Eusebio Caceres (© Getty Images)
The annual IAAF World Challenge de Dakar meeting in Senegal saw the top honours going to Ethiopian distance runner Almaz Ayana as well as long jumpers Eusebio Caceres and Bianca Stuart on Wednesday (12).
Ayana, better known as a steeplechaser, dominated the women’s 3000m and reduced her personal best by almost six seconds with a time of 8:44.30 as she won by almost 20 seconds and posted the second-fastest time in the world this year.
Caceres, a two-time IAAF World Junior Championships medallist, flew out to 8.20m and the Spaniard maintained his good run of form after winning at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Rabat, Morocco with 8.22m on Sunday.
In a close contest, Greece’s Yeoryios Tsakonas was second with 8.17m.
Bahamas’ Bianca Stuart won the women’s Long Jump with 6.73m, just eight centimetres short of her national record set two years ago.
There were good wins for two Kenyans runners in the men’s middle distance races.
Ferguson Rotich won the 800m in a personal best of 1:45.40, coming home ahead of his compatriot Anthony Chemut who was second in 1:45.43, while Daniel Kipchirch Komen won the 1500m in 3:35.15, with Ethiopia’s Tesfaye Cheru second in a personal best of 3:35.67.
Botswana’s Kabelo Kgosiemang won the High Jump with 2.25m, getting the verdict on on count back from Italy’s Marco Fassinotti who cleared the same height.
Hanne provide home happiness
After his personal best of 48.56 at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rome last week, Senegal’s Mamadou Kasse Hanne again went under 49 seconds in the 400m Hurdles and provided the one domestic win of the evening when he crossed the line in 48.99.
Ukraine’s Hanna Titimets won the women’s 400m Hurdles in 56.33 while Jamaica’s Patricia Hall lead the way over one lap without the barriers to win in 52.23.
St Kitts’ former World champion Kim Collins won the 100m in a windy 10.04 with Morocco Aziz Ouhadi second in 10.12 while another former World champion, USA’s Lauryn Williams, won the women’s 100m in 11.26, this time with a legal wind on her back.
In the throws, South Africa’s Orazio Cremona won a tight Shot Put contest with a distance of 20.32m, winning by 10cm from Portugal’s Marco Fortes.
Germany’s Sabine Rumpf threw 59.38m to win the women’s Discus while Sweden’s Tracey Andersson was the best in the women’s Hammer with 67.48m.
Unfortunately, both the advertised headline acts did not make it to Dakar.
Botswana’s current 400m World champion Amantle Montsho, who is unbeaten in 2013, was delayed at home after attending the Botswana National Sport Council awards night in Gabrone last weekend.
Algeria’s London 2012 Olympic Games 1500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi also didn’t make it after suffering from flu earlier in the week.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
