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News22 Sep 2007


Women's 1500m

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Maryam Yusuf Jamal employed a simple and effective tactic to win the women's 1500m: she simply ran away with the race. The newly-crowned World champion, Jamal faced one of the deeper fields of the day, including the 2007 world leader at 3:57.30, Yelena Soboleva of Russia, and four other Osaka finalists.

Kenya's Viola Kibiwot was the early leader, with Jamal on her shoulder, but Kibiwot's first-lap split of just under 1:06 was apparently two slow for the Ethiopian native. Jamal moved to the front and cut almost a second from the pace for the second lap (just over 1:05). Jamal's splits continued to click down as though she was executing a workout, just over 1:04 for the third lap (reaching 1200m in 3:15) with Kibiwot still not far behind and Soboleva marking Kibiwot.

Kibiwot could hang on no longer, however, and Jamal was clear of the competition when she reached the final homestretch. She took the victory in 4:01.23.

Behind her, Kibiwot was overtaken by fast closers, as Soboleva moved past while attempting to hold off Australia's Sarah Jamieson and Namibia's Agnes Samaria. The trio would finish in 4:05.35, 4:05.43, and 4:05.44 respectively, the last time representing a Namibian national record for Samaria.

Parker Morse for the IAAF

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