Denis Yurchenko of Ukraine (© Getty Images)
The 16th Lausitzer Leichtathletik Meeting in Cottbus was marked by the worst weather in the history of the event. Heavy downpours, thunder and a headwind on the back straight dramatically affected the athletes’ performances.
The technical events were those hit worse. “We had been lucky with the weather for 15 years, this time we are not”, meeting director Ulrich Hobeck said before the start of the event. To escape at least one period of heavy rain he postponed the start of the meeting by more than half an hour. And during the event organisers tried their best to move starting times to a dry period.
No rain for sprint events
For the sprinting and running events this worked quite well taking into account the actual conditions. The 100m sprinters had their race when it was not raining. In relatively cool conditions of about 16° Celsius Olusoji Fasuba was well ahead after the first half of the race. The Nigerian seemed to slow down but he nevertheless won the race in 10.22. Carlos Moore (USA) closed the gap in the second half and finished second with 10.28. Sprinters were pushed by a slightly illegal wind of 2.1 m/sec.
The 110m hurdlers had a wet track as well. But again during their race it wasn’t raining. Thomas Blaschek won the race in 13.64 while Willi Mathiszik (both Germany) was second with 13.74. This time there was a 2.3 tail wind.
Both of the long distance events had Kenyan winners. In the 3000m Shadrack Langat won with 7:48.73 minutes. Fellow Kenyan Isaac Sang had acted as a pacemaker. He had covered 1000m in 2:37.75 and 2000m in 5:13.36.
In the 3000m Steeplechase there were only two Kenyans in the field. Although both of them were entered as pacemakers that did not prevent them from finishing. And they did very well, taking first and third places. Collins Kosgei and Elijah Chelimo had passed 1000m in 2:45.96 and 2000m in 5:39.90. The goal was to guide young Filmon Ghirma (Germany), who is coached by Dieter Baumann in Tübingen, to break the national qualifying time of 8:24.60.
But it did not work on Sunday. Ghirma finished second with 8:29.24 though he could have done better because at the end he had a good sprint left. While Chelimo won with 8:28.62 Kosgei finished third in 8:30.15.
Difficult conditions deny good results in PV
Coping with changing conditions was difficult for the pole vaulters. “I think this was probably my worst competition in my whole career,” Danny Ecker said, leaving the arena without a valid jump. Including the warm up session he had seven attempts altogether.
“Somehow I never got the pole in the box, which did never happen before to me. I don’t know what went wrong. May be the tail wind was a bit too strong. And because I felt very good and fresh during the run up I probably made a mess of the timing. I changed my starting position a couple of times, but it did not work today”, Danny Ecker said and added: “My performance does not at all reflect my training because that went very well.”
Pressure will mount on Danny Ecker concerning qualification for Helsinki. The German federation has introduced a new qualifying rule this year. In almost every event the qualifying mark has to be reached twice. In the Pole Vault so far only Tim Lobinger has fulfilled this controversial standard. The qualifying height in the Pole Vault is 5.75 m.
The event was won by Denis Yurchenko (Ukraine) with 5.60m. Björn Otto was second with 5.50m. But the unlucky man of the day was Richard Spiegelburg. He had cleared 5.60m with a first attempt with which he would have won the competition. But he had not realised that his name was not shown when he started his attempt. The name shown was somehow still that of Nick Buckfield, who had just had an attempt before. Additionally the Britton seems to have given Richard Spiegelburg a sign to go ahead. Spiegelburg’s best jump of the day was given invalid and with his remaining two attempts he did not clear the height again.
While Mark Frank won the javelin with 81.90 metres, Franka Dietzsch confirmed her recent good form. In difficult conditions she won the Discus Throw with 63.14 and was the only one to beat the 60m mark.
“I had hoped to throw further but it was not easy today,” she said. The 37-year-old hopes to be able to achieve the same result in Helsinki as she has done in Halle recently. There she had won the event with a world leading of 66.29m.
“I assume it would be possible to win a bronze medal with something like 66.50m - and I will definitely give everything to achieve this,” Franka Dietzsch said.
Another fine result in the women’s events came from Jenny Meadows. The British 800m runner won the race with 2:02.80 minutes. She is said to have been lucky to be included into the A race since she was a late entry into the event. Kathleen Friedrich was second in 2:03.36 while France’s Elisabeth Grousselle took third with 2:03.36.
Jorg Wenig for the IAAF
Results
Men
100m (+2.1): 1. Olusoji Fasuba NGR 10.22, 2. Carlos Moore USA 10.28, 3. Eric Nkansah GHA 10.50, 4. Johan Engberg SWE 10.59, 5. Anthony Ferro BEL 10.59.
400m: 1. California Molefe BOT 46.50, 2. Dewayne Barrett JAM 46.59, 3. Piotr Klimczak POL 46.65.
800m: 1. John Litei KEN 1:47.79, 2. Rachid Khouia MAR 1:48.06, 3. Rickard Pell SWE 1:48.26, 4. René Herms 1:48.52, 5. Michal Sneberger CZE 1:48.54.
3000m: 1. Shadrack Langat KEN 7:48.73, 2. Vyacheslav Shabunin RUS 7:49.43, 3. Enock Koech KEN 7:50.33, 4. Christian Belz SUI 7:50.65, 5. Vickson Polonet KEN 7:51.64.
110m Hurdles (+2.3): 1. Thomas Blaschek 13.64, 2. Willi Mathiszik 13.74, 3. Paulo Villar COL 13.76, 4. Mike Fenner 13.77, 5. Marcel van der Westen NED 13.82
3000m Steeplechase: 1. Elijah Chelimo KEN 8:28.62, 2. Filmon Ghirmai 8:29.24, 3. Collins Kosgei KEN 8:30.15, 4. Stephan Hohl 8:30.64.
High Jump: 1. Roman Fricke 2.18 m, 2. Mustapha Raifah FRA 2.18 m, 3. Martin Buß 2.15.
Pole Vault: 1. Denis Yurchenko UKR 5.60, 2. Björn Otto GER 5.50, 3. Alhaji Jeng SWE 5.50, 4. Nick Buckfield GBR 5.50, 5. = Kevin Rans BEL 5.40, Richard Spiegelburg 5.40, Michael Stolle 5.40.
Javelin Throw: 1. Mark Frank 81.90, 2. Rajmund Kolko POL 77.42, 3. Manuel Nau 76.29.
Women
100m (+1.7): 1. Katja Wakan 11.64, 2. Delphine Bertille Atangana CMR 11.69, 3. Katja Börner 11.78, 4. Emma Rienas SWE 11.85.
400m: 1. Antonina Yefremova UKR 52.00, 2. Claudia Marx 52.53, 3. Monika Bejnar POL 52.83.
800m: 1. Jenny Meadows GBR 2:02.80, 2. Kathleen Friedrich 2:03.06, 3. Elisabeth Grousselle FRA 2:03.36, 4. Monika Gradzki 2:03.67, 5. Rikke Ronholt DEN 2:04.36, 6. Brigita Langerholc SLO 2:04.85.
Long Jump: 1. Bianca Kappler 6.45, 2. Urszula Gutowicz-Westhof 6.39, 3. Kathrin van Bühren 6.33.
Discus Throw: 1. Franka Dietzsch 63.14, 2. Joanna Wisniewska POL 58.50, 3. Jana Tucholke 57.00, 4. Elizna Naude RSA 56.10.
