The Pamela Jelimo steam train keeps steaming towards records of a various kind and this time, another new World Junior record in the 800m with her winning time of 1:54.97 at the Golden League meeting in Paris.
The win keeps her on track with other Jackpot contender Blanca Vasic who had a mixed bag performance wise but was still good enough to stay in contention by winning.
Jeremy Wariner stepped it up a gear in winning his 400m over LeShawn Merritt and edged to 3 - 2 lead for 2008. The win was impressive and so was the time and the manner of the victory (imo) may have set the doubt back in the mind of Merritt. Wariner's winning time was 43.86 for a world season lead.
Back to Jelimo and her amazing 800m. She was taken through the first 400m in 400m and with 300m to go in was purely a demonstration of power running at the front of the field as she scappered away to a victory of just under 4 seconds, a massive gap at this level. And in case anyone was in doubt that the others weren't trying it is good to find that a further 4 in the field ran Personal Bests however the one who should be challenging and who did not run a PB was Kenyan compatriot, Janeth Jepkosgei, in 3rd with 1:58.52.
Going into the Olympics it is not all cut and dry for the Kenyan 800m starlet to simply bag the Gold by turning up as at the recent Russian Championships the new World Indoor Champion and World Record holder over 1500m indoors recording a stunning 1:54.85 in winning the 800m title and she was chased home by a horde of contenders who recorded 1:56 and still failed to win their Championships.
So we can look forward to a competitve Women's 800m in Beijing and an race of interest.
The 1500m race matchup for the Men was diluted of some its big names with last year's winner Allan Webb providing a no show and with the withdrawal of a few others, namely Nick Willis of New Zealand the field did not resemble the same as what was found in earlier press releases. Despie the withdrawals and the inept shorts, the winner in effortless style was Augustine Kiprono Choge in 3:32.40. Choge dealt with last week's Rome winner, Asbel Kiprop, with scant regard for the status that was being built around his compatriot as being the next big thing over 1500m.
In the Women's 1500m, ex-Ethiopian and now by way of Bahrain, Maryam Yusuf Jamal continued her imperious form in taking the race at a canter with this years much improved Shannon Rowbury of the USA 2nd in 4:00.33. Jamal squeaked under 4 minutes with a time of 3:5.99.
The Men's 3000m SteepleChase gave a glimpse of a possible medalist over the Olympic Distance with ex-Kenyan and now by way of Bahrain, Tareq Mubarak Taher, winning at will in a decent time of 8:08.53. The Beijing Gold will certainly be between last week's Rome Top Two finishers, Kenyans Brimin Kiprop Kipruto and Ezekiel Kemboi, and Taher, who incidently finished 3rd in Rome. The overall event favourite from past Championships, Saif Saaeed Shaheen, failed to finish in a Steeple event in Athens last weekend and is certainly not in the shake up on current form.
A great feature of the race was the 3rd place finish of Sweden's Mustafa Mohamed who made a terrific comeback by recording 8:11.10 going into the Olympics, a top 5 finish at the Games would indeed be an achievement for Sverige.
The Women's 5000m came across as a no eventer despite the decent finishing time of 14:38.47 by Kenya's
Lucy Kabuu Wangui. The problem was the lack of depth in the field and quite frankly the lack of a field to talk of considering there was only 5 finishers.
Fortunately the Men's 3000m had a touch of a sparkle for Irish fans with Alistair Cragg making an appearance on the international stage, the ex-South African had nothing in the tank when coming into the final 100m and had to be content with 4th behind race winner Edwin Cheruiyot Soi, who won in 7:36.71.
