Valencia – World Indoor Championships Day 2: evening session – News European Athletics (EAA)

WOMEN 3,000m FINAL
Despite a brave early attempt from Portugal's Jessical Augusto there was no European on the 3,000m podium, the winning place was reserved for Ethiopian Meseret Defar who made her hat-trick of World Indoor 3,000m titles and extended her five-year winning streak to 17 consecutive victories. The best European performance was from Olga Komyagina (RUS) who finished fifth in 8:44.57.

The competition was really hoting up in the evening session of day two at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, with seven new World Indoor Champions decided…

MEN SHOT PUT HEPTATHLON
Olympic and World Champion Roman Sebrle was getting into his groove with a 16.16m Shot Put putting him firmly in second place behind American Bryan Clay, and 51 points in front of Estonian Andreas Raja. Aleksandr Pogorelov (RUS) has had to pull out of the competition after twisting his foot in the Long Jump.

WOMEN 800m SEMI-FINAL
The pre-event favourites all advanced including veteran competitor Maria Mutola, home star Mayte Martinez and fastest Ukrainian Tatyana Petlyuk (1:59.58). Italy's Elisa Cusma clocked a new Italian record (2:00.36) to advance, which means four Europeans will run in the finals.

MEN 800m SEMI-FINAL
Times were not important in this event, just positions, with top names advancing, headed up by Russian Dmitriy Bogdanov who finished in 1:46.83. None of the Spanish runners made it into the finals, which means that Bogdanov, and Latvian record holder Dmitrij Milkevics, are the only Europeans fighting for the podium.

WOMEN 60m HURDLES SEMI-FINAL
There was further disappointment for the Sprint Hurdles stars, this time in the women's event, as Swedish World record holder Susanna Kallur had to pull out of the competition having sustained a hamstring injury during warm-up. This meant Lolo Jones (USA) was the fastest qualifier (7.82), and Spanish star Josephine Oniya also made it through but in a slower time than her morning success (8.00).

MEN 60m HURDLES SEMI-FINAL
Without Robles the men's Hurdles seemed to loose a bit of flair, with Allan Scott and Liu Xiang the fastest qualifiers with 7.57 each. An impressive five Europeans made it through to the finals.

WOMEN TRIPLE JUMP FINAL
There was tense drama in the last round of this captivating final, as reigning World Champion Yargelis Savigne of Cuba, snatched victory from Hrysopiyi Devetzi (GRE), who had been leading from her first round jump of 14.93m and later improved to set a new Greek Indoor record of 15.00m. Yet Savigne came back from a minor injury to achieve an unprecedented 15.05m area record in her last attempt to take the title, while World leader Marija Sestak of Slovenia won her first big medal for her third place 14.68m jump.

MEN 400m SEMI-FINALS
Canadian World leader Tyler Christopher was the fastest qualifier, clocking 46.57, there were no American qualifiers and only two Europeans made the final cut: Sweden's Johan Wissman, and Russian Maksim Dyldin.

MEN HIGH JUMP FINAL
Olympic Champion Stefan Holm achieved his fourth World title (2001, 2003 and 2004) after a tough fight with Russian title defender Yaroslav Rybakov who was leading for most of the competition, clearing all heights until his first attempt falter at 2.32m. Holm struggled to make 2.30m in third, but then started a technical play that saw him save his two attempts at 2.34m (which Rybakov cleared at his second attempt) for the 2.36m mark which he cleared straight away.

The game continued as Rybakov, after one unsuccessful attempt at 2.36m went for two at 2.38m but failed to clear the height, leaving Holm as the winner. A delighted Holm went on to make a crowd pleasing two attempts at 2.41m, but settled for his gold medal. There was joint bronze at 2.30m for Osaka bronze medallist Kyriacos Ioannou (CYP) and 2002 World Junior Champion Andra Manson (USA).

WOMEN 400m SEMI-FINALS
As expected the Russian duo of Natalya Nazarova (51.62) and Olesya Zykina (51.75) dominated, with three personal bests required for other competitors to make the final.

