11 June 1999Helsinki (Reuters and AP) - Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie and American Marion Jones easily won their races at the Ericsson Grand Prix Helsinki on Thursday, but Trinidad & Tobago's Ato Boldon was stretched all the way to the finish.
Gebrselassie dominated the men's 3000m, taking control around the halfway point and cruising home just before his compatriots Million Wolde and Assefa Mezgebu who took second and third places in 7:40.67 and 7:42.21 respectively. Gebrselassie set out to beat the 3000m world record, but finished in 7:26.03, well off Kenyan Daniel Komen's mark of 7:20.67.
Stephan Kreijkamp of the Netherlands set the pace for 900m and Vincent Malakwen of Kenya went past the first 1000 in 2:25, 1.7 seconds faster than the ideal pace. But he and Branko Zorko of Croatia could not carry Gebrselassie another 500m before the pace slackened. At 1600m, Gebrselassie was more than two seconds off the record pace and not able to make it up.
``I realised early I had to fight alone against the clock in order to break the record,'' he said.``I tried my best until the end because I never give up. Maybe the wind was a bit too much for me, but I am very happy, it is never easy to run a sub-7.30.''
Jones was similarly impressive, speeding home in the 200m in a stadium best 21.91 seconds. The American, the world's top-ranked female sprinter, was only .1 second off her seasonal best of 21.81.
``I felt very tired before the race because the third day in Europe is the hardest,'' Jones said. ``Principally I ran early in the morning, so I can be happy for my time. This was a good start to the European tour.''
Natalia Safronnikova of Belarus was second in 23.02 and American Zundra Feagin third with 23.13.
Ato Boldon was made to work for his 200m success. He had to come from behind in the last 40 metres but edged home ahead of Obadele Thompson of Barbados. Both clocked 20.14.
Sergey Makarov of Russia beat a strong men's javelin field, throwing 86.74m. Boris Henry of Germany, Aki Parviainen, Matti Narhi of Finland, and Britain's Steve Backley: all were within 16 inches of Makarov. Henry was second at 20.52.
C.J. Hunter won the shot put at 20.81, while American teammate Larry Wade, the year's fastest 110 hurdler (13.12) lost to Robin Korving of the Netherlands. Korving won in 13.21, .02 seconds ahead of Wade.
