Zulia Calatayud after her 800m victory in Berlin (© Getty Images)
World 800m champion Zulya Calatayud of Cuba was the star of the 42nd edition of the Palio della Quercia EAA meeting, the oldest such event in the Italian calendar, which was held yesterday (30) evening in cool conditions which did not favour good results.
Calatayud, notched up a convincing win in 2:00.78 beating former European champion Jolanda Ceplak who showed a good return to form finishing second in 2:01.20. Marilyn Okoro was third in 2:01.26.
“I am a bit disappointed with the final time but it was cool today,” confirmed Calatayud. “But sometimes the time is not so important. The weather conditions were not ideal but it did not bother me. I have to get used to any kind of weather conditions. I am happy with my seasonal best 1:56.91 set in Lausanne but I want to set more ambitious goals for the next races. I have three more competitions: Padua on Friday, the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart and the World Cup in Athens.”
But in reality there were two women's 800m stars, as in the "B" race Lucia Klocova from Slovakia achieved exactly the same time of 2:00.78, which means there were two equal winners overall last night.
Brew is followed home by Barberi
The main Italian interest was focused on Andrea Barberi who improved Mauro Zuliani’s 25-year-old Italian 400m record with 45.19 in Rieti on Sunday. Barberi did not disappoint producing another solid performance with his second place in 46.09 behind Olympic bronze medallist Derrick Brew who dipped under 46 seconds with 45.98. Britain’s Martyn Rooney, World Junior bronze medallist ended up in third place in 46.28.
“Today it was too humid,” said Barberi. “I had a great season crowned by a good fifth place in the European Championships final in Gothenburg. It was a great feeling to break the Italian record in front of my fans in Rieti. I will run a leg in the 4x400m European team in the World Cup in Athens. It is a big honour for me because only a few italians have competed in this event in the past.”
Ali Bilal Mansour from Bahrain, stormed to a easy win in the 800 metres in 1:45.27. Italian Andrea Longo, clocked 1:46.27 to finish third in 1:46.37 behind Joseph Mutua (1:46.17).
Japanese record holder Daichi Sawano cleared 5.70m on the first attempt to win the men’s Pole Vault beating South Africa’s Okkert Brits by 10 centimetes. Sawano failed at 5.84m a height which would have broken the meeting record (5.81m) set by Giuseppe Gibilisco in 2005.
Cumba beats the Europeans
Victory in the women’s Shot Put went to reigning Olympic champion Yumileidi Cumba who produced a solid series highlighted by a best of 19.08m backed up by three solid releases of 18.93m and 18.78m and 18.77m. This year’s European champion Natalya Khoronenko, who had been leading until the third round clinched second place with 18.85m. Assunta Legnante, fifth placer in the European Championships in Gothenburg, was just four centimetres behind in third ahead of German Petra Lammert (18.67) and Cuban Mysleidis Gonzales (18.61).
In the men’s 400m Hurdles US Derrick Williams was the easy winner in 48.96 seconds, with Gianni Carabelli, Italy’s European championships finalist, improving his seasonal best to 49.15 in second place.
Fine 3000m win
Kenyan Vivian Cheruyot took the win in the women’s 3000 metres in 8:45.34 not far from the meeting record set by Russian Maryia Pantyukhova (8:44.78). Cheruyot kicked away from compatriot Jane Wanjiku (8:45.97) and Nouira Fernandez (8:46.20) in the final straight. Local favourite Silvia Weissteiner, set her PB with 8:50.35 climbing into the Italian all-time top ten list.
Bado Worku from Ethiopia prevailed over Qatari Sultan Khamis in a very close battle into the finishing straight of the men’s 5000 metres: 13:20.94 to 13:21.06.
Naimova already challenging at senior level
Cydonie Mothershill from the Cayman Islands clinched the victory in the women’s 200 metres with 22.88 seconds beating the young Bulgarian star Tezdzhan Naimova, the new double World Junior champion in the 100 and the 200 metres, who ran 23.42 in her first outing after Beijing.
Last year’s World Athletics Final 200 metres runner-up Chris Williams sprinted to victory in the men’s 100 metres in 10.32, five hundredths of a second faster than Deji Aliu from Nigeria.
European championships fourth placer Claudia Marx from Germany ran 55.67, a time which beat Anastasya Rabchenyuk (55.91) and Sandra Glover (55.92) in the women’s 400 metres Hurdles.
Sonia Bisset from Cuba secured victory in the women’s Javelin Throw spearing 61.91m to beat Russian Oxsana Gromova (59.31) and Italian World and European championships finalist Zhara Bani (56.12). In the men’s javelin throw, Leigh Smith of the USA won with 82.33m over german Peter Esenwein (81.65), while 90.43 metres performer Vadims Vasilevskis from Latvia was third (81.32).
Natalya Safronova leapt to victory in the women’s Triple Jump with 14.21m.
Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF
