2005 Grand Prix Review - Part ONE

The highlights of this year’s 28 IAAF Grand Prix meetings, including the fastest ever 100m by Asafa Powell and four World Pole Vault records by Yelena Isinbayeva, are recalled by MEL WATMAN of “Athletics International”. The first of a two part series covers the first 17 meetings of the season. A review of the final meetings follows tomorrow.

February 17, Melbourne, Australia
(Grand Prix II)

Reigning world 400m hurdles champion Jana Pittman made a promising 800m debut with a 2:04.03 victory but injury would prevent her from defending her title. Another disappointment for Australia in Helsinki would come in the Pole Vault, where Steve Hooker failed to make the final and Paul Burgess was kept off the team by injury. In Melbourne, Hooker cleared what was at the time a personal best of 5.75m (he would later improve to 5.87m), while Burgess – who had vaulted 5.95m a few days earlier and would subsequently become this year’s world leader at 6.00m – placed second at 5.60m.

April 30, Fort-de-France, Martinique, France
(Grand Prix II)

Another frustrating summer lay ahead for him but Maurice Greene displayed excellent early-season form by taking the 100m in 10.03 ahead of indoor revelation Ronald Pognon, who set a personal best of 10.09, while Olympic Long Jump champion Dwight Phillips also ran faster than ever before with 10.14 ahead of troubled then World record holder Tim Montgomery. The latter’s partner, Marion Jones, scored her first victory in nearly a year with a modest 11.28 but rarely raced again.

May 7, Osaka, Japan
(Grand Prix)

Of the four Olympic champions who competed, two won their events – Justin Gatlin with 10.15 in the 100m and Liu Xiang with 13.12 for 110m hurdles – but Tim Mack wound up fifth in the pole vault at 5.60m and Olga Kuzenkova (69.77m) was comprehensively beaten in the women’s Hammer Throw by the Chinese junior Zhang Wenxiu (72.34m). However, peaking at the right time is everything in athletics … Kuzenkova would go on to throw 75.10m for victory in the IAAF World Championships while Zhang placed fifth with 69.82m.

May 13, Doha, Qatar
(Super Grand Prix)

The first of the season’s Super Grand Prix meetings lived up to its status with many superb performances, particularly by Kenyan-born runners. Daniel Kipchirchir Komen improved his best 1500m time from 3:34.66 to 3:30.77, hotly pursued by Dahame Najem Bashir (ex-Kenyan David Nyaga) with a Qatari record of 3:31.04; Eliud Kipchoge won the 3000m in 7:28.56 ahead of Augustine Choge (18) whose 7:28.78 broke Kenenisa Bekele’s world junior record; and Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the former Stephen Cherono, missed the world best for the 2000m steeplechase by a tenth of a second with 5:14.53. Wesley Kiprotich followed in 5:16.46 while Ronald Kipchumba (17) set a world junior best of 5:20.44. The women’s 3000m Steeplechase produced an African and Commonwealth record of 9:28.10 by Dorcus Inzikuru, but better was yet to come from the Ugandan.

May 15, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
(Grand Prix II)

Last year Jadel Gregório starred at this meeting by triple jumping what was then an outdoor personal best of 17.22m; this time he won with 17.58m – over a metre ahead of Walter Davis, who was destined to become World champion at 17.57m with the giant Brazilian sixth. A surprise winner of the 400m was Tyler Christopher (CAN), who improved from 45.25 to 44.88.

May 22, Belém, Brazil
(Grand Prix)

Another success for Tyler Christopher, this time in 44.72 for a Canadian record, and he would continue to progress to take the bronze medal in Helsinki in 44.44. Jadel Gregório beat Walter Davis again, although it was closer on this occasion: 17.40m to 17.29m. Another triple jumper who would emerge as world champion, Trecia Smith, followed up her 14.62m win in Rio with 14.81m.

May 29, Hengelo, Netherlands
(Grand Prix)

The stadium and meeting named after Fanny Blankers-Koen has provided many an outstanding 10,000m performance and Kenenisa Bekele added to the collection with the fourth fastest ever time of 26:28.72. That was a mark surpassed only by three world record breaking exploits: his own 26:20.31 in Ostrava in 2004, Haile Gebrselassie’s 26:22.75 in Hengelo in 1998 and Paul Tergat’s 26:27.85 in Brussels in 1997. “It was too cold and there was too much wind,” the Ethiopian wonder explained. A brilliant runner-up was his compatriot Abebe Dinkisa in 26:30.74, making him the fifth fastest performer of all time.

May 30, Palo Alto, USA
(Grand Prix II)

Michelle Perry, 14th in last year’s Olympic Heptathlon, made a shrewd career move when, at the suggestion of her coach Bobby Kersee, she decided to concentrate on her strongest individual event, the 100m Hurdles, in 2005. Despite a slow start and headwind she ran a personal best of 12.65 … and would subsequently top the world list with 12.43 and become World champion. John Godina was dominant in the Shot (21.93m) whereas Adam Nelson, feeling his way cautiously after injury but who would hit peak form when it really counted, was far back with 20.72m in third place.

June 1, Milan, Italy
(Grand Prix II)

Mansoor Ali Bilal of Bahrain was timed at 3:33.86 for an Asian junior 1500m record … but there was some doubt expressed over his age. If, as claimed, he was born on 17 October 1988, that would have made him 16 years old and the time would have been well inside Cornelius Chirchir’s world youth (under-18) best of 3:35.16. However, there were reports that the former John Yego of Kenya was considerably older than 16. In the absence this year of Gulnara Samitova, Dorcus Inzikuru established herself as favourite for the inaugural world title in the women’s 3000m steeplechase as she set a world best of 6:04.46 for the rarely run 2000m event although it should be pointed out that Samitova reached that point in 5:59.4 during her World record 9:01.59 3000m.

