Berhane Adere wins the 10,000m final in Paris (© Getty Images)
Dortmund, GermanyTrying much the same formula as she did during her 5000m World indoor record last weekend in Stuttgart, Berhane Adere yesterday found that a long stage of front-running doesn’t always succeed.
At the 10th Sparkassen Meeting in Dortmund on Wednesday night (4 Feb), the Ethiopian attacked her own 3000 metres record, but the 8:33.05 clocking which resulted fell almost four seconds short of the 8:29.15 time she posted two years ago. Nonetheless Adere’s time was the fifth-fastest performance ever, of which she owns four!
Dutch 800 metres runner Stella Jongmans set a good pace for Adere, but the Ethiopian was left alone even before the end of the first kilometre (2:49.47). Had the second pacemaker - Alesya Turova of Belarus - not mysteriously abdicated from the race, Adere quite likely would have scored her double.
Clearly, she had the physical condition to accomplish the task. Tonight, her time at 2000 was 5:39.4, more than two seconds ahead of her pace during the record run. But during the twelfth of the fifteen laps, her speed began to sag, and by the 2400 she was even with her pace from 2002.
While Adere was warming down outside the hall (pleasant evening temperatures were as high as 16C even as late as 23:00), her coach and manager, Volker Wagner, offered some explanations for her relatively disappointing run.
“The extra wait of four days after Stuttgart gave Berhane time to recover, of course, but it took her just a little further away from her altitude preparation, which was so crucial in the Stuttgart race,” he pointed out.
“And what ever happened to Turova? This was a key element tonight. Berhane needed someone to push through to about 1600.”
Adere returns to Ethiopia on Thursday, but the exact structure of her training the next four weeks is still undecided. “She would like to try again for the record in two weeks in Birmingham, before going to Budapest. Until now, we have not received any confirmation from the management there. She is definitely in shape to break the record. But we need to know Birmingham’s intentions soon in order to plan her short-term training,” Wagner concluded.
Borzakovskiy opens with 1:45.92
In the men’s 800, Yuriy Borzakovskiy found a way to turn a disastrously slow opening 400 of 53.8 into a very respectable 1:45.92 clocking with a rare example of negative splits in the four-lap race.
Pacemaker Roman Oravec had taken the field through the first half in just over 52 seconds, but the Russian seemed more content to stay close to Germany’s René Herms, who was at times about twelve metres behind the designated temposetter from the Czech Republic.
As the bell sounded, Borzakovskiy (1:20.8) sped away from the German and smoothly powered his way to a winning margin of more than two seconds over South African Hezekiel Sepeng at 1:48.03, as Herms faded at the end to third with 1:48.13.
“I was about seventy percent satisfied with this race,” said the ever smiling Muscovite. “But thirty percent remained in reserve,” he added, indicating that perhaps a faster time would have been more to his liking. “Overall, however, I’m pleased with my first indoor race of the year.”
Ceplak unchallenged
The women’s 800 race was also not as fast as might have been anticipated, especially after Jolanda Ceplak’s season-opening 1:59.25 six days ago. The World Record holder moved through the first 400 in 58.73 as the pacemaker departed. But the Slovenian was not able to keep up that tempo and instead settled back for an unchallenged win in 2:00.65, more than a second ahead of Svetlana Cherkasova of Russia (2:01.96).
“I’m happy I won,” Ceplak said afterwards, “but unfortunately the time isn’t as good as I had expected.”
Feofanova and Gibilisco breeze to victory
World Champions highlighted the competition fields in both of the Pole Vaults. And it was Russia’s Svetlana Feofanova who again ruled in the women’s event with a 4.75 clearance before missing three times at a new World Record of 4.81. All of this came after a near-catastrophe at her opening 4.40, which required three attempts.
“She was on a new Spirit pole, but she was afraid of it,” analyzed her coach, former Soviet vaulting standout Yevgeniy Bondarenko. “Tonight, she was holding at 4.45, the highest she’s ever held. But the new pole is too stiff.”
Although Feofanova weighed in today at a very svelt 50 kilograms, the new pole is rated for a vaulter weighing 73 kilograms.
“After she’s jumped twenty or thirty times on the pole, it will loosen up for her,” Bondarenko said confidently. Her next competition is Sergey Bubka’s Vaulting Stars competition in Donetsk on 15 February.
Keeping pressure on Feofanova for most of the evening was Germany’s Annika Becker, whose 4.68 in second place was a new German record.
The men’s Pole Vault ended abruptly as Paris champion Giuseppe Gibilisco breezed over 5.71 on his third attempt to break a tie with second-place Tim Lobinger at 5.61, and then declined to jump further.
“This runway is too hard for my jumping,” said the Italian later. “It’s not what I like. Perhaps it would have been possible to jump 5.80 tonight, but 5.71 was good enough to win”, as well as to tie his own national indoor record.
Daniela Rath of Germany ran her undefeated High Jump string to three with a workaday 1.95 performance before ending the evening with two respectable but unsuccessful tries at a would-be personal best of 2.01.
German hurdler Juliane Sprenger continued to lower personal bests in the 60 Metres Hurdles, dipping under eight seconds for the first time in her career with a 7.96 in the heats before winning the final in 7.94. Coming into the season, her best had been 8.06.
“In this hall, I really feel good,” she explained. “I train here, and always run really good times.”
The 26-year-old also revealed that her decision to compete was a last-minute one, due to minor sickness after the Stuttgart competition. “We (she and her trainer) decided to make the decision after I had warmed up. I certainly never would have expected two times under eight seconds.”
Garcia – Hamstring problems
The men’s hurdle race was distinguished more by who did not run than by who did.
Cubans Anier Garcia and Yoel Hernández each won their heats in easy 7.71 times, but Olympic Champion Garcia bypassed the final. “Three days ago in Spain, he strained a hamstring,” explained his coach. “It’s nothing serious, but there’s no reason to put pressure on it tonight.” Garcia’s next race will be in Karlsruhe on 15 February.
In Garcia’s absence, it should have been Hernández’s race to win. But the Cuban clipped the final hurdle slightly, and was running off-balance at the end, allowing Thomas Blaschek of Germany to slip through with a 7.76 victory. Hernández ended up all the way back in sixth with 7.79 in an extremely even blanket finish.
The Rockmeier twins each won a section of the Women’s 200 metres. Birgit took the opening race in 23.72 before Gabi stormed to a 23.14 win in the second section less than an hour after her 7.25 victory in the Women’s 60 metres. Fredy Mayola of Cuba took the men’s 60 in 6.59.
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