WOMEN 60m HURDLES FINAL
Without Susanna Kallur and with Spanish favourite Josephine Oniya taking an unfortunate tumble over the final hurdle, it became an American affair with Lolo Jones taking gold in 7.80, followed by 22-year-old Candice Davis (7.93) and Cuba's Anay Tejeda (7.98), who won the first senior global podium places of their careers.

MEN LONG JUMP FINAL
In open contest without World Champion Irving Saladino or European Rising Star of 2007 Andrew Howe (ITA), South African Khotso Mokoena who scraped a qualification in his last attempt yesterday, achieved five legal 8m jumps and won with his 8.08m best. There was silver for Britain's Chris Tomlinson for his 8.05m jump and bronze for Saudi Arabian Mohamed Al Khuwailidi 8.01m. This was the worst winning mark in the history of the World Indoor Championships.

MEN 1,500m FINAL
There was great debate following this final where Ethiopian newcomer Deresse Mekonen was originally announced as the winner (3:38.55), but then disqualified for breaking rule 163.3 about running in lanes. His disqualification saw Spanish runners Juan Carlos Higuero (3:38.82) and Arturo Casado (3:38.88) take silver and bronze to the delight of the Luis Puig Stadium, but then the Ethiopian Federations protest was upheld European Indoor Champion Higuero was relegated to bronze and Casado was knocked back off the podium.

WOMEN POLE VAULT FINAL
Yelena Isinbayeva completed her World Indoor hat trick with her 4.75m clearance before going on to tempt the crowds with a possible World record attempt, but the outstanding Russian got stopped in her tracks at 4.85m. Jennifer Stuczynski (USA) took silver (her first global medal with a second attempt 4.75m, while Monika Pyrek of Poland shared bronze with Brasilian Fabiana Murer (4.70m).

MEN 60m HURDLES FINAL
The Chinese World Champion Liu Xiang dominated (7.46) as expected with his toughest rival out of the competition. Super-vet, 37-year-old former Champion Allen Johnson (USA) won silver in 7.55 making him the oldest medallist, finalist and even competitor in World Indoor 60m Hurdles history. Russian European Cup winner Yevgeniy Borisov took joint bronze with European Champion Stanislav Olijars (LAT) for clocking 7.60.

HEPTATHLON HIGH JUMP
Roman Sebrle gained 28 points on Bryan Clay with his 2.12m jump (Clay did 2.09m), which means he maintains his overall second place at the end of the first day with 3562 points – 89 points ahead of third Andrey Kravchenka (BEL) who recorded a 2.15m best in his High Jump.

Quick Quotes

Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS) Pole Vault
"The win is ok, but I wanted to jump more. Why did I not? I'm not sure, I must try to pack together all the things concerning my run-up, which poles to use etc. It was all changing too much during today's competition."

Stefan Holm (SWE) High Jump
"Yaroslav (Rybakov) was jumping very well, he made it very tough for me. That was the toughest of all four of my titles. He gave me my first chance at 2.34m and than another one at 2.36m and I took it! We had many jumps yesterday and today, we were all tired, but it was my day today."

Yaroslav Rybakov (RUS) High Jump
"It was just a short competition. Even though it was the World Championships, I had not enough motivation. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I did not jump higher. I had also just a little space for running because there were other events and it was not very comfortable for me".

Hrysopiyí Devetzí (GRE) Triple Jump
"I feel very disappointed. This has already happened three times to me… I did not expect it again today. It seems that I can never get the gold medal. I am so upset. I was almost sure that I would win – I had the best series of jumps ever. I broke the national record twice and I jumped 15m. I am very sad about it".

Roman Sebrle (CZE) Heptathlon
"With my great High Jump I'm on a good way to medal. But I need to fight tomorrow. Bryan fights his own competition and he is in great shape. I wanted more at the 60m and also in the Long Jump, Shot was good of course, but I had my bad minute at two metres making it only in second."

Source/Courtesy
European Athletics (EAA)
https://www.european-athletics.org/
EAA