Soboleva sets World 1500m Indoors record

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With a little help from my friends. That surely was the case for a grateful Yelena Soboleva from Russia when she broke the world record on Sunday in Valencia, Spain.

Running at the 12th World Indoor Track Championships over 1500m, the long striding blonde was assisted towards establishing a new World Record on the 200m indoor track by her compatriot Yuliya Fomenko.

Soboleva finds running in a slow paced tactical event difficult as it does not suit her rangy stride and style and together with Fomenko they plotted a race strategy that with suit both their chances.

Their greatest pre-race competition came in the form of Bahrain’s Maryam Jamal, the outdoor 1500m Champion from Osaka 2007

The plan was to provide a fast but steady pace, an ideal tactic for the tight bends of indoors. Soboleva provided the initial pace and gave way to Fomenko after 600m to reach 800m in 2:07.89.

The shorter of the two, Fomenko, kept the tempo strong never allowing Jamal to settle or attack over the last 200m when Soboleva took the lead and powered away to set the new WR of 3:57.71 followed by Fomenko in a Personal Best of 3:59.41.

Ethiopia's Gelete Burka grabbed Bronze on the line from Jamal setting a new National and Africa record of 3:59.75 . For Jamal, the only consolation was a new National and Area record of 3:59.79.

Stunning performances by the first 5 athletes all resulted in PB's

Notable quote

“I have to thank Yulia for helping with the pace today. If we would not have done it this way I don’t know if it would have been possible to win”, Soboleva believes. “But I really had no idea about the world record. The problem was that I did not see the time at the 1000 metre mark. So I could not think about breaking the record. I only realised that Yulia was running very fast and that I have to held on to her.”

Women's 1500m Results

1 Yelena Soboleva RUS 3:57.71 (WR)
2 Yuliya Fomenko RUS 3:59.41 (PB)
3 Gelete Burka ETH 3:59.75 (AR)
4 Maryam Yusuf Jamal BRN 3:59.79 (AR)
5 Daniela Yordanova BUL 4:04.19 (NR)
6 Liliana Popescu ROU 4:07.61 .
7 Bouchra Ghézielle FRA 4:08.66 .
8 Siham Hilali MAR 4:15.54 .
. Sonja Roman SLO DNF