Yoandri Betanzos (CUB), jumps to World silver in Paris (© Getty Images)
A number of top international athletes have travelled to the Hungarian capital for the Open Hungarian Indoor Championships to test the new track and the arena, which will serve as the home for the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics at the end of next week (5 – 7 March).
The venue was only completed a year ago and made its debut for athletics events on Monday, by staging the first half of the two-day event. Both former and future stars took to the track to get a feeling for what it might be like in ten days’ time on the track whose construction has been driven by 1976 Olympic javelin throw champion Miklós Németh.
The battle of the young titans
The men’s Triple Jump had the most start studded field of the day, where 1997 World outdoor champion Yoelvis Quesada of Cuba was joined by compatriot Yoandri Betanzos and David Giralt, all finalists last summer in Paris. The trio had to face strong opposition from Romania’s Marian Oprea and Dmitriy Valyukevich of the Belarus.
It was the two young eastern Europeans who tied for the lead with 16.74m at the end of the opening round with two of the Cubans scratching and Quesada only managing 15.97m. The former world number one would not go much further in the afternoon and had to settle for 5th place eventually with 16.39m.
By the end of the second round Oprea went over 17m and took the lead with 17.07m while the Cuban trio had a hard time finding the board. The 22-year-old Valyukevich jumped 16.94m in the second round, which would be his best jump of the day placing him third in the end.
Betanzos – the silver medallist from Paris last summer – improved steadily and stole the show with his last round jump, beating Oprea by just a centimetre. 17.08m was the winning distance on Monday, with Oprea second and Valyukevich in third. Péter Tölgyesi was the best Hungarian, winning the national title by finishing seventh in the competition with 16.31m, a new season’s best and just 5cm off his personal best.
Future stars
While Yoelvis Quesada already has quite a career to look back on, others in the Budapest Sportarena on Monday included stars of the future. Ali Abubakr Nagmeldin of Sudan is the reigning World Youth 400m champion from Sherbrooke. Nagmeldin turned 18 years old on Sunday, and celebrated his birthday by running only the second indoor meet of his life and setting new national and national junior records. The young talent won in Budapest with 47.16 comfortably ahead of Hungary’s Zsolt Szeglet with 47.75.
Liu Xiang poses his intent
Another young talent who showed no mercy towards the hosts is Liu Xiang. The Chinese hurdler cruised through his heat and won the final in 7.57, well clear of Hungarian champion Gergely Palagyi in second with 7.78. Last week Xiang equalled his area record (set last year) and looks determined to add to his collection of medals from Birmingham and Paris last year where he won bronze both times. Palagyi defended his title from last year and ran a season’s best, just 0.01seconds outside of his personal best.
Hungarian hopes
One of Hungary’s medal hopes for the upcoming World Indoor Championships is in the men’s Shot Put. Zsolt Bíber has been busy breaking his own national records this season (20.81m PB) and with only three people throwing farther than him so far this year, Biber can be confident. On Monday there was no real opposition for the 27-year-old, and with only two valid throws and a mark of 20.34m, Biber defended his crown.
Organizers expected Hungarian High Jump record holder Dora Gyorffy to be fit for the championships and invited quite an opposition for her. Gyorffy is suffering from a strained calf muscle early in the season and is still doubtful for the World Indoors. In her absence Blanka Vlasic cleared all her heights up to 1.95m, then failed to clear 2.00m. Nevertheless it was enough for the win. The Croatian record holder should have battled Venelina Veneva, but the Bulgarian pulled out just before the competition.
Eniko Szabo defended her title in the women’s 60m dash with 7.45, while Bulgaria’s Mariana Dimitrova took the honours in the women’s 400m with 53.95. Dimitrova’s compatriot, Antonia Yordanova won the women’s Long Jump in 6.65m, ahead of Zita Ajkler’s 6.45m.
In the second day of the championships the arena can expect an even higher-level competition as Slovenia’s World indoor record holder Jolanda Ceplak will run against Hungary’s Judit Varga in the women’s 800m, Freddy Mayola and Kareem Streete-Thompson will try and steal the show from home crowd favorites Gábor Dobos and Roland Németh in the 60m dash, and Marcin Jedrusinski and Joseph Batangdon will fight it out in the 200m at the end of the day.
