Asafa Powell speeds to 9.78sec in Lausanne (© Giancarlo Colombo)
Fast and dominating victories by Jamaican sprinters Asafa Powell and Veronica Campbell-Brown and a world-leading effort in the Discus Throw by Zoltan Kovago highlighted the inaugural Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Budapest on Saturday (30).
Powell, the current 100m world leader at 9.78, produced what was arguably his finest day of the season. After a smooth 9.90 (wind +1.8) in the preliminary round, the former World record holder clocked 9.86 (+2.0) in the final, to win by a hefty margin over Zimbabwean national record holder Ngonidzashe Makusham who stopped the clock in 10.16.
It was Powell’s fifth victory in seven competitions this season – in late May he was second to Usain Bolt in Rome and was forced to pull up with a minor injury in Rabat, Morocco – which puts the 28-year-old firmly among the favourites at the upcoming IAAF World Championships. In the process, he easily supplanted Linford Christie (10.03, 1987) as the Hungarian All-Comers record holder and was awarded the Dr. Bojidar Spiriev Trophy, named in honor of the man behind the official IAAF scoring tables, for producing the best performance of the meeting.
Campbell-Brown, the two-time Olympic 200m champion, was equally dominant in her specialty, winning in 22.26, a season’s best. Finishing runner-up was Sanya Richards-Ross of the U.S., the reigning World 400m champion, whose 22.63 was also her fastest of the year over the distance.
"I have no complaints as I ran my best time of the year and executed well,” Campbell-Brown said. "I felt that I could run a good race, training went really well the past few weeks so I was hoping to give my very best."
69.50m world leader for Kovago
There were a pair of notable home victories at this meeting honouring Gyulai, one of the most recognised and popular Hungarian sports diplomats, who served as IAAF General Secretary from 1991 until his death in 2006.
Zoltan Kovago, the 2004 Olympic silver medallist, added more than four metres to his season’s best with a 69.50m effort to win the Discus Throw, the farthest throw in the world this year. Kovago, who fouled three of his first three throws, nailed the winner in round five.
Lithuania’s 39-year-old Virgilijus Alekna, who arrived in the Hungarian capital with four straight victories, finished second with a 66.02m best.
Krisztian Pars won the Hammer Throw competition by more than two metres with a 79.37m effort, beating German Markus Esser (76.85m).
Elsewhere on the infield, this year’s U.S. and NCAA champion Christian Taylor won the Triple Jump at 17.06m. Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria, won the Long Jump with a wind-assisted 6.84m (+2.9) leap, and later came back to finish third in the 200m clocking a season’s best 22.94.
And elsewhere on the track, Ismail Ahmed Ismail of Sudan, the 2008 Olympic silver medallist, won the 800m in 1:46.78, well ahead of Kenyan rival Alfred Kirwa Yego, the two World silver medallist and Olympic bronze medallist, who was a distant fifth in 1:47.99.
Yvette Lewis of the U.S., who was disqualified in the final of the U.S. championships, lowered his career best to 12.76 to take a narrow victory over compatriot Nia Ali, who was just 0.02 behind.
In the men's 400m, it was a battle of the reigning European champion Kevin Borlée of Belgium versus the newly crowned European junior champion, Marcell Deák Nagy of Hungary. The younger of the Borlée twins lived up to the expectations and crossed the line first (45.91) ahead of the Hungarian champion (46.47), although the field had to battle circulating winds throughout the race. Weather conditions were not any more kind to New Zealander Niki Hamblin and the rest of the field in the women’s 1500m, yet she out dipped Cakir Alptekin of Turkey for the win in 4:05.45.
Bob Ramsak and organisers for the IAAF
