Kenyan teen clocks fastest 800 in 11 yrs

BERLIN: Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo clocked the fastest women's 800m for nearly 11 years in only her fourth race over two laps at the Berlin Golden League meeting on Sunday.

Jelimo, 18, who took up the event just three months ago, ran away from a formidable field in one minute 54.99 seconds. Only five women have run faster.

"The time is fantastic," Jelimo, who won by a staggering four seconds, told reporters. "I knew I was well prepared and ready to show strong results."

LaShawn Merritt upset Olympic and world champion Jeremy Wariner in the men's 400m after a dramatic stride-for-stride contest over the final 50m before a near-record crowd of 67,124 in Berlin's Olympic stadium.

Merritt edged ahead of his fellow-American to win in a year's best of 44.03 seconds.

"Beating Wariner is nice, but it's just one race," said Merritt, who finished second behind the Texan at last year's world championships. "I train to win and that's what I did. But he's a great competitor and this definitely wasn't his best race."

World high jump champion Blanka Vlasic, among the biggest favorites for a share of the $1 million Golden League jackpot, won her event with a 2.03m leap, equaling her own world leading performance. It was the 25th consecutive victory for the 25-year-old Croatian, the longest current winning streak in the sport.

"It was not that easy, but I had it under control," Vlasic said. "I nearly jumped 2.06 so that's quite good."

Kenyan Augustine Choge of Kenya took a commanding victory in the 1,500m in a time of 3:31.57.

Another Kenyan, Moses Masai won the 5,000m in 12:50.55, breaking Haile Gebreselassie's meeting record set 13 years ago. World indoor 3,000 champion Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia was second.

The next Golden League meeting is the Bislett Games in Oslo on Friday.

Agencies

(China Daily 06/03/2008 page24)