Baala and Gillick shine at European Athletics Premium Meeting in Lille – European Athletics (EAA) – NEWS

Irish 400m runner David Gillick and French Middle Distance star Mehdi Baala grabbed the headlines at the European Athletics Premium Meeting in Lille yesterday.

The pair went to the top of the season's European rankings over 400m and 1,500m respectively.

Baala, the 2002 and 2006 European Athletics Championships gold medallist over 1,500m clocked 3:34.30 at the Metropole Gaz de France Région Nord/Pas-de-Calais Meeting in Villeneuve-d'Ascq to fulfil his promise to entertain his home audience.

"Since there were no pacemakers in this race, I'm pleased with this outing," said a happy Baala, who runs for the local Lille Metropole Club.

Mehiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, the 3,000m Steeplechase winner for France at the SPAR European Cup in Annecy last weekend, took nearly three seconds off his best to finish second in 3:36.34.

Gillick, 25 in two weeks time, gave himself an early birthday present when he clocked 45.12 seconds to take 11-hundredths of a second off his own national record set last year.

Curiously seeded to run in the 400m B race, the British-based Dubliner also towed Belgium's Cedric Van Branteghem to a time of 45.24 in second place for the third fastest European performance of the year.

Another French crowd pleaser, and also a winner for Les Bleus in Annecy a week ago, was Muriel Hurtis-Houairi in the 200m.

Hurtis-Houairi clocked a speedy 22.73, which equalled her best time for the season.

"I've been running around that mark in several races (she won in Annecy in 22.75) but each one has been run differently even though the times are almost are identical. The result is satisfactory but I still have a lot of work ahead of me. My goal is to be able to run four rounds at the Olympics and I am still far short of that target. I found that out because I was tired after the European Cup," reflected Hurtis-Houairi.

It wasn't to be a winning debut to the season for another French female sprinting icon Christine Arron, the European record holder for 100m having to settle for fifth place in a modest 11.47.

Laverne Jones, from the Virgin Islands, won in 11.30 just getting the verdict ahead of Belgium's reigning European Champion Kim Gevaert, who finished second in 11.31. Belarus's 2004 Olympic Champion Yuliya Nesterenko was third in 11.39.

"I'm not worried," said Arron. "We haven't got to mid-July yet and I've got a lot of races ahead of me in which to sharpen up."

The men's Pole Vault proved to be an exciting contest with Russia's Sergey Kucheryanu the only man over 5.75m while France's Renaud Lavillenie added two centimetres to his personal best when he cleared 5.65m. There was also a Russian winner in the men's High Jump with Aleksey Dmitrik going over 2.24m.

Croatia's former European Junior Champion Ivana Brkljacic was close to her best, winning with 74.89m, and relegating Cuba's Yipsi Moreno to second place after the former World Champion could do no better than 73.11m.

France's Manuela Montebrun was again well over 70m with 71.60m for third place. If Moreno came up short, there were several other scintillating performances from the large Cuban contingent in the Northern French town.

Dayron Robles won the men's 110m Hurdles in 12.96, another sub-13 clocking coming little more than two weeks after he reduced the world record to 12.87.

World Champion Yargelis Savigne triumphed in the women's Triple Jump with world-leading 15.02m but the Ukraine's European Cup winner Olha Saladuha continuing her good run of form to finish second in 14.52m.

Morocco's Ibtissam Lakhoud took the women's 1,500m in 4:06.37 but behind her Britain's Susan Scott clocked a personal best of 4:07.00.

Yohan Diniz, the 2006 European Athletics Championships 50km Walk gold medallist, dropped dramatically down distance looking to blow away the cobwebs after a recent illness and produced a French 5,000m Walk record of 18:18.01.

"I didn't have race plan before the start, but after the fast first kilometre I thought to myself ‘should I slow down or should I maintain that pace?' As there was a good atmosphere in the stadium and people were encouraging us, I decided to go for it," reflected Diniz, after his effort in the non-championship distance.

"After the 3,000m, I felt pain and tiredness, as I was in front and by myself. I'm satisfied by my race, and it means that my illness, which couldn't be identified in the medical analysis sample one month ago, is now over. There is no correlation between 5km and 50km which will be the Olympic distance, but this means that I'm on my way back," added Diniz.