Another 2.01m leap for Ariane Friedrich in Wattenscheid (© Bongarts/Getty Images)
Wattenscheid, GermanyWith a scant week remaining before the Beijing Opening Ceremonies, the German Athletics Federation (DLV) staged its annual gala in the Wattenscheid district of Bochum as a sendoff for its Olympic team next week.
Friedrich 2.01m again
The last two months have seen German high jumper Ariane Friedrich reach a solid level of consistency. Tonight, without appreciable pressure from other competitors, the Frankfurt-based jumper surpassed the two-metre level for the sixth time during the outdoor season with a 2.01m performance. Friedrich also had one creditable attempt at 2.04m to close the competition. Finishing second was Viktoriya Klyugina of Russia with 1.92m.
Similarly in the Women’s Pole Vault, Silke Spiegelburg was jumping alone as the bar reached 4.61m. The Beijing-bound vaulter maintained a clean chart with a first-jump success there, despite an apparent crosswind, but she failed to add to her current personal best of 4.70m with three misses at 4.71m to end the competition. Anastasija Reiberger of Germany took second ahead of Russia’s Tatyana Polnova on a countback at 4.41m.
Straub ups PB to 5.81m
Alexander Straub may not have been nominated for the German team in the Men’s Pole Vault but the 24-year-old Stuttgart area athlete used this no-pressure competition to leap a pair of PBs - at 5.76m and 5.81m - to win the event and move to the top spot among German vaulters for the season. Three unsuccessful attempts at 5.86m by Straub ended the competition. Danny Ecker successfully tested his tender Achilles with a 5.60m performance to take second on a countback over Russia’s Pavel Gerasimov and training partner Lars Börgeling. Germany’s newest international vaulting star, 19-year-old Raphael Holzdeppe, the recently-crowned World junior champion, finished sixth at 5.50m in his final tune-up before Beijing.
Aleksey Dmitrik of Russia won the Men’s High Jump with a third-attempt 2.24m as German Olympian Raul Spank bettered Italy’s Andrea Bettinelli on a countback at 2.20m.
Unsettled weather in the Wattenscheid area produced some swirling winds in the Lohrheidestadion early in the program, but by mid-evening the conditions became calm. Danielle Carruthers took advantage to win the Women’s 100m Hurdles with a powerful 12.84, equaling her season best. Trailing the American were Germany’s Carolin Nytra in 13.08 and another US hurdler, Yvette Lewis, in 13.10.
The Men’s 110m Hurdles had almost more casualties than finishers, as three of the seven starters fell victim to crashed barriers. Fortunately, most of the carnage occurred behind winner Thomas Blaschek of Germany as he pushed ahead undeterred for a 13.53 win, after posting a 13.50 earlier in the heats. Blaschek’s training partner, Willi Mathiszik, finished second with 13.75, as Dominique Arnold of the US aborted the race after a season-best 13.55 in the heats. Also crashing out were American Jeff Porter and another of Blaschek’s Leipzig comrades, Alexander John, while Petr Svoboda of the Czech Republic, already nominated by his country for Beijing, simply decided not to run after qualifying with a 13.68 heat time.
With a strong finish over the final 80 metres, Carsten Schlangen won the Men’s 1500m with 3:37.05. The Berlin runner, part of the German contingent bound for Beijing, easily kicked past leader Bernard Kiptum of Kenya in the closing stages of the race. Following Schlangen into the finish was his countryman Stefan Eberhardt in a PB 3:37.51. The winner in Leverkusen on Wednesday, Bartosz Nowicki of Poland, also sprinted hard at the end to finish third and lowered his PB by almost a second with 3:37.90, as Kiptum faded to fifth in 3:39.01.
In the Men’s 3000m, Kenyans Daniel Salel, last year’s World youth 3K champion, and Yusuf Biwott separated themselves from the rest with about half the race remaining. On the final run-in, the still-17-year-old Salel’s sprint proved to be the decisive factor as his more than 11-second PB 7:45.85 was superior to Biwott’s 7:46.83.
Three throwing events - the Discus Throw, Shot Put, and Hammer Throw - were contested with both genders throwing together.
Germany’s two Olympians, Betty Heidler and Kathrin Klaas, went one-two in the Women’s Hammer with respective performances of 72.10m and 69.26m. Markus Esser, also with a Beijing ticket, won the men’s contest with a 78.28m over Sydney gold medallist Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland (76.12m). Young Sergey Litvinov, son of the former World-record holder of the same name and domiciled in Germany, finished third with 73.23m.
Nadine Kleinert won a three-person Women’s Shot Put contest with a best of 19.52m, as second-place Lin Chia-Ying was a distant second in 16.61m, still a season best. Most unusual was the inability of Olympic-nominated Denise Hinrichs to produce a legal throw in five attempts.
The two German Olympic team members in the men’s Shot Put fared relatively better, as Ralf Bartels’ 20.36m won over Peter Sack’s 20.16m.
Osaka silver medallist Robert Harting, heading for China, was without a challenger in the men’s Discus, as any of his four legal throws - with an evening best of 66.96m - was sufficient for victory.
The women’s Discus was a close but tepid affair, won by Ulrike Giesa over Nadine Müller, 55.93m to 55.77m.
The Women’s 800m went to Ewelina Setowska of Poland who used a strong final 70 metres to move past a determined Brigitta Langerholc of Slovenia for the win, 2:01.62 to 2:01.88. Germany’s Monika Gradzki followed the pair to the wire in 2:01.97 for third.
The Women’s 400m appeared as if it would be the total property of reigning world indoor champion Olesya Zykina. The Russian moved away strongly at the gun and had a good lead at the halfway point. Claudia Hoffmann ran the critical phase between 200 and 300 strongly and pulled ahead of Zykina coming off the final curve, but the Russian was able to find enough reserve power to win out at the end, 51.94 to 52.05. It was a season best for Hoffmann.
There was never any doubt in the men’s 400m, as lanky German Kamghe Gaba took a comfortable lead on the back stretch and never looked back in his season-best 45.67 performance, while Britain’s Andrew Steele pushed hard at the end to duck under 46 with a 45.99 in second.
Tino Häber led off the men’s Javelin with a season-best 80.71m, and that was enough to win the event over the two German Olympic nominees, Alexander Vieweg (2nd at 79.58m) and Stephan Steding (4th with 78.29m).
A pair of 4x100m Relays was included on the program. The “Germany 1” team of Tobias Unger, Till Helmke, Alexander Kosenkow and Martin Keller circled the stadium in 38.82 to win the men’s competition over the second German team, which clocked 39.34.
The women’s relay saw the German team of Katja Wakan, Lisa-Sophie Schorr, Mareike Peters and Katharina Naumann score a rare win over a US quartet. The Germans’ time of 44.39 easily won over an all-hurdler American team of Danielle Carruthers, Yvette Lewis, Lauren Smith and Ellakisha Willamson (45.27).
The pair of 100m races were won by Ernest Wiggins of the US (10.27) and Ghana’s Vida Amin (11.36).
Concluding the program was the Men’s 200m, won by Nigerian Obinna Metu in 20.71.
Ed Gordon for the IAAF
