7/19/08
By Bob Ramsak
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - used with permission
Results | TrackShark Live Blog Recap
PARIS
(18-Jul) -– Seemingly unstoppable, Pamela Jelimo broke her own African
800m record here tonight to highlight the 10th edition of the Meeting
Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis, the fourth stop on the six-meeting AF
Golden League.
"I was very happy with the win," said the Kenyan
teenager, this year’s breakout sensation after lowering her own
continental and world junior record with a superb 1:54.97 run. "It was
a good test before the Olympic Games."
In reality it was but
another time trial for the 18-year-old, who moved to the front as she
entered the backstretch for the final time and cruised home
unchallenged. This time she won by more than 3.5 seconds, with Slovak
Lucia Klocova (1:58.51 PB) finishing runner-up and Kenyan reigning
world champion Janeth Jepkosgei (1:58.52).
With her victory,
Jelimo remains in the hunt for the Golden League's $1,000,000 prize
along with Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic who also won here tonight
(it was Vlasic's 33rd consecutive victory).
The evening's first
race on the track, the women’s 1500m, was highlighted by a solid
performance by Maryam Jamal. The reigning world champion was never
seriously threatened en route to her 3:59.99 season's best. But
impressing international observers was the runner-up, U.S. Olympic
Trials champion Shannon Rowbury. Fifth behind the two pacesetters with
two laps to go, Rowbury steadily moved her way up to position herself
solidly behind Jamal over the final lap, holding her gap to Jamal down
the homestretch, and crossing the line in 4:00.33, another personal
best. This year Rowbury, under coach John Cook, has improved her
personal best by more than 13 seconds.
In the men's 1500m, world
leader and Kenyan Olympic Trials winner Augustine Choge impressed with
a 54.74 second final lap to fend off a three pronged attack by Asbel
Kiprop, Mansoor Ali Belal and Shedrack Korir. Choge, also the season's
fastest in the 3000m, diligently held off the trio en route to a
3:32.40 win, while Kiprop, the winner in Rome last weekend, couldn’t
muster the same kick this time around but still managed to overtake the
others to finish second in 3:32.78. Ali Belal closed quickly off the
final bend before being overtaken in the final steps, and held on for
third (3:33.12).
Edwin Soi, the 3000/5000 double winner at last
year's World Athletics Final, was unstoppable in the 3000, hanging on
over the final lap en route to a 7:36.71 win. Shadowing Soi over much
of the final lap, Joseph Ebuya appeared at the ready to pounce, but
fell short, finishing second in 7:36.71.
There was little drama
in the men’s steeplechase, won handily by Kenyan-born Bahraini Tareq
Mubarak Taher. Taher, whose claim to fame was having his 2005 world
youth 2000m steeplechase title voided due to age manipulation, took the
comfortable win in 8:08.53, a season's best, ahead of Kenyan Michael
Kipyego (8:09.93). Swede Mustafa Mohamed was third in 8:11.10, the
fastest by a European this year.
Only five women were entered in
the 5000m, which in the end too provided little drama. Lucy Wangui
Kabuu ran away with a 14:38.47 meet record, more than 20 seconds ahead
of runner-up Prisca Jepleting (14:58.96). Tirunesh Dibaba did not
compete, forbidden by the powerful Ethiopian federation from traveling
to Paris in the run-up to the Olympic Games.
After an extended
break, the six-meet Golden League series resumes at Zurich's Weltklasse
on August 29, the week following the conclusion of the Olympic Games.
ENDS
