Berhane Adere (ETH) in action in the women's 3000m (© Getty Images)
Stuttgart, GermanyIn a brilliant display of solo running, Ethiopia’s Berhane Adere ran alone for the final three kilometres of the women’s 5000m at the Sparkassen Cup meeting this evening and blazed to a World indoor record of 14:39.29.
Her time was more than eight seconds under the previous record of 14:47.35 by Gabriela Szabo of Romania, achieved five years ago in Dortmund.
Adere appeared to be dissatisfied with the pace being set by Yuliya Krevsun of Ukraine and later by Alesya Turova of Belarus. Momentarily, at the 1250 mark, Adere went to the lead ahead of Turova in an apparent critique of the tempo. When Turova finally regained the lead, the Ethiopian gave her a little push in the back, as if to say “keep this pace hot.”
Finally, after two kilometres, Adere thought she felt the record slipping away and decided to take off on her own.
Ironically, at that point, she was more than three seconds faster than the planned pace. And for much of the contest, her lap times were almost a second faster than those which she and manager Volker Wagner had projected.
“Her intervals were so much better than we had discussed, I didn’t need to tell her anything during the race,” said Wagner later, also still a bit miffed that a competition official eventually demanded that he stop giving his client any information. Fortunately, Adere was in need of no further coaching at that point.
After missing the record last year in Dortmund by less than a second, Adere was determined not to fail again. And she felt that the 5000 record was an easier one to break than the 3000 record she already owns.
“I really wanted to try for this record again after my disappointment last year when I missed by less than one second,” she said. “It was a bit of a pacing problem then, the opposite of the pacing situation tonight. I thought it was better to push unusually hard than to come up short again.”
Next stop Dortmund, then World Indoors...
Preparation for tonight’s race began more than two months ago in Addis Ababa, and Adere clearly carried the altitude effects with her as she arrived in Europe only on Thursday. Next Wednesday night, she is scheduled to run the 3000 in Dortmund, and with that, her short invitational indoor season will come to a close as she returns home to prepare for the World Indoor Championships.
For the record performance tonight, Adere received a reported bonus of 50,000 Euros.
When asked her opinion of indoor running as compared with the outdoor version, she quickly replied with a laugh, “Indoors is very different—soooo many laps!” She also revealed that her Athens plans will consist only of the 10,000 Metres. “Too much heat and a hard track” was her stated reason.
Bekele runs seventh fastest ever 3000m
Unlike Adere with her six career indoor races, fellow Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele was seeing an indoor track for the first time tonight. And although some of the pre-meeting publicity had suggested that a World record attempt was part of Bekele’s script, the 21-year-old was in fact only looking for a respectable time, “something under 7:30”.
His winning 7:30.77- the season’s best and the seventh-fastest in indoor athletics’ history - was certainly a fine way to start an indoor career, and the Ethiopian appeared genuinely satisfied with his new experience.
Bekele almost got lost in the first-lap traffic jam among the fifteen competitors. He finally pried himself out of a pack, and came sailing down the outside, moving into the lead group as the first 200 metres drew to a close. After that, he settled in comfortably behind the pacemakers before pulling away just before the end of the second kilometre.
At this point, countryman Silehi Sihine tried to mount a challenge and held tight to Bekele for several laps. But in the end, the Paris 10K champion’s win was never in doubt.
The Ethiopians were not the only ones to make their marks during this evening which saw seven marks which lowered the season’s bests.
Gardener's season gets faster
After blazing to a world-leading 6.50 in the Men’s 60 metres heats, Jason Gardener appeared poised to move even closer to his PB of 6.46. His 6.53 in the final was perhaps a bit disappointing to both him and the spectators, as Marcus Brunson of the US made a close race out of it with his second-place 6.56.
Like Gardener, Lacena Golding-Clarke was not able to better her world-leading 7.93** heat time in the Women’s 60 metres Hurdles, and it took all of her 7.94 clocking in the final to scrape out a win another hyphenated Jamaican, Delloreen Ennis-London, in 7.95.
** note: improved later the same evening by Gail Devers' 7.85 in Boston.
1:44.71 for Mutua
A oversupply of talent in the Men’s 800 Metres required the top section be divided into two races. Joseph Mutua of Kenya came out on top in the opening section with a world-leading 1:44.71, an African record, and the eight-fastest performance ever. Wilfred Bungei, also of Kenya, won the following section in 1:45.29.
The women’s Pole Vault was also top-drawer, despite World record holder Svetlana Feofanova being less than in top form after a bout of stomach problems the night before the competition, an ailment which required medical treatment.
That did not effect the Russians’ ability to claim the top three places, as Yelena Isinbayeva won at 4.68 before taking two unsuccessful attempts at a would-be world-record 4.81. Tatyana Polnova (4.60) and Feofanova (4.50) took the next spots, with Germany’s Annika Becker in fourth, also at 4.50.
Holland’s Rens Blom continued his impressive season from last year. The Germany-based pole vaulter had a clean jump record up through his winning 5.70 to defeat Paris champion Giuseppe Giblisco on misses at the same height.
Gibilisco suffered the unfortunate fate of booking his flight from Italy to Germany using short aircraft not equipped to handle vaulting poles. Undaunted, he hopped into his auto and made the 1600-kilometre drive to Germany on Thursday.
Lap times for Adere: 33.9 – 1:08.5 – 1:45.5 – 2:21.7 – 2:58.3 – 3:34.4 – 4:08.5 – 4:41.8 – 5:16.6 – 5:51.9 – 6:26.0 – 7:00.1 – 7:34.3 – 8:09.0 – 8:43.92 – 9:19.2 – 9:54.8 – 10:30.2 – 11:06.1 – 11:41.85 – 12:17.9 – 12:53.8 – 13:29.9 – 14:05.2
