Dear Readers, It is 2.45 am in Birmingham and I am just coming down from one of the best meets I have ever seen. The two mile best by Kenenisa Bekele was sixteen laps of hard running, with the record having to be hard fought over the last 200 meters! In speaking to Kenenisa and his adivsor Jos Hermans, afterwards, it was obvious that this was a superb effort.
Susanna Kallur is in her own world. By the third hurdle, Kallur is so far ahead, so technically superior that the race was over!
Yelena Isinbaeyva set a new world record today in Donetsk, Ukraine as well, to cap off a wonderful day of athletics.
I will provide an event by event story on Birmingham on Sunday, right now, I am trying to find out if I will be going home to Chicago on Sunday, as snow and ice are on the way. A hard winter, and a great season of indoor track and field!
WORLD RECORD FOR ISINBAYEVA IN DONETSK, 2 MILE WORLD BEST FOR BEKELE IN BIRMINGHAM
by Bob Ramsak
(c) 2008 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved
The IAAF is reporting that Yelena Isinbayeva improved her own world indoor record in the pole vault to 4.95m (16-2 3/4) today at the Pole Vault Stars meet in Donetsk, Ukraine.
The 25-year-old Russian added two centimeters to the mark she set at this same competition one year ago, and it was the third consecutive year that Isinbayeva broke the world record at the competition, organized by men’s pole vault world record holder Sergey Bubka.
At the Norwich Union Grand Prix in Birmingham, England, today, Kenenisa Bekele set a new world best over 2 miles clocking 8:04.35.
His performance knocked 0.34 seconds from the previous mark of 8:04.69 set by his compatriot Haile Gebrselassie in 2003 on the same track at the National Indoor Arena. Bekele, the world record holder outdoors in the 5000 and 10,000m, now owns the world record or world best indoors at 2000m, 2 miles and 5000m. Only Daniel Komen’s indoor mark of 7:24.90 in the 3000m, considered the strongest of indoor world records on the track, has eluded the 25-year-old Ethiopian.
Other notable performances in Birmingham included a 7.75 victory in the women’s 60m hurdles by Sweden’s world record holder Susanna Kallur, her fifth win of the season in as many outings. Tyler Christopher set a Canadian record of 45.80 in the 400m in his 2008 debut over the distance and Jaysuma Saidi Ndure won the 60m in 6.56, a Norwegian national record.
ENDS
