Fine hurdling and good throws in Kassel

Kassel, GermanyThe women’s hurdle races and the two throwing events were the highlights of the 10th Askina Meeting in Kassel on Wednesday evening (6).

In fine weather conditions Sandra Glover (USA) first took the women’s 400m Hurdles in 54.59 seconds and then Canada’s Angela Whyte stormed to a 12.81 in the 100m Hurdles. While the women’s events over all produced better results than the men’s Germany’s Peter Sack confirmed his fine form in Kassel. He took the Shot Put with a meeting record of 20.65m.

Meet record for fast improving Glover

World bronze medallist Sandra Glover collected another German meeting record. After running 55.48 seconds in Dessau last Friday (1) she improved to 54.59 in Kassel. With that time she was well ahead of Andrea Blackett (Barbados/56.10) and Erika Märtensson (Sweden/56.54).

It had been Blackett who had started fast and took the lead for the first half of the race. But once the runners on this six lane 400m track entered the home straight Glover was well ahead. And there was no stopping her on her way to a meeting record. Germany’s Claudia Marx, who due to an injury was not yet able to compete this season, had been the record holder with 55.59 from 2005.

“I try to set a mark where ever I am running. And I am happy to have broken two meeting records now”, Sandra Glover said. “Though I have not been to Kassel before I generally try to do early meetings in the season in Germany, because I need to get race sharpness. My condition is fine, I just need the races”, the 38 year-old.

Glover will now head for the meeting in Bydgoszcz, Poland on Sunday (10). After that she will return to the US for the trials. “But I will be back for more meetings after that. The first one will be Ostrava.” The first main goal obviously is to make the US team for the World Championships.

“It will then be my aim to medal in Osaka,” Glover said, adding: “Since I already have a bronze and a silver the one missing is the gold – that is what I am going for.” In 2003 she had won a silver and two years ago a bronze medal. It was that race in Helsinki in 2005 where she achieved her personal best of 53.32.

Whyte storms away to 12.81

In the 100m Hurdles final Angela Whyte missed Kirsten Bolm’s high-class meeting record from last year by just two hundredth of a second. While the German was not in the race the Canadian stormed away from the field, clocking 12.81 seconds with a slightly helpful wind of 0.5 m/s. Danielle Carruthers (USA) took second with 12.99 while Carolin Nytra of Germany was well behind in third place in 13.34.

“That was not bad, but I hope to further improve,” said Whyte who will have her next race in Stavanger (Norway) before turning to the opening meeting of the IAAF Golden League in Oslo, on Friday (15) next week. “Then I will put in some good training before our nationals in mid July so that hopefully I will be able to break my personal best.” That stands at 12.69 seconds. Achieving nomination for Osaka should be no hurdle for Angela Whyte at the national championships.

Ceplak works hard but misses sub-2 target

Jolanda Ceplak put in a fine performance though she missed the targeted time of sub 2:00 minutes. German pacemaker Meike Flore guided the Slovenian through 400 metres in about 59 seconds before dropping out. Then Ceplak had to do the work at front all alone. She won the race in 2:01.53 minutes. While Juliana dos Santos (Brasil) took second in 2:02.30, Germany’s Monika Gradzki was third with 2:02.63.

Obergföll beats Nerius

With a great last throw Christina Obergföll snatched victory in the javelin from her national rival Steffi Nerius. It was the European champion Nerius who had taken the lead in this competition with a throw of 64.11m in round two. While with the exception of a 63.32m in the third round all other throws of Nerius were shown the red flag her German rival came back strong in the last round. After a series of 56.77 – 57.92 – 61.12 – x and x she achieved 65.08 in her final attempt.

High hopes

The only foreign athlete in the competition took the women’s Pole Vault. Yulia Golupchikova, Russia’s silver medallist from the European Indoors this March, cleared 4.51m at her first attempt. That was enough because Carolin Hingst jumped that height only at her second attempt. Julia Hütter was third with 4.46m while Silke Spiegelburg took fourth with the same height. All four missed 4.56m but there was some consolation for the Germans since the three of them all beat the qualification mark for Osaka.

There originally were higher hopes in the men’s Pole Vault as well. This produced quite a surprise since the German only competion was won by Alexander Straub with 5.62m. Danny Ecker and Tim Lobinger followed with the same height, but Straub had taken it at his first attempt. An inflamed tendon in his hand was still causing problems to Ecker, who had missed out recent meetings because of this problem. “I am now having a two week break before my next competition in Cottbus. Hopefully it will be better by then”, the European Indoor Champion said.

In the 110m Hurdles final, Thomas Blaschek produced a false start. “I was gambling a bit, hoping that I would get the perfect start”. He then had to settle for third place with 13.52. Robby Hughes (USA) was the winner in 13.41, while Gregory Sedoc (Netherlands) took second with 13.51. Still in his second race Blaschek has achieved the Osaka standard again, which is what the German federations had asked for.

Sack remains in the groove

Another one to achieve that was Peter Sack, who took the Shot Put with a meeting record of 20.65 metres (former record holder was Oliver-Sven Buder with 20.37 from 1998). Three days after setting a great personal best of 20.92m he confirmed his fine early season form. Additionally he beat his national rival Ralf Bartels (20.36). Poland’s Tomasz Majewski (20.10) took third.

 “Having achieved a personal best in the first competition of the season obviously it was very important for me to confirm this form in the next meeting. So I am very happy with my result, commented Sack.

He should not have any problems in qualifying for Osaka now.

“It will then be my aim to reach a final which did not work on three occasions in the past – the Olympics, the European Indoors in Madrid and the World Indoors in Moscow.” Naturally the 21 metres will also be a target for Sack. “Obviously I want to improve further.”

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF