Kipchirchir Komen's 3:33.69, tight men's Shot Put battle the highlights in Valencia

Kipchirchir Komen's 3:33.69, tight men's Shot Put battle the highlights in Valencia

11 February 2007 – Valencia, Spain - As expected, the men’s 1500m provided one of the highlights of Saturday evening’s (10) ‘Reunión Internacional Ciudad de Valencia’ - IAAF Permit.

Commanding win for Kipchirchir Komen

Running on the track that will host the 2008 World Indoor Championships, Kenya’s Daniel Kipchirchir Komen produced the quickest 1500m performance of the year with his 3:33.69 victory, a full three seconds faster than the previous leading mark. However the task of breaking Hicham’s El Guerrouj’s World record of 3:31.18 proved to be too tough and unassailable for the young Kenyan.

The 22-year-old world indoor silver medallist was paced by his fellow Kenyans Philemon Kimuthai, who performed superbly to go through the first 400m in 55.65 and Gilbert Kipchoge who covered the 800m point in 1:53.49 (57.89 for the second section of 400m). At that point there were still World record breaking chances but once the pacemakers had departed Komen was unable to quickened the pace and another 57.23 400m split (2:50.76 at 1200m) defeated the purpose of threatening the World record.

At the bell Komen was closely followed by Shadrack Korir and Bahrain’s Ali Belal Mansour but the young Kenyan easily hold off their challenge and a powerful late burst of speed provided him a more than respectable 3:33.69 clocking to Korir’s 3:35.03 for second, while Belal Mansour reached the line in third (3:36.76). The usually strong Spanish armada at this event (Casado, Higuero, Sergio Gallardo, etc) had a disappointing outcome this time and none of them could run inside 3:39.00, the first Spaniard home being Gallardo in fifth (3:39.25).

“According to my last trainings, I was confident of being near El Guerrouj’s World record but finally it couldn’t be possible,” Kichirchir Komen said.

Hoffa over Cantwell by the narrowest of margins

The men’s Shot Put witnessed an exciting duel between the last two World indoor champions in the guise of America’s Christian Cantwell (2004) and Reese Hoffa (2006) who created such a friendly atmosphere with the crowd that the spectators enjoyed passionately every one of their releases. Both putters head this indoor season’s list and they stamped their authority from the beginning as Hoffa reached 20.75 and 20.97 in the first two rounds to take the lead but Cantwell responded to gain top spot thanks to a 21.12 effort in the third round.

Hoffa regained first place with a 21.26 fourth-attempt toss and had no answer from Cantwell. Both throwers had fouls in the fifth round and the very last two tosses of the event were fascinating as first Hoffa extended his lead with a 21.32 heave and then Cantwell seemed to reach Hoffa’s mark but his effort was measured in 21.31, barely one centimetre behind Hoffa who avenged his loss of a week earlier (21.88/21.75) at the Millrose Games in New York City.

Dan Taylor, also of the US took third with 20.63 while the only other putter exceeding the 20m barrier was Belarus’s Andrey Mikhnevich (20.11).

Thrilling Kipruto-España neck-and-neck over 3000m

With exactly three weeks to go before the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Spain’s Jesús España provided ample evidence that he will play a key role in the 3000m medal chase by finishing second behind Kenya’s reigning Olympic 3000m steeplechase silver medallist Brimin Kipruto.

The race opened at a brisk pace (2:32.95 for the opening 1000m) but faltered slightly in the second 1000 segment which took 5:09.64.

Soon afterwards it was Kipruto, also the reigning World steeplechase bronze medallist, who took command of the race with España tucked behind. The Spaniard tried to overtake Kipruto in the straightaway but the Kenyan kept him at bay to notch a brilliant win timed at 7:43.20 for España’s 7:43.36. Kenya’s Jonas Cheruiyot finished third in 7:45.84 while former European 3000m indoor champion and record holder Alberto García of Spain was fourth with a 7:46.61 clocking.

Beitia beats World indoor champion Slesarenko

Spain’s Ruth Beitia gave the home crowd something to cheer about by taking a convincing victory in the women’s High Jump. Wearing the local “Valencia Terra i Mar” vest, the 27-year-old reigning World bronze medallist had first attempt clearances up to 1.93 before going over 1.95 (SB) with her third. Russia’s Yelena Slesarenko confirmed to be below last year’s form and couldn’t do better than 1.89. Beitia, who’s aiming for a medal at the Europeans in Birmingham, then asked the judges to raise the bar at a would-be National record and equal-world leading mark of 2.01 but failed three times. She will have another opportunity to reach that height at next weekend’s National championships in Seville (17-18 February).

