Posted: September 3, 2006

Athletics: Six Share Jackpot As Golden League Concludes In Berlin

By Bob Ramsak
© 2006 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved

BERLIN -- Asafa Powell, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards ended their Golden League campaigns without a loss to each claim the largest shares of the IAAF Golden League Jackpot as the six-meeting series concluded today at the ISTAF Meeting before a crowd of 48,112 at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. The trio, who each remain undefeated in their specialties this season, each won US $249,999, $83,333 from a $500,000 pot offered to winners of five of the six meets, and another $166,666 set aside for winners at all six competitions. Quick out of the blocks, the 23-year-old Jamaican was never threatened en route to his 9.86 win, his 11th legal sub-10 of the season, and his 22nd successive victory, heats included. Yet after the race, he was apologetic. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for the crowd,” he said. Powell still has the World Athletics Final coming up next weekend, and the season-capping IAAF World Cup in Athens the following weekend. Tyson Gay struggled early but regrouped to finish second in 9.96, well ahead of Leonard Scott (10.07), who equalled his third place showings from Zurich and Brussels. Yet again, the 22-year-old Wariner turned in another command performance, winning his 10th straight 400 of the year, this time in 44.26. But as was the case in recent races, it wasn’t, as Wariner later said, an easy victory. Halfway through the final bend, LaShawn Merritt, this year’s second fastest, had a clear lead on the world and Olympic champion. But when others begin to visibly struggle, Wariner displays his phenomenal homestretch strength. Forging an insurmountable lead, Wariner eventually began to slow five meters from the finish, but he was well clear of his pursuers. Gary Kikaya closed strongly, first passing the fading Merritt, and in the final strides significantly narrowing the gap to finish second in 44.43, his second Congolese national record in a week. Merritt held on for third in 44.78. In the women’s full lap, Wariner’s training partner had a much easier time. Never threatened, she won handily in 49.81, with a Wariner-like victory margin over runner-up Dee Dee Trotter (50.87). Jamaican Novlene Williams, a sub-50 runner this year, was third in 51.03, while European champion Vanya Stambolova was a distant fourth in 51.11. For the 12th time since the 2002 World Junior Championships, Meseret Defar defeated compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba, but for the latter, who arrived in Berlin with an unblemished five-for-five record in Golden League appearances, this loss in the 5000 was certainly the costliest. In a largely tactical race with American Kara Goucher controlling much of the pace, the Ethiopian pair began their kick a few strides before passing the bell. Dibaba led, unlike a few other recent outings, she never broke from Defar, the reigning Olympic champion in the event. Entering the homestretch nearly side-by-side, Dibaba began to run wide, forcing Defar even wider. But it didn’t matter. Some 30 meters from the finish Defar took the lead en route to her 15:02.51 win, a victory that denied Dibaba $125,000. Defar covered the final lap in 56.4, Dibaba in 56.9, both faster than Bekele’s final lap. “I feel bad for Tirunesh,” said Defar, who lowered the world record in the event to 14:24.53 about 24 hours after Dibaba claimed her first Golden League win of the year. “But sometimes she wins, and sometimes I win.” Dibaba nonetheless netted $83,333 for winning five of the six races. Since his defeat in the 5000 meters at the Golden League opener in Oslo to Kenya’s Isaac Songok, Kenenisa Bekele went up against the best the world could offer, and in each remaining leg of the Golden League, he proved time and again that he was up to the challenge. Of the six athletes who arrived in Berlin with a stake in the Jackpot, conventional wisdom had Kenenisa Bekele as perhaps the most vulnerable. Yet after a full season of difficult races, it was the challengers, and not Bekele, who simply ran out of steam in the German capital. "The race was, at the end of the day," Bekele said, "an easy one for me." There was no evidence displayed that would doubt that assessment. Already on his own when he reached the 2000 meter mark in 5:07.50, Bekele churned out consistent sub-63 second laps, steadily increasing his lead over the chase pack by a second per lap. When he reached the bell in 11:58, the Ethiopian was nearly 11 seconds clear of the field. With a sub-60 second closing