ATHLETICS GOLDEN LEAGUE: THEY CALL it the one-day Olympics and the Zurich Weltklasse once again lived up to its billing last night.
The men’s 400 metres was just one of a series of reruns of last week’s World Championships finals in Berlin, and David Gillick surpassed his sixth-place finish on that occasion by posting an excellent fourth – just behind the three medallists from Berlin.
Running in lane two, just like he did in Berlin, Gillick found himself trailing a little off the final bend, but then closed like an express train to get up for fourth, his time another impressive 45.25 seconds.
World champion LaShawn Merritt of the US took the win again in 44.21, clear of his team-mate Jeremy Wariner, who ran 44.62, while Reny Quow of Trinidad was third in 44.77.
Gillick had the satisfaction of beating the other two Americans, Angelo Taylor and Kerron Clement, and also Chris Brown of the Bahamas, who had got the better of him in Berlin, and fourth place in a Golden League meeting is another performance that underlines Gillick’s status as a truly world-class 400-metre runner.
Derval O’Rourke had a slightly harder time trying to repeat her superb fourth place in Berlin in the 100 metre hurdles. She faced off against most of the finalists from Berlin, and still ran well again to finish seventh in 12.97 seconds, although some ways off the Irish record of 12.67 seconds she ran to claim fourth in Berlin.
Victory here once again went to the Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton, who just got the better of Dawn Harper of the US in an excellent 12.46 seconds.
All 34,000 seats at the Letzigrund Stadium had sold out weeks ago, and there was no denying the man most had come to see was Usain Bolt.
Looking a little tired from his world record exploits in Berlin, the big Jamaican still delighted the crowd with a cool 9.81 seconds, although he was made work for it by his team-mate Asafa Powell, who finished relatively a close second in 9.88, with the American Darvis Patton third in 9.95.
The Weltklasse – which translates as “world class” – has been the scene of 24 world records since 1928, and got another last night when Yelena Isinbayeva improved her own pole vault mark to an amazing 5.06 metres, with apparent ease.
This went some way towards making up for her no height in Berlin, and also kept her in the hunt for the Golden League $1 million jackpot, with two others, with only Brussels next Friday to go.
America’s Sanya Richards also kept herself in the hunt with a superb win in the 400 metres in 48.94 seconds, although Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart lost out on her chance when only taking second in the 100 metres in 11.04, victory there going to the American Carmelita Jetter in 10.86.
Finally, Kenenisa Bekele made sure he too will go to Brussels chasing the big money with a convincing win in the 5,000 metres in 12:52.33, the fastest time in the world this year. The only big surprise was seeing American Dathan Ritzhehein take third in a national record 12:56.27. Amazing.
