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FBK Games Review
Irving Saladino comes close to the long jump world record and Pamela Jelimo smashes the world junior 800m record in Hengelo
THE FBK Games in Hengelo will have certainly whetted the appetite of athletics fans around the world, as a near capacity crowd witnessed two performances which can only be described as near superhuman from Irving Saladino and Pamela Jelimo.
The Panamanian has dominated the long jump for the last two years and must certainly smash the long-standing world record in this discipline, sooner rather than later. Inch-perfect on the take-off board, the world champion stunned the crowd with a first round effort of 8.73m, aided by a 1.2 m/s tailwind. Not only was this an improvement on his previous PB of 8.57m, this was the longest jump in the world in 14 years, to move to seventh on the all-time lists, ahead of the great Ivan Pedroso.
After passing his attempt in the next round to conserve energy, Saladino floated down the runway with his trademark effortless stride, and the slightly built Panamanian must have surpassed Mike Powell’s long-standing 8.95m and probably the 9m line (!) but agonisingly for everyone watching, Saladino had fouled that effort, by a relatively narrow margin but what remains certain is that the 23-year-old, unbeaten since July 2006, has a 9m jump within him.
Whereas Saladino is an established star, nobody had heard of Pamela Jelimo until last month. The 19-year-old Kenyan, who made her debut at this distance in February, shocked the legendary Maria Mutola at the African Championships last month, taking the crown with a Kenyan junior-record of 1:58.70, to show that she was a star in the making. Yet, nobody would have predicted such a rapid improvement today.
In her first ever race on the Grand Prix circuit, the uber-talented Kenyan stormed to an incredible 1:55.76 clocking. Jelimo sat behind the pace-maker, through 400m in 57.75 and as Katrin Trauth moved aside, the African junior 400m champion kicked hard down the back straight and seemed to relentlessly increase her pace until the finish, leaving a world class field, including the world 1500m champion, Maryam Jamal trailing in her wake.
Needless to say, the Kenyan obliterated the world junior-record set by the dubious Chinese athlete, Wang Yuan (1:57.18) from the 1993 Chinese National Games. Jelimo moved into the top 20 of all-time and ahead of luminaries such as former Olympic champion, Svetlana Masterkova and her compatriot and world champion, Janeth Jepkosgei.
In Olympic year, Saladino and Jelimo certainly are two of the biggest and exciting talents on the world scene.
From rising stars to stalwarts, Haile Gebrselassie must have booked his place on the Ethiopian 10000m team for Beijing, for the fourth consecutive Olympic Games. Now 35, the legendary Ethiopian from the Arsi region couldn’t live with the pace of Sileshi Sihine over the final 200m but the former two-time Olympic champion still had enough speed in his legs to outkick the former world 5000m champion, Eliud Kipchoge.
Sihine, the Olympic silver medallist and three-time world silver medallist romped home to a world-leading time of 26:50.53, ahead of Gebrselassie’s 26:51.20, with Kipchoge in third (26:54.32).
Kenenisa Bekele, who will be trying to crack his world record at the Prefontaine Classic next month, opted for the 5000m today, but slowed in the final kilometre, struggling with the windy conditions. The Olympic and world 10000m champion looked heavy legged over the final 800m but still dipped under the 13-minute barrier, clocking a world-leading 12:58.94.
African 1500m champion Gelete Burka sped home to a 61-second last-lap to defeat a very strong line-up in the women’s 5000m. Burka, who won the Birmingham 3000m this February, clocked a world-leading mark of 14:45.84 to defeat team-mates Meselech Melkamu and Belaynesh Fikadu.
The best British performances from the day came in the sprints. Having moved back to the 400m, Lee McConnell didn’t appear to be straining too much as she cruised to a meeting record of 51.66, defeating the 24-year-old stadium record (!)
In the women’s 100m, Jeanette Kwakye almost took a victory in a world-class field. Running from lane one, the world indoor silver medallist was away from the action in the central lanes but the 25-year-old was a highly creditable third in 11.29 (0.7 m/s headwind), defeated by the double European champion, Kim Gevaert (11.25) and the veteran Chandra Sturrup (11.27) but Kwakye did take the scalps of the Valencia victor, Angela Williams, the former Commonwealth champion, Debbie Ferguson and team-mate Laura Turner.
Running his first 200m of the year, Marlon Devonish finished second in 20.89 into a strong 2.0 headwind.
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