June 3, Turin, Italy
(Grand Prix II)

Veronica Campbell extended her long winning streak at 200m, clocking what proved to be her fastest time of the year (22.35) in smashing the Memorial Primo Nebiolo meeting record of 22.75 set in 1995 by her idol, Merlene Ottey. There was a rare sight in the 3000m; seven Kenyans filled the top eight places but the winner was actually a European, Sergiy Lebid, in 7:42.94.

June 4, Seville, Spain
(Grand Prix)

Another example that African distance runners are not totally dominant was provided by the towering Australian, Craig Mottram. He finished 15m ahead of Isaac Songok over 5000m in 13:04.06, with Benjamin Limo – the Kenyan who would unexpectedly strike gold in the World Championships – fifth in 13:07.74. That was one of three world-leading marks at this early stage of the season, the others being a 1:44.22 800m by Amine Laálou and an 8:06.26 steeplechase by Paul K. Koech.

June 4, Eugene, USA
(Grand Prix)

This meeting featured the only meaningful clash this year between the two fastest men in the world: Olympic champion Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell who, just ten days later, would become world record holder. Both were timed at 9.84 with a 3.4m/sec following wind, Gatlin being adjudged the winner. The Jamaican was faster out of the blocks but the American came back to win with his dip. Appropriately at the Steve Prefontaine Classic there was an outstanding 2 miles race, won by Eliud Kipchoge in 8:07.68 (4:00.5 at the mile), a time bettered only by the original Daniel Komen (not to be confused with the new 1500m star), Haile Gebrselassie and, indoors, by Hicham El Guerrouj. Behind him, Alan Webb broke Bob Kennedy’s US record with 8:11.48. Her season didn’t develop as she would have wished but Maria Mutola did achieve the distinction of winning the 800m (1:59.95) for a 13th consecutive year at this meeting!

June 9, Ostrava, Czech Republic
(Super Grand Prix)

The writing was on the wall after Asafa Powell’s 100m at the Golden Spike Meeting: Tim Montgomery’s world record of 9.78 was living on borrowed time. Level with Olusoji Fasuba at halfway, Powell opened up a winning margin of three and a half metres for a time of 9.85 on a cool, damp evening. There was impressive sprinting also by Ivet Lalova (11.03) but just five days later her season came to an abrupt and painful end when she suffered a fractured femur while training. Best of the field event action came in the Javelin where Sergey Makarov set what was then a world-leading mark of 88.84m, far ahead of Finnish hope Tero Pitkämäki (83.19m) who would rock the world of Javelin Throwing later in the month with a distance of 91.53m which would remain the world’s best for 2005.

June 12, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
(Grand Prix)

With uncertainty surrounding Hicham El Guerrouj’s racing plans (in fact he didn’t compete at all in 2005) and news breaking that Bernard Lagat had become a US citizen and thus ineligible for Helsinki, European champion Mehdi Baala appeared to have a great chance of becoming world 1500m champion. That feeling was intensified after he beat Olympic silver medallist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi over 800m, 1:44.74 to 1:44.82, although the Frenchman would prove a major disappointment in Helsinki. Other home victories included a 13.36 110m hurdles by Ladji Doucouré, a modest 6.51m long jump by Eunice Barber (perhaps still drained from her national record heptathlon score of 6889 in Arles the previous weekend) and a French pole vault record of 4.56m by Vanessa Boslak.

June 14, Athens, Greece
(Super Grand Prix)

It was on Athens’ lightning fast track that in 1999 Maurice Greene smashed Donovan Bailey’s world 100m record of 9.84 with a startling 9.79 and where Justin Gatlin last year claimed the Olympic title in 9.85. For Asafa Powell the stadium was associated with less pleasurable memories, for he had finished fifth in that Olympic final for which he was favourite to win. But now Athens will always bring a smile to his face, for he flew across the line in 9.77, the wind gauge registering 1.6m/sec, to become Jamaica’s first world record breaker at the distance although Don Quarrie did equal the hand-timed mark of 9.9 in 1976. He isn’t the first sprinter of note in his family for brother Donovan Powell, 11 years his senior, was the 1996 US indoor 60m champion and was once credited with a hand timed 9.7 100m. There was another, if lesser, record. Dorcus Inzikuru set an African and Commonwealth 3000m steeplechase mark of 9:15.04 which made her the second fastest of all-time.

June 25, Kazan, Russia
(Grand Prix II)

Russian women’s middle distance strength was demonstrated as Svetlana Cherkasova produced the world’s quickest 800m time thus far in the season with 1:56.93 ahead of Zulia Calatayud of Cuba (1:58.07) with three other Russians inside 1:59. Calatayud judged her campaign better, for she went on to win the world title in Helsinki while Cherkasova managed only seventh place. Olga Yegorova posted her year’s best 1500m time of 3:59.47.

June 27, Prague, Czech Republic
(Grand Prix II)

The meeting was highlighted by what turned out to be the longest women’s Discus Throw of the year … 66.81m by the Czechs’ own Vera Cechlová. Olympic silver medallist Sileshi Sihine emerged from the shadow of Kenenisa Bekele to win the 10,000m in his quickest time of the year of 26:57.27. In Helsinki he was destined to finish second again to Bekele in the 10,000m and, for good measure, took a silver medal also in the 5000m.

Part Two follows tomorrow...