Rui Silva wins the 1500m in Zaragoza (© Jordi Lopez)
The extremely bad weather conditions ruined the ‘Gran Premio Gobierno de Aragón’ (EAA permit) held yesterday. The organisers had been able to bring together no less than seven medallists from last year’s Athens Olympic Games but none of them could prove all their capabilities as the reigning meteorological circumstances hampered their efforts.
Reigning double Olympic champion Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj received a standing ovation when the speaker announced his presence in the stadium but he did not take part in the 3000m as initially scheduled. Reportedly, El Guerrouj is still looking for a reasonable shape before making his debut this season.
Silva takes revenge on Lagat
The men’s 1500m was billed as a face-to-face between the two athletes who managed the minor places on the Athens podium, Portugal’s bronze medallist Rui Silva and runner-up Bernard Lagat, now an American citizen. The former Kenyan Lagat entered the home straight in the lead but was overhauled with 50m left by the 17-year-old Mansor Ali Bilal of Bahrain.
Coming from behind and using his devastating final metres trade-mark Silva pipped his young rival in the closing 10 metres and took a narrow win by 0.09 seconds, 3:35.89 his winning time. Lagat had to settle for third with a 3:36.73 clocking half a second ahead of Bahrain Mushir Salem Jawher, formerly Kenya’s Leonard Mucheru.
Silva declared: “after running 3:33.87 in Athens last week I expected to get a 3:32 here but the track was wet and conditions were far from ideal. Anyway today’s is an important win for me”.
Asked about his Helsinki chances once Lagat will not compete at the Worlds due to his recent change of allegiance the 27-year-old Portuguese said: “If finally El Guerrouj only contests the 5000m event in Helsinki I would be the man to beat on paper but the 1500 would become a tactical affair and that does not like me. When El Guerrouj is on the track he increases the pace with 800m to go, the race is cleaner and everything is much easier”.
Silva’s next outing will be in Lausanne next 5 July while Lagat has chosen the inaugural IAAF Golden League meeting Paris as his next stop.
Reina beats Kamel
Spain’s Antonio Reina grabbed a thrilling victory in the men’s 800m against Youssef Saad Kamel of Bahrain. To the delighted of the home crowd the European Cup victor in Florence last Sunday Reina out-sprinted Kamel (second fastest man last year in 1:43.11) to take a fine win in 1:46.32 while Billy Konchella’s son finished six hundredths of a second adrift. Reina now plans to contest the Mediterranean Games to be held in Almería (Spain) from 29 June to 2 July.
The women’s 800m witnessed the major upset of the afternoon as Morocco’s reigning 800m Olympic silver medallist Hasna Benhassi was surprisingly beaten in a tight finish by France’s Laetitia Valdonado by a margin of 18 hundredths (2:02.56 versus 2:02.74). That was not to be the only surprise in the event as Spain’s Maite Martínez (PB 1:58.29) and Britain’s Rebecca Lyne (2:01.26) were given the same time, 2:03.49 but the Briton prevailed for the third place.
Kenyans take the spoils in the longer events
Both men’s 3000m disciplines were dominated by Kenyan athletes. In the steeplechase former World record holder and World champion (1997) Wilson Boit Kipketer romped home in a pedestrian for him 8:27.16 which is a praise-worthy performance given the adverse weather conditions. Collins Kosgei completed a 1-2 for Kenya (8:28.86) while in the domestic fight José Luis Blanco kept 2003 World bronze medallist Eliseo Martín at bay, placing third and fourth respectively.
The 3000m flat went for Shadrack Korir in 7:52.98 ahead of his countryman Kiprono Menjo who fought hard with Algeria’s Ali Saidi Sief to take second by the slim advantage of nine hundredths, one and a half second behind Korir.
The in-form Ukrainian Sergiy Demydyuk equalled his season’s best of 13.38 in the men’s 110m Hurdles in a tail-wind of 1.9. Demydyuk missed his own National record by only one hundredth of a second and also beat Cuba’s Yoel Hernández by that narrow margin (13.39) while Ecuador’s Jackson Quiñonez ran a season’s best of 13.45 ahead of Cuba’s Dayron Robles, still a junior, who managed 13.50.
Mauritius’ Stephan Buckland snatched a close win over Britain’s Marlon Devonish in the 200m (20.78-20.82) into a headwind of 2.6m/s.
Belarus’ Alesya Turova was fastest in the women’s 1500 in 4:05.92 two seconds clear of Canada’s Carmen Douma-Hussar (4:07.96) with Britain’s Susan Scott in third, 4:09.00. The Triple Jump witnessed Cuba’s Yargelis Saligne’s victory. A 6.77 Long Jump specialist, Savigne made a more than promising Triple Jump debut by leaping a valid (+2.0) 14.56, 12 centimetres further than her compatriot Mabel Gay, who posted a windy 14.44 while Belarus’ Natalya Safronova was third in 14.29 (+1.5).
Cuba’s reigning Olympic champion Osleydis Menéndez had a second-round 64.53 release in the Javelin to win from Sonia Bisset, also of Cuba who threw 59.03. Germany’s Ulrike Urbanski grabbed an easy win in the 400m Hurdles in 57.80 with The Netherlands’ Marjolein de Jong runner-up in 58.64.
Hampered infield events
The performances in the infield events were severely hampered to such an extent that several disciplines such as the men’s shot put and discus (world leader Gerd Kanter and Olympic silver medallist Zoltan Kovago headed the field) had to be cancelled and others like the men’s and women’s Pole Vault suffered a complete halt when the bar still remained in 5.45 (men) and 3.80 (women).
The men’s Long Jump was also interrupted in round four with a 8.08 (+3.1) best effort by France’s Salim Sdiri. Victor Moya of Cuba won the men’s High Jump with a 2.27 second-time clearance while Italy’s Giulio Ciotti (not to confuse with his twin brother Nicola) came second in 2.25.
Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF
