By IAAF

Kenenisa Bekele on the way to 3000m win in Valencia
permit meeting (Julio Fontán)

Valencia, Spain – As expected, both 3000m and Long Jump events provided some of the main highlights of Saturday evening’s (9-Feb) ‘Reunión Internacional Ciudad de Valencia’ – IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, which was taking place in the stadium which will host the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships from 7 – 9 March 2008.

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele (7:36.08) and Meselech Melkamu (8:29.48) took honours in the longer distance of the programme while Portugal’s Naide Gomes flew to a PB and national record of 6.90 in the Long Jump and Irving Saladino of Panama kicked off his indoor campaing with an 8.20 effort which is a new world-leading performance, the same feat achieved by Ethiopia’s Mekonnen Gebremedhin in the 1500m thanks to a 3:36.63 time and Nigeria’s Olujosi Fasuba over 60m with a 6.51 clocking.

Bekele content with ’08 indoor debut

Running on the track that will host next month’s World Indoor Championships, the task of breaking Daniel Komen’s World 3000m record of 7:24.90 proved to be too tough and unassailable for Kenenisa Bekele who could not even better his brother Tariku’ world season best of 7:31.09.

The 25-year-old World indoor champion was paced through the first kilometre in a fine 2.28.99 split with Tariku, his compatriot Roba Gari and the Kenyan pair of Daniel Kipchirchir Komen and Edwin Soi in close attendance.

However, the pacemaking duties finished too early – exactly at the 1600m point insted of the scheduled 2000m – and so Bekele was forced to take command of the event with the clock reading four minutes. The 2000m point was covered by the leading group, always ruled by Bekele, in 5:02.26, a figure which suggested that any World record chance had already vanished.

The question was then would Bekele’s win be put in jeopardy as his rhythm slowed down drastically and a 1:05 400m split seemed to increase his pursuers’ winning possibilities? With 400m to go Tariku, Kipchirchir and his fellow Kenyan Edwin Soi remained at Bekele’s shoulder but the five-time double World Cross Country champion then unleashed his trademark devastating kick with 260m to go and a 26.2 final lap led him to a convincing 7.36.08 success while Soi – winner of the San Giorgio Su Legnano and Fuensalida XC permits in January – outclashed Tariku for second in 7:36.70 with the younger Bekele’s 7:37.09 clocking with Kipchirchir also dipping under the 7:40 barrier (7:38.58).

“I’m satisfied since the most important thing for me today was not to break the World record, which is extremely tough to beat, but just to kick off my indoor season and feel comfortable on the track. Definitely today’s win was not a piece of cake.”

When asked if he’s planning to return to Valencia next month to defend his 3000m World crown, a cautious Bekele replied: “Honestly, I have not made a decision yet, I’ll take it in one week’s time.”

World season leads for Gebremedhin and Fasuba

As it had been foreseen the men’s 1500 witnessed a fast race whose 400m split was a fine 56.49 to decrease the pace slightly afterwards. Bahrain’s Ali Bilal Mansour headed the event from midway but just at the bell it was the long-legged Mekonnen Gebremedhin who moved to the front to win in style in 3:36.63 (WL) while Spain’s reigning European champion Juan Carlos Higuero pipped Mansour in the closing stages to take second (3.37.46 vs 3.37.90) with Arturo Casado, also of Spain producing a PB of 3:38.13 in fourth.

An ecstatic Gebremedhin commented: “Excellent race! I only think now of coming back to this track in March to take the gold medal at the Worlds.”

Nigeria’s Olympic 4x100m Relay bronze medallist Olujosi Fasuba gave a first hint of his awesome form by clocking 6.58 in his semifinal which proved to be only a dress-rehearsal for his stunning outcome in the final where the Osaka 100m fourth placed recorded a 6.51 despite a far from ideal start (0.174s was his reaction time). The 23-year-old is now the fastest man of the season (PB of 6.49) and seems to be on the right path to improve on his fifth from the last World indoors in Moscow. Italy’s Simone Collio ran a massive PB of 6.55 to clinch second.

Gomes (6.90) and Saladino (8.20 WL) excel in the infield

Portugal’s reigning European indoor Long Jump champion Naide Gomes provided one of the women’s headlines of the meeting by leaping to a PB of 6.90m. The former multi-event specialist has proved over the last two years that her decision to focus only on the Long Jump has been a good decision. Following two outings on Portugese soil with 6.60 and 6.79 as the outcome, Gomes opened with a 6.69 jump to take the top spot and she was never headed throughout the contest. The 28-year-old strengthened her lead thanks to a 6.87 second effort while only Brazil’s Maurren Higa Maggi seemed capable of threatening Gomes’s dominance with a 6.76 leap also in round 2.

Gomes, who took the bronze medal at the last World Indoors in Moscow and joined the exclusive 7.00m + club last summer outdoors, produced another fine jump of 6.83 in the third round, had a foul in her next attempt and managed her furthest ever measure indoors by landing at 6.90 in round 5 to place now second on the season’s list behind Russian Irina Simagina’s 6.94.

Maggi equalled her 6.76 in the final round to secure the runner-up position while the Valencia-native Concha Montaner took third with 6.66.

Irving Saladino also rose to the top of the season list as the Panamanian World Long Jump champion managed 8.20 in round 4 in his first appearance of the indoor calendar while the reigning World Indoor champion, Ghana’s Ignisious Gaisah, didn’t take part in the contest and no other jumper exceeded the 8.00m barrier.

Solo run for Melkamu

Up to three top-class Ethiopians had been announced in the women’s 3000m but finally only Meselech Melkamu was in contention. Paced by her fellow Ethiopian Meskaren Assefa through the first kilo in a World record schedule of 2:47.35 Melkamu took charge of the race at midway but her 2000m split (5:39:85) indicated that Meseret Defar’s World record was not to be broken in Valencia. Chased way back by Morocco’s Meryem Alaoui Selsouli, Melkamu, holder of the three last World XC bronze medals romped home in 8:29.48 from the Moroccan’s 8:35.86 while Portugal’ Jessica Augusto finished third in 8:55.18.

“Although I haven’t matched my last year result in Stuttgart (when she pushed Defar to the line to clock 8.23.74) I’m confident of being selected for the Worlds as my time is now second among the Ethiopians athletes.” said the victor.

Elsewhere…

The men’s 800m didn’t offer the expected kind of performances but at least the reigning World indoor champion Wilfred Bungei made up for his disappointment from last year when he was disqualified after winning the race. On this occasion it was Latvia’s Dmitrijs Milkevics who ran closest to the pacesetter trying to avenge his defeat to Bungei in Stuttgart but Bungei overtook the Latvian just before negotiating the final bend and held off his challenge to post a narrow win, 1:47.22 and 1:47.30 their respective times. Uganda’s Abraham Chepkirwok cloked 1:48.03 for third.

In the infield Jesse Williams of the US managed 2.31 in the High Jump to take top spot ahead of Ukraine’s 2005 World bronze medallist Yuriy Krimarenko, who had to settle for a 2.26 clearance while the men’s Shot Put only witnessed two athletes exceeding the 20m barrier by a narrow margin. Poland’s Osaka fifth placed Tomasz Majewski was the victor with a 20.11 toss in round four while Portugal’s Marco Fortes was measured at 20.08 in his second attempt, both bettering America’s Dan Taylor’s 19.87 best effort.

Spain’s Jackson Quiñónez overcame a slow start (0.187s his reaction time) to capture a 7.61 60m hurdles win from Sweden’s Robert Kronberg, timed at 7.67 while the latter’s countryman Johan Wissman beat easily Grenada’s reigning World indoor champion Alleyne Francique (46.37 vs 46.98) in the 400m.

In other women’s events, Poland’s Monika Pyrek had a first-time success over 4.61 (SB) in the women’s Pole Vault while Germany’s Silke Spiegelburg recorded a PB thanks to a 4.51 clearance. The win in the women’s 60m Hurdles went for Spain’s Josephine Onya with 7.98 while Mayte Martínez notched a 1500m win in 4:15.34 ahead of her fellow Spaniard Esther Desviat, a former U-23 800m bronze medallist who posted a PB of 4:15.95.

Emeterio Valiente for the IAAF