The Czech pair of Pavla Rybova and Katerina Badurova finished 1-2 in the women’s Pole Vault. Both vaulters managed PBs, the former by winning the contest thanks to a 4.61 second-time success and the latter by going over 4.56 (previous outdoor PB of 4.52) with her first.

6.69 Long Jump for Maggi

The women’s Long Jump’s field was of a high calibre and the event didn’t let anyone down. Spain’s former World junior champion Concha Montaner was competing in her native Valencia and that extra motivation led her to the top position after the second round thanks to a 6.67 (SB) leap. The 30-year-old Brazilian Maurren Higa Maggi answered with a 6.63 leap in round three, a good effort but not enough to take the lead. There were no major changes until the penultimate jump when Maggi produced a SB of 6.69 to deny local heroine Montaner the win. The 26-year-old Spaniard’s (4th at last World indoors in Moscow) fouled on her sixth jump – her fourth consecutive overstep of the competition - but manged to hold off the challenge of the reigning European outdoor champion Ludmila Kolchanova, who was third with a 6.59 best leap.

Domínguez in form but skips Birmingham

Spain’s reigning European 5000m champion Marta Domínguez succeeded in a low-key women’s 3000m with a creditable 8:48.84 performance. After a slow opening kilo covered by the pacemaker in 3:01.28, Domínguez quickened the pace to cover the 2000m point in 5:56.58 running in solitude to finish with an even faster final kilo of 2:52.26. Her winning performance places her third fastest among Europeans thus far this indoor season, but that won’t be enough to change her mind about the continental championships as she’s confirmed that she will not be competing in Birmingham. Last Sunday (04 February), Domínguez made an encouraging debut in the Half-Marathon, clocking 1:11:23 in Granollers.

Elsewhere…

In other events, Cuba’s Yumileidi Cumbá posted a fine win in the women’s Shot Put. The reigning Olympic champion won thanks to a season’s best second round heave of 18.19 while her fellow Cuban Misleydis Gonzáles was runner-up with 17.28. Cumbá had set her previous season best in Valladolid (Spain) last Sunday with a 18.04 toss. The men’s 60m Hurdles race was taken by Spain’s Jackson Quiñónez in 7.62 ahead of his compatriot Felipe Vivancos. The reigning European silver medallist had to settle for second in a SB of 7.68 while Colombia’s Paulo Villar was given the same time.

In the women’s event America’s Danielle Carruthers recorded a clear win clocking 8.00, a .09 second advantage over Cuba’s Yenima Arencibia. Remarkably, the quickest time of the event was signed by Nigeria’s Valencia’s based athlete Josephine Onya with 7.91 in the semi-final but she didn’t contest the final while her training mate, Spain’s reigning World silver medallist Glory Alozie, had a below-par run and came fourth in 8.22.

The 800m events didn’t offer the expected kind of performances. On the men’s side the reigning World indoor champion Wilfred Bungei, was disqualified for leaving his lane before being permitted and the race became a replica of last Sunday’s contest in Stuttgart as Bram Som of the Netherlands get the better of Latvia’s Dmitrijs Milkevics with only eight hundredths of a second (1:47.26 vs 1:47.34) separating both top Europeans. The women’s race witnessed victory for Morocco’s Hasna Benhassi in her 2007 indoor debut. The current Olympic and World silver medallist posted a 2:03.85 clocking, more than a full second clear of Poland’s Ewelina Setowska, timed at 2:05.01. European champion Olga Kotlyarova finished a distant sixth in 2:06.61.

Chilean 21-year-old Kael Becerra sliced another hundredth of a second to the National 60m record he set last Sunday in Gent by clocking a winning 6.61 while Cuba’s Freddy Mayola and Portugal’s double European outdoor champion Francis Obikwelu were given the same time, 6.62 to place second and third respectively. The women’s 1500m witnessed the supremacy of Spain’s 800m specialist Mayte Martínez who tightly beat Poland’s Sylwia Ejdys, 4:13.56 and 4:13.61 their respective performances.

Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF

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