jeremy again – at the Olympics.”
African record for Jelimo
Athletics proved once again what a fickle sport of fortune it can be. Last year’s World 800m champion Janeth Kepkosgei who we were all lauding in Osaka and later in this very stadium at the end of last year’s Golden League, now finds herself an ‘also ran’ in the wake of her 18-year-old Kenyan compatriot Pamela Jelimo.
After only taking up the sport in the last few months, the new find of Kenyan athletics has become African champion, and today the Area senior and World Junior record holder for the women’s 800m in a time of 1:54.99. Jelimo’s run was the quickest performance seen for over a decade, and left her opponents adrift by nearly 4 seconds!
Jelimo tied up a little in the final straight which allowed Yuliya Krevsun of Ukraine (1:58.98) and Jepkosgei (1:59.13) to close down a fraction. It is abundantly clear that the women’s 800m has gone through a transformation in the last few weeks. Can Kepkosgei regain her throne? On the basis of Jelimo’s display today, the answer is very unlikely!
Even ÅF’s own cannot prevail
World Indoor 60m Hurdles record holder Susanna Kallur might be an ÅF sponsored athlete and an employee of the Swedish firm which is a leader in technical consulting, but sport is no respecter of such commercial considerations and reputations. Kallur in her first race of the outdoor season, her comeback competition after injury in March, was convincingly beaten in the 100m Hurdles by the national record run of Spain’s Josephine Onyia.
The Spaniard took the tape in 12.50 secs improving Gloria Alozie’s 12.57 national mark from 2004. Before the gun today, Onyia’s personal best had been 12.64!
Kallur finished in 12.54, with USA’s Lolo Jones, the World Indoor gold medallist in third, in a season’s best of 12.57.
Saladino only seventh
Predicted Jackpot favourites fell like dominoes this afternoon, and World Long Jump champion Irving Saladino was one of those prominent failures. The Panamanian fouled his opening attempts, rescued his competition with a third round 7.92m but then could not progress in the final three rounds.
The victor was instead Saudi Arabia’s Hussein Al-Sabee who snatched a last round win with a 8.21m (+0.6m/s wind) leap which beat South Africa’s World Indoor champion Godfrey Mokoena (8.18m), and another Saudi Mohamed Al-Kuwailidi (8.17).
Vlasic 2.03m; Pitkämäki 85.20m but injured
This afternoon while we were fast drawing the impression that reigning World champions were becoming strangely allergic to the surrounds of Berlin’s Olympic stadium, two major names did prevail in their Jackpot events, Blanka Vlasic and Tero Pitkämäki.
Vlasic, the indoor and outdoor global title holder in the women’s High Jump, remained without equal, matching the 2.03m World season lead she set in Doha early last month. Very fluent over 2.00m and 2.03m, Vlasic was unlucky not to clear 2.06m on her first attempt with the bar just flipping off the pegs as she landed but her remaining two efforts at that height were not close at all.
“It was not easy but I had it under control,” confirmed the Croatian. “You know my problem is to jump so early in the day, I needed to push myself to stay awake and wasted too much energy during the competition. I’m a better jumper after 6pm.”
“But I’m happy with my result. I nearly jumped 2.06m and that is good. I confirmed I’m one step higher in comparison to last year,” confirmed Vlasic.
Ariane Friedrich of Germany was second with 2.00m. That height is an outdoor PB though of course her career best is 2.02m from the last indoor season.
The men’s Javelin Throw was a simple affair. World champion Tero Pitkämäki blasted out his first round 85.20m, and the rest of the ten-man field tried to surpass it. That none could, albeit Olympic gold medallist Andreas Thorkildsen came within one centimetre with his sixth and last effort, gave the Finn the victory. The downside for Pitkämäki was that he injured his back in the process of winning and paid no further part in the competition after round one, which with Beijing looming will of course be immensely worrying for him.
“I had a back problem today,” confirmed the Finn. “I already felt it in warm-up. So I kind of risked a little bit (by taking) my first throw. At the end of the day I was a lucky winner. I still hope to throw in Oslo.”
Simpson is back
The dominant 100m/200m sprinter of the 2006 season (10.82/22.00) Sherone Simpson of Jamaica, came back to major winning ways today nearly a year after she suffered a hip flexor injury to her right leg at the start of the Golden League in Oslo, an injury which destroyed her 2007 campaign. Simpson, running in lane 7, powered home to a 22.43 sec clocking in the 200m so heading off Russia’s Yuliya Gushchina and Kerron Stewart of Jamaica (both 22.58).
