David Gillick breasts the tape in the men's 400m in Birmingham (© Getty Images)
Three world leading marks were set at the PSD Bank Meeting in Düsseldorf on Friday (13). In front of a capacity crowd of about 2000 spectators there were a number of more good results at the fourth edition of this event.
Ireland’s David Gillick produced a fine race in the 400m. Taking the lead from the start he had an advantage of a couple of metres after the first lap. Never really challenged the Irishman held on and clocked 46.18 seconds, a world lead for the 25-year-old. Italy’s Claudio Licciardello took second with 46.57.
“It was my first race this season. So I just wanted to go for it and did not think about times,” Gillick said. While he stressed that his focus is already directed towards the summer and the World Championships in Berlin, he might still decide to compete at the European Indoor Championships in Torino in three weeks time.
“I will give this serious thought with my coach now, since 46.18 is quite impressive for a start. Perhaps I could have gone sub 46 with tougher a competition,” said Gillick, who so far had not planned any other indoor starts.
Blanton, Sturrup take 60m races
There were fine results in the 60m sprints as well. In the men’s final DaBryan Blanton (USA) could just hold off a late challenge by his fellow countryman Mark Jelks. Both were timed at 6.59 with Rae Edwards (USA) taking third with 6.62.
Chandra Sturrup (Bahamas) tied the world lead and the meeting record with a time of 7.17 in the women’s final, beating Tahesia Harrigan (British Virgin Islands/7.21) and World indoor champion Angela Williams (USA/7.22). Williams had established the meeting record of 7.17 a year ago. In a very close race for second and third Mechelle Lewis (USA) had to be content with a fourth place in 7.23.
“For a long time this finally is an indoor season during which I only had to deal with minor injury problems,” Sturrup said. “I had trained well, so I knew that I was able to run such a time. I threw myself into the finish, hoping that it would be enough to break the meeting record.”
Sturrup plans to run the Birmingham indoor meeting next weekend and then will concentrate on preparing for the summer season. “It is my big dream to win the World Championships’ gold in Berlin.”
60m Hurdles: Sands’ momentum continues, Jones takes a tumble
There was another convinving winner from the Bahamas in Düsseldorf: Shamar Sands. While the Olympic Champion Dayron Robles watched the race from the stands after he had to cancel further indoor starts due to injury, Sands took the 60m Hurdles in 7.50. In the first round he had clocked 7.51. Gregory Sedoc (Netherlands), who had already looked promising in his heat when equalling his personal best with 7.52, was close behind in second with 7.54. Dexter Faulk (USA) finished third in 7.58 seconds.
Lolo Jones had no luck in Düsseldorf on Friday night. First of all, the World indoor champion stumbled in her heat and finished only fourth in 8.19, but still enough to qualify for the final. There, it only got worse for the American. At the third hurdle her race was over when she tumbled to the ground. At least it appeared as though she avoided any major injury. So Karlsruhe on Sunday should give her the possibility to put things back in order.
With Jones on the floor her fellow-countrywoman Yvette Lewis went on to win in a photo finish. The first four were separated by just 0.01 seconds. Lewis and second placed Christina Vukicevic (Norway) clocked 8.06 while Lucie Skrobakova (Czech Republic) and Anay Tejeda (Cuba) followed in third and fourth places with 8.07.
Elsewhere...
There were notable results in two more women’s events: Tetyana Petlyuk took the 600m with a convincing run in 1:26.87 minutes from Zoya Nesterenko-Hladun (both Ukraine/1:28.52) and Yargelis Savigne (Cuba) won the Triple Jump with a 14.62m leap. Here Marija Sestak (Slovenia) was second with 14.50m.
The third world-leading mark came in the men’s 5000m*. After pacemaker Bonface Kirui had led the leading group through 3000 m in 8:05.12 the tempo dropped slightly. The leaders reached the 4000 m mark in 10:52.93 before the pace was picked up strongly in the last part of the race with three runners remaining in contention for victory. In the end former Kenyan James Kwalia (Qatar) had the best speed, winning in 13:25.69 from his fellow countryman Essa Ismail Rashed (13:26.34) and Kenya’s Robert Sigei (13:27.33). “I did not really expect to win because I prefer to run the 3000 metres,” said Kwalia.
Olympic 800m silver medallist Ismail Ahmed Ismail won his specialty for the second time in as many races this winter, clocking 1:46.76, winning comfortably over Kenyan Boaz Lalang (1:47.24) and Yuriy Borzakovskiy (1:47.29).
In the men’s Pole Vault it was once more young German Tobias Scherbarth who upset his more prominent fellow countrymen. Scherbarth was the only one clearing 5.70m. Alexander Straub, Malte Mohr and Jeremy Scott (USA) took the next places, all with 5.60m. Danny Ecker was fifth with 5.50m.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
* Later on Friday Bekana Daba of Ethiopia clocked 13:17.89 at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
