Sunday, January 31, 2016

Fast middle-distance races highlight Camel City Invitational - indoor round-up

31 JAN 2016 Report courtesy IAAF                                                          

Fast middle-distance races highlight Camel City Invitational - indoor round-up

Jenn Suhr grabbed most of the headlines on Saturday, with her pole vault world indoor record of 5.03m in Brockport but Matthew Centrowitz and Shannon Rowbury produced quick times and comfortable mile victories at the Camel City Invitational held on the aptly-named JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem on Saturday (30).
Centrowitz was challenged by Cory Leslie with 300 metres remaining but the two-time world championships medallist produced a final circuit of 28.0 to claim victory in a world-leading 3:54.02, ahead of Leslie who was second in 3:56.25.
Next up for Centrowitz will be a 3000m race in Portland next weekend where he will chase the qualifying standard of 7:50:00 for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in the same city in March.
Rowbury couldn’t quite match her exploits of 12 months ago, when she moved to fifth on the world indoor all-time rankings with the fastest indoor time in 15 years when she clocked 4:22.66 but the perennial world championships finalist was very satisfied to win in 4:26.01, coming home by a commanding margin ahead of steeplechaser Stephanie Garcia in 4:28.47.
Three weeks after defeating Mo Farah over 8km at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country, Garrett Heath produced a last lap of 27.3 to win the 3000m in 7:48.48 ahead of Kenya’s Lawi Lalang in 7:50.07.
IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015 800m silver medallist Melissa Bishop, from Canada, clocked 2:02.10 in her first 800m race of the season.
World and Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton looked sharp in the 60m hurdles heats as he qualified as the fastest man with 7.70 but then finished fourth in the final in 7.77, which was won by Aleec Harris in 7.65.
However, Eaton did take the notable scalp of 2011 world 110m hurdles champion Jason Richardson, who was fifth in 7.80.
He also reached 14.23m in the shot put while his wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton went out to 13.04m in the women’s event.
After clearing 1.84m in the high jump on Friday, Theisen-Eaton also clocked 8.32 in the 60m hurdles heats but sat out the final.
Brianna Rollins broke the eight seconds in the final with 7.95 to finish ahead of reigning world indoor champion Nia Ali in 8.03 and move up to third on the 2016 world list at this early stage in the season.
Katie Nageotte improved her outright lifetime best from 4.55m to 4.61m when winning the pole vault.

Svoboda sets European junior record

Racing on his home track, 10.05 100m performer Julian Reus equalled the German indoor record in Erfurt on Friday (29), which was set two months before the 27-year-old was even born.
Reus, who opened with a 6.60 clocking on the same track two weeks ago, improved to 6.53 to match the time set by East Germany’s Sven Matthes back in 1988.
Another noteworthy performance in Erfurt came from 18-year-old Konstanze Klosterhalfen, the 2015 European cross country championships junior women’s gold medallist ran 4:09.79, the fastest time ever indoors by a European junior although as it was in a mixed race it is unlikely to be ratified as a record.
In Luxembourg on Saturday, Ewa Swoboda, also 18, broke the Polish senior 60m record of 7.18 which was set 30 years ago today.
The European junior 100m champion, and one of the favourites for the world junior title in on home soil in Bydgoszcz this summer, stopped the clock in 7.13, which is also a European junior record.
This time stood as a world-leading mark for a few hours until Michelle-Lee Ahye, from Trinidad and Tobago, eclipsed Swoboda’s mark with 7.12 in Houston.
In her first race since anchoring the British quartet to a world championships 4x400m bronze medal in Beijing, Seren Bundy-Davies raced to a world-leading 400m mark of 51.60 in Vienna.
Competing in front of her home fans in Split, 2015 world championships silver medallist Blanka Vlasic looked in good shape as she cleared 1.95m but the Croat was then forced to retire after one attempt at 2.00m, and she later announced that the Achilles problems she suffered on Friday night has ruled her out for the remainder of the indoor season.

Rupp warms up for Los Angeles with 3000m win

A fortnight before his highly-anticipated marathon debut at the US Olympic Trials race in Los Angeles on 13 February, Galen Rupp sharpened up on Friday (29) with a low-key 3000m win at the third TrackTown High Performance Meet in Portland.
Rupp, who is also planning to contest the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 if he qualifies at the US Championships next month, clocked 7:57.39 for the distance.
He won by 30 seconds and lapped the entire field bar one.
However, the best mark of the meet came from rising star Boris Berian.
The 23-year-old lowered his outdoor 800m best from 1:48.89 to 1:43.34 last summer and he took a sizeable slice from his indoor best in Portland, lowering it from 1:48.53 to 1:46.00.
Berian moves to second on the 2016 world list behind his compatriot Donavan Brazier, who set an US junior indoor record of 1:45.93 a fortnight ago.
Steven Mills for the IAAF

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