The men’s dash was an exceptionally close race. Jamaica’s Nesta Carter was in the ascendant with a gun to tape 10.08 sec PB victory. Former World champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts was second in 10.12. The surprise was that World silver medallist Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas was back in fifth in 10.18.
Oliver gets the better of Robles
David Oliver, currently this season’s fastest hurdler (12.96), showed he’s also the best racer of the moment with a narrow win over Cuba’s Dayron Robles who was still in the lead with two barriers to go. The Cuban lunged very low at the line as is his style but that was not enough to make up the lead Oliver had carved out over the previous two flights of hurdles. Their times: 13.19 to 13.20.
The 1500m victory of Commonwealth 5000m champion Augustine Choge was emphatic, his greater leg speed in the last 60 metres drawing him comfortably clear of a pack of another eight African milers. Choge’s time of 3:31.57 was a world season lead, with the previous holder of that distinction (3:32.63) Moroccan Abdalaati Iguider finishing in fourth, the consolation being that he achieved a PB of 3:32.10 in the process. Second place was taken by Daniel Kipchirchir Komen (3:31.91) and Shedrack Korir, the World bronze medallist, also third here in 3:31.99.
In the 400m Hurdles, a storming last 250m brought 2005 World champion Bershawn Jackson back from a huge deficit on early leader Periklis Iakovakis of Greece, the European titleholder. In the end Jackson’s victory was clear-cut in 48.73 sec. Jamaican Adrian Findlay was next home but well adrift in 49.13.
And what became of the much publicised 400m Hurdles / 400m double of Angelo Taylor? Well that fell at the first hurdle, so to speak, with the 2000 Olympic champion finishing in a very disappointing sixth (50.06). He was to take fouth place later in the afternoon in the flat 400m (45.08).
The two 5000m races were decided with sprint burn-ups in their last laps, and both went to Kenyans. Moses Masai, who is the older brother of 2007 World XC Junior champion Linet Masai, took the men’s race in a world season’s lead of 12:50.55, comfortably defeating Ethiopia’s World Indoor 3000m champion Tariku Bekele. The performance improved Haile Gebrselassie’s meet record (12:53.19 in 1995). The women’s 5000m was taken in a sprint finish by Kenyan Sylvia Kibet in 15:05.09 from compatriot Priscah Jepleting (15:06.77).
World Indoor champion Evgeniy Lukyanenko of Russia succeeded in the men’s Pole Vault with a personal best of 5.85m, and Ukraine’s Maksym Mazuryk, a former World Junior champion, also hit a career high with 5.80m for second place.
Pre-Programme topped by Asian record
The afternoon’s entertainment began on a high note, with an Asian record in the men’s Discus Throw from Iran’s Ehsan Hadadi. His 69.12m release in round two broke his own existing continental mark of 68.52m (set only last weekend in Hengelo), and in the process upstaged the presumed head to head between World champion Gerd Kanter and Olympic titleholder Virgilijus Alekna. The latter came back to match the Iranian in the fifth round with his own 69.12m heave but a much better series which contained two other 68m plus throws was more than enough to give Hadadi the win overall.
Germany’s Robert Harting, the World silver medallist, was third with a personal best of 67.70m, while a below par Kanter was back in fourth (66.57).
The ‘A’ race of the men’s 800m was won by Ugandan Abraham Chepkirwok in a national record of 1:44.53. Left in his wake were the World champion Alfred Kirwa Yego, and many time global medallist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
Click here for RESULTS
Click here for Jackpot Contenders
Athletics’ biggest yearly payday - ÅF Golden League Jackpot
The prize - $1 Million
The requirement - ‘6 out of 6’
In 2008, there are TEN ÅF Golden League event disciplines designated to the Jackpot, six events for men and four for women, as follows:
Men: 100m, 400m, 1500m, 400m Hurdles, Long Jump, Javelin Throw
Women: 200m, 800m, 100m Hurdles, High Jump
Athletes are required to win at all six meetings to acquire at least a share of athletics’ biggest yearly payday.
The possibility of a secondary prize also exists as it did in 2007:
To sustain the active participation in the Jackpot of as many athletes as possible through to the culmination of the series, should NO athlete manage to attain six wins and claim the $1 Million, then anyone with five victories will share half the original prize - $500,000.
NOTE. this secondary prize is only on offer should nobody win his or her event at all six meetings.
Cities and Dates for 2008 - ÅF Golden League
Berlin, GER – Sunday 1 June
Oslo, NOR – Friday 6 June
Rome, ITA – Friday 11 July
Paris, FRA – Friday 18 July
Zürich, SUI – Friday 29 August
Brussels, BEL – Friday 5 September
