Adam Nelson in action (© Sean Wallace-Jones)
After a very special start with the shot put competition on the island of Gorée on Friday, the IAAF Grand Prix Meeting of Dakar played to a full house in the Leopold Senghor stadium on the mainland on Saturday evening.
With the shot put taking place in two legs and the final results coming from the aggregate of the two competitions, the reigning World champion Adam Nelson clinched the honours with a first round throw of 21.28 metres on Gorée giving him the edge over his compatriot and the World Indoor champion, Reese Hoffa, who managed a best effort of 20.81 with his third throw.
This was undoubtedly the star event of the competition, given the participation of the two world champions and also the symbolic setting of the first part of the competition on the island of Gorée, the ‘staging point’ for a large part of the slave trade out of Africa for over three hundred years.
The third place in the competition went to Anton Lyuboslavskiy from Russia with 19.75 metres.
The crowd on Gorée was a drop in the ocean compared to the affluence in the stadium in Dakar, but the setting was something very, very special. “This was certainly one of the most unusual competition venues I have ever been,” said Adam Nelson, “the people, history and the venue itself are certainly extremely memorable..
“”I adore competing in small venues like that, it allows the fans to really appreciate what we do as athletes, it allows us to interact with them, it is more exciting for us and that can help us produce better results too, I think.”
For Reese Hoffa: “it is absolutely gorgeous, the ocean was an amazing setting for the shot put and I love the fans. They definitely made it worthwhile coming out here and throwing.
“It has been absolutely moving”, he added, speaking of the visit to the Maison des Esclaves, the house where the slaves were held before being shipped off to their ‘owners’ around the world. “I had no idea, he continued, “and I am glad that I had the opportunity to come out here and see and I am going to go back and tell my wife and everybody about the experience.
“In a stadium you kind of get lost with the rest of the competitions, here you are the centre of attention. It’s a lot more fun.”
In the stadium, In the men’s sprints, Ghana’s Aziz Zakari’s bid to double came to naught as he was beaten in both the 100m and 200m. In the 100m race, it was Nigeria’s in-form Emedolu Uchenna who was first across the line, holding off a closing Zakari to finish in a time of 10.26 to the Ghanaian’s 10.33, with Joshua Norman of the USA a close third in 10.40.
In the half lap race, Zakari had to settle for fourth place with Gambia’s Jaysuma Saidy Ndure winning the photo from Sherwin Vries of South Africa, with both athletes finishing in an official 20.89. Netherlands’ Caimin Douglas was third in 21.22.
The one lap race was settled in the closing metres and it was Sudan’s Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr who took the highest place on the podium with his 46.14 win over Nigerian James Goddy in 46.41, with Young Talkmore Nyongani from Zimbabwe third in 46.54, as Abubakr pulled ahead just over 20 metres from the finish line.
In the 110 metre hurdles, USA’s David Oliver won the day in 13.60, coming off the final hurdle just ahead of Brazil’s Anselmo Da Silva and South Africa’s Frikkie Van Zyl, who finished, respectively in 13.75 and 13.84.
A slow-paced 400 metres hurdles was won by Mali’s Ibrahim Maiga in 50.15.
In the 800 metres, Cosmas Rono from Kenya took over the running in the early stages and despite some place switching as the leaders accelerated after the bell, he was able to take the lead coming off the final bend into the home straight, winning the final sprint from Botswana’s Glody Dube, with his compatriot Suleiman Simotwo taking third place.
Rono finished in 1:47.69, after taking the field through 400 metres in 52.92, Dube clocked 1:47.94 and Simotwo 1:48.00.
There was another Kenyan win in the 3000 metres, with Shadrack Korir a clear winner in 7:49.25 ahead of Brunei’s Tareq Mubarak Thaer in 7:50.31. Korir stands as the fastest over the distance in this early stage of the season.
In the men’s field events, other than the Shot Put, there was a creditable performance by Algerian Issan Nima in the Long Jump, as he closed his competition with a final round effort of 8.15, winning the competition with just 3 centimetres separating the podium. Yahya Berrabah of Morocco placed second with his final round 8.13 and Italy’s Nicola Trentin pulled out the stops with his final jump to take third place with 8.12.
With a last-minute withdrawal by Germany’s Tim Lobinger, Okkert Britts was favourite in the line-up for the men’s Pole Vault, but the South African was far off his best form and pulled out after failing to clear his opening height of 5.40.
The competition went to Germany’s Fabian Schulze 5.50 after his compatriot Lars Borgeling had three failures at this height. Schulze went on to attempt his personal best of 5.71, but was unable to clear the bar. Slovenian Jurij Rovan was third with his best clearance of 5.30.
Doubling up in the women’s sprints, Cameroun’s Delphine Atangana had more success than Zakari in the men’s races. She won the 100 in 11.34 from Ivory Coast’s Amandine Allou in 11.50 and Ghana’s Vida Anim in 11.51.
Antangana then went on to take second place in the women’s 200, narrowly beaten to the line by Benin’s Fabienne Feraez, with Vida Anim third again. Feraez was timed at 23.43, to Atangana’s 23.48 and Anim’s 23.51.
As in the men’s race, the pace was slowish in the women’s one lap race as the high humidity – 71% - took its toll. Christy Ekpukhon from Nigeria won in 53.05 from Botswana’s 54.09 and Romania’s Angela Morosanu in 54.17 after a slow start from all of the field.
Mihaela Stancescu Neascu broke away from the rest of the field 200 metres out to win the women’s 800 metre race in 2:02.89, finishing well clear of Kenyan’s Faith Macharia and Caroline Chepkwony, who came home, respectively in 2:05.08 and 2:07.44.
Romania’s Adelina Gavrila clinched victory in the Triple Jump with her first jump of 14.16 metres. Second place went to Belarusian Natalia Safronova with 13.96, just 6 centimetres better than Slovakia’s Dana Veldakova.
The final event for the women saw Denmark’s Christina Scherwing victorious in the Javelin Throw with her second round effort of 61.4 metres. Scherwing beat Romanian Felicia Tilea-Moldovan, who threw 58.52 metres with her second attempt, before fouling her last two throws. Italy’s Zhara Bani tok the lowest step of the podium with her third throw of 57.66.
Although the early season performances might appear a little disappointing, what really marked this first meeting in Africa to be given the status of IAAF Grand Prix was the amazing atmosphere in the stadium. Packed to capacity the enthusiasm of the crowd was pure energy.
As Adrian Schulze said after his competition: “I have competed in front of big crowds in the IAAF Golden League meeting in Berlin, but this is something else! The support of the crowd is just fantastic.”
Sean Wallace-Jones for the IAAF
