Posted: March 11, 2009  :

(RRW) Athletics: World Leading Times At 800M In Germiston

From David Monti © 2009 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com By David Monti with Riel Hauman Despite high altitude of 1661 meters above sea level, world leading times for 800m for both men and women were achieved at the sixth Yellow Pages Series outdoor meeting in Germiston, South Africa last Friday. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist, won the men's two-lap race in 1:45.65, ahead of compatriots Samson Ngoepe (1:46.51) and Adriaan van Wyk (1:46.83). Those were the three fastest outdoor times in the world so far this year. The women's 800m winner, Caster Semenya, not only ran a world leading and personal best time of 2:00.58, but the 18 year-old broke Zola Budd's 25 year-old South African junior record of 2:00.9 set in 1984. Only three South African women (Zelda Pretorius, Ilze de Kock and Eranee van Zyl) have ever broken two minutes. Also in Germiston, Juan van Deventer won the men's 3000m in 8:02.79, while Malawi's Mirriam Thole won the women's 3-K in 9:45.50. NOTE: Look for detailed results in next Monday's Race Results Weekly --Ed. Subscribe to the Runner's Web Weekly Digest