lap, he crossed the line in 12:57.74 to also earn a $ 83,333 share of the prize pie. With a furious closing charge over the final 150 meters, his younger brother Tariku Bekele finished second (13:04.83), with Abreham Cherkos Feleke, still only 16, third (13:05.40) to complete an Ethiopian sweep. American Bernard Lagat, who came to Berlin on the heels of a sub-3:30 1500 meter victory in Rieti, was never a threat. As close as fourth in the early stages, he eventually drifted to ninth (13:12.44). In his first competition after claiming the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in March, Irving Saladino of Panama wasted little time to set out on what would become the 23-year-old’s summer-long reign at the top of men’s long jump. After a world-leading 8.56 Area record in Rio de Janeiro in May, Saladino again reached beyond 8.50 to win in Oslo, and besides his one blemish in Paris where he finished second, Saladino led what may be a renaissance in the event, topped with his 8.35 victory here –with his only jump of the competition—to net $83,333 as well. Greek Louis Tsatoumas rode a 2.0 meter per second wind to a season’s best 8.30 to finish second. In non-prize pot action... Sherone Simpson must be taking some pointers from Asafa Powell. The young Jamaican continued her relentless domination of the opposition in the women’s 100, this time winning virtually gun-to-tape in 10.92, nearly 3/10s of a second ahead of runner-up Me’Lisa Barber, the world indoor 60m champion. Australian Steven Hooker won a spirited battle in the pole vault with his first attempt clearance at 5.96, a career best for the 24-yeaer-old Commonwealth Champion. When the bar was raised to 6.01, he produced one tantalizing close effort; with plenty of height, he sliced the bar on the way down. Paul Burgess finished second with a 5.91 clearance to give Australia a 1-2 finish. European champion Tia Hellebaut continued her successful coming out campaign in the high jump, winning again over world champion Kajsa Bergqvist. Each topped out at two meters, with the Belgian sailing over on her first. Spain’s Ruth Beitia equalled her season’s best of 1.97 to finish third, scoring an upset over Bulgaria’s Venelina Veneva (fourth, 1.94) and Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic (ninth, 1.85). The key entrants in the men’s 1500 each went down in distance this weekend, and each produced a successful outing. Kenyan Augustine Choge, the Commonwealth 5000 champion, kicked to a convincing 3:32.48 victory, a personal best for the 19-year-old. Behind him, Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the world record holder in the steeplechase, finished runner-up, moving up from fourth off the final bend. His 3:33.51 was also a career best. Continuing his hot late-season streak, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa dominated the 800, winning in 1:44.37, his fourth straight. Kenyan William Yiampoy was a distant second (1:44.91) with European champion Bram Som of the Netherlands third. American David Oliver made his 40th (!) race of 2006 a memorable one, as he notched the biggest win of his career in 13.25. Zurich and Zagreb winner Allen Johnson fought back from a sluggish start to finish second in 13.29, just ahead of Aries Merritt (13.32) for a U.S. top-three sweep. Cuban teen Dayron Robles, who jumped to a clear lead by the second hurdle, was a distant fourth (13.39). U.S. and NCAA champion Ginnie Powell notched her first major international win in the 100 meter hurdles with a near gun-to-tape 12.72 performance. Jamaican Brigitte Foster was second in 12.80, holding off the fast closing Perdita Felicien (12.81). Reese Hoffa dominated the men’s shot put, winning with a solid 21.14 throw in the third round. A pair of other throws --20.90 and 20.91-- were better than the 20.63 best of runner-up Rutger Smith. In their ongoing duel in the javelin, it was Norway’s Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen who got the better of Finn Tero Pitkamaki, 87.43 to 87.11. Czech Barbora Spotakova’s 64.30 from the first round managed to hold up for the win in the women’s javelin throw, but she was threatened throughout by German Steffi Nerius, who reached 64.22 in the third round and 64.13 in the sixth. World leader Franka Dietzsch notched the only German win of the afternoon, her 64.47 best more than two meters better than Russia’s European Champion Darya Pischalnikova’s 62.17. NOTE: To claim their prizes, each athlete must compete at next weekend’s World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany. TPR will provide on-site coverage from Stuttgart beginning on Wednesday.

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