Ursula Kaiser for IAAF
4 March 2001 – Sindelfingen, Germany -With less than a week to go to the World Indoor Championships, which start in Lisbon on 9 March, a lot of athletes cancelled their start in Sindelfingen, but this notwithstanding, some very good results were reached.
The former indoor-world champion, Tatyana Kotova from Russia won the women’s long jump with 6.84m, beating Olympic Champion Heike Drechsler into second place. The 36-year old had problems coming into the competition, but at her last attempt she reached 6.61m and was quite satisfied with the result. "I wanted to jump better of course, but I will start in any case in Lisbon. Either it is working with a medal or not", she said.
Jolanda Ceplak from Slovenia produced a strong performance in the 800m race. She won in 1:59.81, ahead of Natalia Cerkasova from Russia in 2:01.16.
Ionela Tirlea (ROM) won the women’s 400m in 52.64 sec.
Mark Caroll from Ireland won the men’s 1500m 3:40.42, while Olga Jegorova (Russia) set in 4:05.74 a new meeting record in the women’s event.
A big surprise happened in the pole vault, with 21-year-old Lars Börgeling from Cologne clearing 5.80 m to win the event. Second was Indoor European Champion Tim Lobinger who cleared 5.75m.
Young German sprint-talent Tim Goebel was 19 on Sunday and celebrated his birthday in a special way - he won the 60 m in 6.59. Second was Konstantin Rurak (Ukraine 6.65), with Fredy Mayola from Kuba taking third place with 6.67 sec. "Now I am looking forward to Lisbon", the youngster said after the race.
In the women’s 60m race, the fastest sprinter was Sevatheda Fynes (BAH) in 7.16.
The 60 m hurdles were a Cuban affair. The men’s race was won by the former World Junior Champion, Jumiel Herndandez in 7.56, the fastest athlete in the women’s event was the young Yaumra Neyra in a very good time of 7.98.
In the women’s pole vault three athletes cleared 4.40 m - the winner was Pavla Hamackova, second was Yvonne Buschbaum who said after the competition: I can’t see 4.40m anymore, I want to clear 4.50m in Lisbon. The third woman over 4.40 m was Tatyana Koleva who set a new Bulgarian record.
The men’s long jump produced some good results. Australian Peter Burge landed at 8.11m. In second place came Peter Häggström from Sweden with 8.05m.
Benjamin Kipkurui from Kenya won the 800m in 1:46.34. Gabi Rockmeier ran the second fastest time this year in the world in the 200 m with 23.01.
Full Results on: www.steeple.de
