Posted: July 9, 2006

Athletics: Chizhenko’s 3:55.68 Highlights Paris Golden League

From David Monti

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

By Bob Ramsak

PARIS -- Russian Yuliya Chizhenko’s powerful display in the 1500 provided the highest note on a full slate of middle and long distance events at the Meeting Gaz de France in the French capital, the second stop of the six-meet IAAF Golden League series.

With a powerful and sustained homestretch drive, Chizhenko fought off a stubborn challenge by fellow Russian Yelena Soboleva to win the 1500 in 3:55.68, a world leader and personal best for the world indoor champion.

After first pacer Virginia Fouquet of France led the field through modest 1:03.55 and 2:07.05 laps, Olga Komyagina picked up the tempo dramatically, with just the Russian pair able to follow suit. Soboleva, the world indoor record holder and world leader (3:56.74) who easily dispensed with Chizhenko’s late race attack in Athens on Monday, looked ready to strike again as the trio passed the bell. Making up little ground down the backstretch after Komyagina concluded her duties, Soboleva appeared ready to attack off the final turn. But Chizhenko surrendered no ground en route to a huge personal best that catapulted her to the No. 14 position on the all-time world list. Soboleva reached the line in 3:56.43, her second personal best in five days.

Holding on for third was Frenchwoman Latifa Essarokh, who produced the race of her life to reach the line in 4:00.67, a personal best by four seconds and just shy of Hind Dehiba’s 4:00.49 national record. So strong was the race at the front that two-time defending world champion Tatyana Tomashova was never a factor, but she still managed a fourth place finish in 4:00.98, a season’s best. Maryam Jamal, last year’s fastest, wasn’t a factor after Komyagina picked up the tempo, and faded to seventh (4:03.28).

After numerous near misses over the past several seasons, Ivan Heshko nailed his now infamous kick perfectly to collect his first Golden League victory in the 1500. As far back as fifth entering the final turn, the world indoor champion from Ukraine moved up to third heading into the homestraight before passing Alex Kipchirchir and Bernard Lagat en route to a 3:31.08 season’s best, the fastest by a European this year. Kipchirchir (3:31.36) and Lagat (3:31.48) followed with personal bests of their own while Isaac Songok, who defeated Kenenisa Bekele in the 5000 in Oslo last month, was fifth in 3:31.85. Further back, Nick Willis lowered his own New Zealand national record to 3:32.17 while American Chris Lukezic clocked a personal best 3:34.46.

The only certainty in the men’s 5000 was that Bekele’s recent speed work has apparently helped. Running hard for the final lap-and-a-half, the 24-year-old pounced to a 12:51.32 world leading victory, more than a second ahead of Kenyan Edwin Soi, who reached the line in 12:52.40, a personal best. At the moment, the rest of the finishing order is somewhat hazy. Results reported initially in the stadium were clearly incorrect; the revised results, listing Ireland’s Alistair Cragg finishing fifth in 12:57.60, are also incorrect, since, according to athlete representative James Templeton, Cragg did not finish the race. [Reporter’s NOTE: Juggling multiple assignments, I personally missed the end of the race. RRW will report correct results as soon as they are available.]

The evening’s finest finish was produced by Tirunesh Dibaba in the women’s 5000, as she gradually overhauled Meseret Defar over the final 80 meters to win in 14:52.24, just six one-hundredths of a second ahead of the recently-minted world record holder. In what was primarily a tactical race, seven women were still in contention with one lap to go, with Dibaba’s 57.2 final lap making the difference. In a blanket finish, Gelete Burka (14:55.02) and Berhane Adere (14:56.03) finished an Ethiopian top-four sweep, ahead of a Kenyan trio led by Priscah Jepleting.

Elsewhere, Wilfred Bungei outsprinted Kuwaiti Mohammad Alazemi in the 800 to collect his sixth win in seven races outdoors since capturing the world indoor title last March, clocking 1:44.41 to Alazemi’s 1:44.63. In the steeplechase, Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi outsprinted fellow-Kenyan Brimin Kipruto en route to an 8:09.29 win, a season’s best.

Four athletes remain in contention for a slice of the full $1 million IAAF Golden League Jackpot: Dibaba, American 400 meter runners Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards, and Asafa Powell, who won the 100 meters. Golden League event winners from both Oslo and Paris are still in the hunt for a slice of at least $500,000.

A crowd of nearly 63,000 turned out at the Stade de France, annually the largest gathering of spectators for a single-day competition. The six-meeting series continues next Friday with the Golden Gala in Rome’s Olympic Stadium.

Update: The IAAF hasn't corrected their website yet, but the managers for both Boniface Kiprop and Alistair Cragg have verified that Kiprop was the man who finished fifth in the Gaz de France 5000m in 12:57.60, a Ugandan national record, and not Cragg, who did not finish the race.

Update #2: Below are the revised results of the men's 5000m from Saturday's Golden League meeting in Paris, just released by the IAAF Competitions Department

MEN - 5000m:
 1. Kenenisa Bekele, ETH        12:51.32  WL
 2. Edwin Cheruiyot Soi, KEN    12:52.40 
 3. Moses Mosop, KEN            12:54.46 
 4. Tariku Bekele, ETH          12:55.69 
 5. Boniface Kiprop, UGA        12:57.60  NR
 6. Joseph Ebuya, KEN           12:58.03
 7. Abderrahim Goumri, MAR      12:58.76 
 8. Mike Kipruto Kigen, KEN     13:02.26 
 9. Benjamin Limo, KEN          13:04.82
10. Ali Saïdi-Sief, ALG         13:29.68 
11. Aboosh Mohamed Ali, ETH     13:32.15 
12. Abebe Dinkesa Negera, ETH   13:33.28
DNF - Alan Webb, USA
DNF - Alistair Ian Cragg, IRL
DNF - Charles Kiplangat Bett, KEN 
DNF - Moses Kipsiro, UGA
DNS - Craig Mottram, AUS
DNS - Khalid Zoubaa, FRA
DNS - Markos Geneti, ETH

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