Men’s Review – Day One / Morning Session

DOHA, March 12, 2010 -

Combined Events
60m
Olympic champion Bryan Clay is one of the fastest ever multi-eventers, and he proved it again this morning with a clocking of 6.67 in the Heptathlon 60m. It is his second fastest time ever for the distance and would likely be good enough to make it through the first round of the individual men’s 60m, but in the context of this weekend’s Heptathlon competition, it translates to an early lead of 1003 points.

Fellow American and World Decathlon Champion Trey Hardee was second in a 6.80, good enough for 955 points, and he was followed by Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov (6.93 for 907pts), Aleksey Drozdov of Russia (7.08 for 854pts), Leonel Suarez of Cuba (7.15 for 830pts), Roman Šebrle (7.20 for 813pts) and Andrey Kravchenko (7.22 for 806pts). World Decathlon bronze medallist Aleksandr Pogorelov finished last in 7.68, announcing afterwards that he is withdrawing due to a hamstring injury.

Long jump
Clay was unable to capitalise on his great start and any chance he had of breaking the world Heptathlon record went out of the window in the second event. The American was way off his best in the first two rounds with 7.19 and 7.12m, while Kasyanov had leapt 7.58m. With one jump to go, Clay and the Ukrainian were level.

Clay improved marginally to 7.27m in the final round, but his lead was temporary as Kasyanov then flew out to 7.78m. It means that at the end of the morning session, Kasyanov leads Clay, 1912 to 1881. Trey Hardee, who jumped 7.28m, is in third with 1836, while Roman Šebrle is in fourth (1745) thanks to a season’s best jump of 7.49m. Drozdov (7.29m for 1737pts overall), Kravchenko (7.38m for 1711pts overall) and Suarez (7.12m for 1672pts overall) round out the remaining seven contestants.

Despite the hiccup in the long jump, Clay is still on course to win. However, he cannot afford too many more mistakes and the pole vault could be the real test for him after he no-heighted in his only other Heptathlon of 2010. At the moment, the battle for the other medals looks to be between Drozdov, Kasyanov and Hardee, but Kravchenko and Suarez are not too far behind. And of course you can never discount two-time former World Indoor Champion Šebrle.

Track
400m 1st Round
Medal favourites Bershawn Jackson, Jamaal Torrance and David Gillick all safely qualified as heat winners for this afternoon’s semi-finals of the men’s 400m.

Torrance posted the quickest time of the round but Jackson looked particularly comfortable as he eased round the blue and yellow track in Doha’s compact Aspire Dome arena, while Gillick was slowed by a protruding pole sticking out from the vaulters’ mat.

Gillick, twice a European champion, went out hard in his heat, zipping through 200m in 21.92 before bringing the field home in 46.72. It wasn’t quite as easy as that sounds, however, for the Irish record holder had to swerve around the offending implement 50m from the finish line.

“We were caught by surprise a little bit,” said Gillick. “Hopefully I’ve still earned an outside lane for the evening.”

William Collazo of Cuba ran hard to take second in 46.78 ahead of Jamaica’s Ricardo Chambers, who qualified as one of the two fastest losers in 47.06.

Torrance was pushed hard in his heat by Jamaica’s Edino Steele, but the 2009 US champion stayed a stride ahead to clock 46.70 with Steele just a tenth behind.

Jackson looked most composed of all, however, as he led home heat three in 46.87. The former world 400m hurdles champion went off fast. Wearing his trademark white headband, the US champion led through 200m in 21.54 and strode home ahead of Nery Brenes with the Costa Rican just edging Britian’s Richard Buck in 46.94. Buck did enough to go through in 47.02.

Russian champion Dmitry Buryak won the first heat in 47.03, coming from behind in the last 50m to take the fast starting Michael Mathieu of Bahamas who claimed the second automatic qualifying spot in 47.10. Sudan’s Rabah Yousif made a qualifying bid around the final bend but was run out in third in 47.21.

Chirs Brown of Bahamas overtook the fast starting Dominican Arismendy Peguero to win the final heat ahead of Denis Alekseyev of Russia. Brown, the reigning bronze medallist, clocked 46.95 while Alekseyev came late to claim second in 47.18.

800m 1st Round
Abubaker Kaki remains on course to defend the World Indoor 800m title he won aged 18 in Valencia after a comfortable ride through the opening round.

The Sudanese sensation was a raw talent two years ago but looked a consumate, mature middle distance runner this morning as he safely negotiated the first round in Doha’s Aspire Dome. Kaki led from start to finish in heat two to cross the line comfortably ahead in 1:47.48 before raising his right arm to acknowledge the cheers of his uncle watching from the stands.

All the drama came in the first heat, however, won by Kaki’s team-mate Ismail Ahmed Ismail who also delighted the small contingent of Sudanese supporters by posting the quickest time of the round. The Olympic silver medallist took the lead at the bell from Brazilian Kleberson Davide and extended his long stride round the final bend to win in 1:46.69.

“It was fast but we had to make it fast because there were good runners,” explained Ismail. “And you never know what can happen.”

So it proved, as Nick Symmonds, another medal contender, came from the back of the field to take second in 1:46.89, which would have been a season’s best for the American, only for him to find out later he had been disaqualified for a lane violation.

Andrew Osagie was promoted to the second automatic qualifying spot. The Briton finished third in a personal best of 1:47.40, which would have been quick enough to see him through to the semis anyway while Davide missed out despite a PB of 1:49.69.

The other predicted finallists – Boaz Lalang, Adam Kszczot and Jakub Holusa – also qualified.

Lalang, the only Kenyan in the field, said he “felt great” after winning his heat. He looked great too, producing a powerful last lap to win in in 1:49.16. The 21-year-old took the lead at the bell and pulled away from the field down the back straight before striding home.

Kszczot is ranked number three in the world this year but the Pole needed to come from fourth at the bell and only took the lead with 100m to go in a last lap burn-up. He won in 1:50.15 with Andreas Rapatz of Austria hanging on for second, while Bahrain’s Belal Mansoor Ali faded from first with 200m left to a disappointing fifth.

Holusa, the new Czech record holder, also had a tough time qualifying from a competitive slower race. He went through, but only in second place behind Kevin Hautcoeur, clocking 1:50.64 to the Frenchman’s 1:50.61.