Stockholm, Sweden – Great athletics was on display at the annual DN Galan meeting, part of the Super Grand Prix status meeting within the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2008.
Performance of the night, from a running perspective, was undoubtedly the 'almost' World Record attempt of Meseret Defar in the Women's 5000m race. The Ethiopian simply left herself too much to do over the last lap, needing a sub 59 second 400m to have a chance of breaking compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba's 14:11.15. Defar came agonisingly close with her 14:12.88 and was simply distraught after coming so close.
Being the champion she is, she quickly recovered her composure and went on her lap of honour and no doubt with thoughts of Beijing and the 'battle royale' with Dibaba over 5000m, something for us to relish.
Mottram takes 3000m at a canter
One to rather enjoy their victory was Aussie, Craig Mottram, who moved away with relative ease over the final lap, to win in 7:37.73, nothing spectacular but a good win over Kenya's Isaac Songok. The USA's Matt Tegenkamp came through for 4th to provide interest for all his followers back home.
An interesting aspect of the race was the showing of the two 1500m specialists. in the form of South Africa's Juan van Deventer and Canada's Kevin Sullivan who took places 6 and 7 respectively both clocking 7:41 and change.
World Junior Record in Men's 1000m
Sudan's Abubaker Kaki continued on his record blazing trail and he left Russia's Yuriy Borzakovskiy in his wake, on the way to clocking yet another World Junior record with the time of 2:13.93. Bahrain's Yusuf Saad Kamel tried to make a race of it and finished 2nd with a Personal Best of 2:14.72. But this certainly was the Kaki comes to town party and he notched up yet another victory and a learning experience which should stand him in good stead in Beijing, where he surely lines up as the favourite.
Sweden's Mustafa Mohamed unable to realise vicotry
The home favourite in the Men's 3000m, Mustafa Mohamed, tried to do everything to deliver a victory on the running track but fell short over the final 100m when 2 Kenyans came galloping past with a superior kick to take the title from his grasp. The winning time was 8:14.51 by Michael Kipyego.
Sweden did get their win via the evergreen high jumper Stefan Holm to seal a grand evening of athletics
