Ryan Whiting, Men’s Shot Put Final, photo by PhotoRun.net

Alfons Juck of EME News provides his session by session analysis of the news most of us love, but have absolutely no clue how to procure it. Lots of things going on Friday night, March 7, 2014.

SOPOT – SESSION 2 (Friday Evening)

QUOTE OF THE DAY

â€žI did not even realise that something happened. I just found myself on the ground,” Denisa Rosolova after not finishing the 400 m semifinal.

â€žI am looking forward to beating him at the next World Indoors. Tonight, I will have a party and celebrate with some friends,” David Storl after the shot put.

RESULT OF THE DAY

Nadine Broersen 4830 World leading national record in pentathlon, Sally Pearson equaling world lead in heats of 60 m hurdles 7.79.

SURPRISE OF THE DAY

PolandÂ´s Adrian Strzalkowski 818 equaled NR in long jump qualification, previous PB 796 indoor and 790 outdoor.

Tom Walsh 21.26 Oceanian indoor record in last throw for bronze in men shot put, came here with 20.61 overall best (also first male medal for New Zealand in the history of World Indoors).

FAVORITE FALLS

London 1500 m medalist Gamze Bulut 4:24.52 in the 1500 m. Out in long jump qualification Gaisah 799, Saladino 794, Makusha 785. World champion Hanna Melnychenko only 7th in pentathlon. Olympic and world medalist Luguelin Santos out in 400 m semifinals. Russian relay world champion Kseniya Ryzhova out in 400 m semifinals after high quality 51.64 (from second semifinal after dns, dq and dnf only 53.20 was enough to qualify).

SPECTATORS

7000 (not an official figure).

OTHERS

HEPTATHLON: Ashton Eaton is only minus 1 point behind his Istanbul WR points schedule. His agent Paul Doyle has a projection for Saturday which says 7.62, 530 and 2:32.50 and that would be new WR.

FRANCE:French hurdler Cindy Billaud after early February injury big personal best 7.87 in the heats.

60 M: Reza Ghasemi 6.58 for Iran NR in 60 m, came only on Thursday to Sopot. In total 5 runners clocked 6.69 and three advanced by thousands by time into semifinal. Two not Francis and Griffiths.

USA: Both US out in long jump qualification.

SHOT PUT: First time top 5 over 21 at World In
doors. Previously Doha and Istanbul with 4.

NEW ZEALAND: Two New Zealand national records were broken in quick succession. In the shot, Tom Walsh twice broke the national mark, his best of 21.26 earning him a surprise bronze upsetting Polish favourite Tomasz Majewski. In the 3000m Zane Robertson ran most of the race from the front, finishing in a NR of 7:44.16.

BAHAMAS: Chris Brown qualified for the mens 400m final where he will go for his 5th World Indoor medal. He won the title in 2010 and has won bronzes in 2006, 2008 and 2012.

JAMAICA: Glen Mills coached Edino Steele was celebrating finals and indoor PB 46.00 and then realised he was disqualified for lane infringement. The still has the option to medal here in the relay.

SWEDEN: Sweden’s Emma Green Tregaro is suffering from bad back pain and she had to take painkillers for before jumping, report Swedish Eurosport.

NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand’s Nick Willis who qualified strongly to the 1500m final today in Sopot, has said that he intends to continue to compete beyond the 2016 Olympics, report NewsTalk ZB.

USA: Nick Symmonds said that this morning’s heat was his last ever indoor race (see flash quotes)!

BELGIUM: Belgium’s Eline Berings thinks that a placing in the top 5 or 6 in the 60mH in Sopot is possible for her as she is in the best shape of her life, inform dhnet.be.

EUROPEAN VIEW

In the men’s long jump qualifying, 5 Europeans qualified for the 8 athlete final. European athletes took the top 3 places. The men’s 400m final will see only 1 European, but it is semi final leader Pavel Maslak. Two European women will feature in the 400m final. Europe, with three athletes, will take up a third of the women’s 1500m final field, led by Abebe Aregawi. Hayle Ibrahimov will lead the two European men in the 3000m final. 11 Europeans qualified through the heats of the women’s 60mH including 2 Germans and 2 Belgians. In the men’s 60m heats, 6 Europeans qualified out of 24 spots in to the next round, led by the day’s fastest, Richard Kilty. 7 Asians also made it through.

STATS (by Ken Nakamura)

WL: 800 m women, 60mH women, pentathlon women

Title defenders: Whiting yes

LJ: 800 best non qualifier by US Tyron Stewart.

W60mH: 7.79 by Sally Pearson is the fastest first round time at W60mH in World Indoor Championships

60m: 6.53 is the sixth fastest first round heat time at 60m in World Indoor

LJ: 8.18m is the fifth longest in qualifying round of World Indoor

Pentathlon: 6 points difference between third (4724) and 4th (4718) is second smallest. 4651 is the best sixth place score in the history of World Indoors.

3000m: 7:42.75 by Caleb Ndiku is the fastest heat time at 3000m in World Indoors.

SP: 22.05 is the third longest SP in World Indoors, 5cm better than what
he did in Istanbul 2 years ago, but still short of the record 22.24m by Ulf Timmerman from 1st edition in 1987. 21.79 by Storl is the second longest losing effort. The best second place throw is 21.88 by Storl from 2 years ago. 20.49 by Cremona is the best 7th place throw.

Heptathlon: 221m HJ by Krauchanka is the highest HJ at World indoors heptathlon.

400m: 45.79 by Maslak is the second fastest semi time for 400m at World Indoors

Author

Larry Eder

Larry Eder has had a 51-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."

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