European Athletics (EAA) – News – Records for Wojciechowski and Bolshakova in Gent

Polish pole vaulter Pawel Wojciechowski and Belgian triple jumper Svetlana Bolshakova provided two of the highlights of the Belgacom Flanders Indoor Meeting in Gent on Sunday, when they both achieved impressive national indoor records.

Wojciechowski went over 5.86m with his second effort to add one centimetre to the Polish best that had previously stood for 22 years to Miroslaw Chmara.

It was a huge improvement for Wojciechowski at the IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting in Belgium, having a previous best of 5.60m both indoors and outdoors.

After moving up to third on this winter’s world rankings, with all three slots occupied by European vaulters, Wojciechowski then had one half-hearted attempt at 5.90m.

“I was tired by the time the bar went up to 5.90m but now Chmara’s outdoor record of 5.90m (set in 1988) has to be a target,” admitted the 21-year-old, who was the 2008 World Junior Championships silver medallist.

“This winter we have increased Pawel’s run up from 14 to 16 strides,” Wojciechowski’s coach Włodzimierz Michalski told the Polish federation website www.pzla.pl.

“He’s also moved onto bigger poles so I was expecting an improvement, maybe to 5.70m or 5.75m but not this much so quickly,” added Michalski.

Bolshakova, the 2010 European Athletics Championships triple jump bronze medallist,  won her specialist event with a national record of 14.31m, having earlier in the competition gone into new territory with leap of 14.17m. Ukraine’s European champion Saladuha was second with 14.27m.

The rarely run men’s 600m saw a clash of two 2010 European champions and Belgium’s 400m gold medallist Kevin Borleé triumphed in 1:15.65, the third fastest ever performance.

Sudan’s 2008 Olympic Games silver medallist Ismail Ahmed Ismail was second in 1:16.31, finishing ahead of Poland’s European 800m champion Marcin Lewandowski, who was third in 1:16.32.

American visitor Aries Merritt won the men’s 60m hurdles in 7.53 ahead of Belgium’s Adrian Deghelt, who improved his personal best time to 7.60, the third best European mark of the winter.

There were good results by Belgian runners over 1500m as well.

Ethiopia’s Abeba Arigawi won the women’s race in 4:06.22 but Lindsay De Grande came home fourth in 4:09.18 for her second Belgian indoor record over the distance this year.

Kenya’s Ismael Kombich from Kenya won the men’s 1500m in a world-leading 3:34.13 but Kristof Van Malderen finished fourth in 3:39.88, his second time under 3:40 in five days, to mark him out as a potential medal contender at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris next month.

Czech 400m runner Denisa Rosolová dropped down distance and took the women’s 200m in a personal best of 23.54.

Kenyan teenager Isaiah Koech ran a world junior indoor 3000m best of 7:37.50 but Turkey’s Halil Akkas finished fourth over 15 laps of the track in 7:48.41, the fourth best time by a European this year.

European Athletics (EAA) – News