Posted: May 31, 2006

Athletics: World Leader For Jepleting, While Confusion Reigns In The Men's Races In Ostrava

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

By Bob Ramsak

OSTRAVA, CZECH REPUBLIC -- A world-leading performance in the women's 3000 and a pair of comically confused finishes on the men's program highlighted the distance portion of the 45th Golden Spike on Monday night, this year's only eastern European stop on the IAAF's World Athletics Tour.

After controlling much of the proceedings, Kenyan Priscila Jepleting outkicked Ethiopia's Meselech Melkamu en route to a personal best 8:40.55 win, well ahead of Melkamu's 8:40.99.

After spending much of the race on the Kenyan's heels, Melkamu moved to the front when the bell sounded but her attempt was a fleeting one, as Jepleting, a finalist in the 5000 at the World Championships last year, responded with a surge of her own as they pair entered the backstretch to regain the lead for good.

“My goal was to beat my personal best which I did,” said Jepleting, who clocked 8:44.00 in Helsinki last August. “My tactics were clear – run fast from the beginning.”

The next three across the line --Kenyan Pauline Korikwiang (8:42.38) and Moroccans Mariem Alaoui Selsouli (8:49.15) and Bouchra Chaabi (8:49.90)-- all achieved personal bests.

Runners often lose races after premature celebrations. Two such examples were on display in Ostrava that took the practice to rarely-seen extremes.

When the bell sounded some six minutes and ten seconds into the men's steeplechase race, Kenyan Paul Kipsiele Koech and Moroccan Abdelkader Hachlaf apparently didn’t notice that the signal came one lap too soon. Koech, who brought home the trail end of Kenya's podium sweep at the 2004 Olympic Games, unleashed his sustained kick over the the next 350 meters en route to what he thought was a resounding victory. Raising his arms as he crossed the line, Koech ran towards the waiting cameramen with Hachlaf, along with a few others, stopping as well. By the time they realized their misjudgement, Austrian Gunther Weidlinger and Vincent Le Dauphin of France had already zoomed by on their way to a most unlikely 1-2 finish.

“This was a crazy race,” Said Weidlinger, who crossed the real finish in 8:25.67, more than four seconds clear of the Frenchman. “The lap counter showed that we should only run one last lap but I knew according to the time that we still had two left.”

Hachlaf regrouped enough to still finish third in 8:33.03, while Koech was later disqualified for running around a barrier after coming to grips with his confusion.

“This has never happened in my career,” said Koech, adding that he was not looking at the clock. "When I hear the bell, I always think it's the last lap. When the bell is rung, you are sure that you are going for the last lap. So when I stopped, they told me I had to go one more lap. it was very disappointing."

Yet that finish was outdone in the men’s Zatopek Memorial 3000 when 18-year-old Joseph Ebuya kicked past Tariku Bekele entering the backstretch of the final lap. Briefly looking back as he approached the final turn, the young Kenyan raised his hands in victory and slowed to a walk, thinking the race had ended where it began seven laps earlier.

Bekele however, forged on en route to a 7:36.44 career best for the win. Ebuya, who was fourth in the junior race at this year’s World Cross Country championships, rebounded well enough to hang on for second, reaching the actual finish line in 7:38.12, also a personal best. There too he raised his arms in victory after offering Bekele a congratulatory hug.

Dorcus Inzikuru, winner of the inaugural World title in the event last year, was the featured attraction in the women’s steeplechase, but for more than half of the race, she was relegated to role of spectator after a hamstring strain forced her not only out of the race, but left her writhing on the ground in pain.

In the Ugandan’s absence, Russian Tatyana Petrova took a commanding win in 9:29.84, nearly 10 seconds ahead of compatriot Svetlana Ivanova. The 23-year-old, whose focus over the past two seasons has been on then 5000 and 10,000 meter distances, decided to return to the barrier event this year, she said, “Because I see a chance to be successful.”

In her return, essentially her first international outing in the event, she lopped more than half a minute from her previous best. But she was aiming for something even faster.

“I planned a time of around 9:15 but in this weather it was impossible,” she said, echoing the sentiments of virtually all the athletes competing in Ostrava. “I was completely frozen.”

Ivanova’s 9:38.48 was a personal best as well.

Wilfred Bungei was the expected winner in the 800, reaching the line in 1:45.39, but said that the effort exceeded his meet record of 1:43.24 set in 2003.

“I expected a tough race because the field was strong,” this year’s World indoor champion said, specifically naming runner-up Dmitrijs Miklevics (1:45.73) and compatriot Alfred Kirwa Yego, who was third in 1:46.52. “The pacemaker did a great job but in this weather it is difficult to run fast. I don’t like this kind of weather which is why I consider this victory tougher than three years ago when I set the meet record.”

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