BAHRAIN’S star middle distance runner and Olympian Maryam Yousef Jamal continued her rise on the world stage by winning the women’s 1,500m race at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games, the start of the 2007 IAAF Golden League, in Oslo. Maryam staged a brilliant rally in the last 15 metres to bridge a four-metre gap and win the race in 4:01.44 minutes. Russia’s Yuliya Fomenko (4:01.58) and Ukraine’s Iryna Lishchynska (4:01.82) were second and third respectively. Maryam set the Asian record in the 1,500m (3:56.18) earlier this year and on Tuesday clocked the year’s best of 4:22.34 for the mile at an international athletics meeting in Geneva.
The next major event for the Ethiopian-born athlete will be the 1,500m in the World Athletics Championship to be held in Osaka, Japan, from August 25 to September 2.
Another Bahraini athlete Belal Mansoor finished 5th in the mile race in 3:56.17. The event was won by Moroccan Adil Kaouch who produced a personal best of 3:51.14. World silver medallist Kenya’s Augustine Choge (3:51.62) was second and Britain’s Andy Baddeley (3:51.95) third.
In other events, Russian world and Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva continued her supremacy.
Isinbayeva, who has previously bemoaned the dearth of quality opposition in her event, entered the pole vault at 4.60m with only Poland’s Monica Pyrek left in the competition.
Pyrek promptly crashed out at 4.70m while Isinbayeva had to settle for 4.85m.
In the tightly-contested high jump, Russian Yelena Slesarenko won with a season’s best of 2.02m ahead of Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic.
American Anwar Moore won the 110m hurdles in 13.26 seconds, edging compatriot David Payne by 0.01 second with Thomas Blaschek of Germany in third.
In the field, Phillips Idowu of Britain won the triple jump with a best of 17.35m, two centimetres ahead of Sweden’s Olympic champion Christian Olsson. Tero Pitkamaki of Finland claimed top podium spot in the javelin with 88.78m.
It was a good night on the track for American women, with victories for Stephanie Durst, Sanya Richards and Michelle Perry.
Durst won the 100m in 11.22sec ahead of Jamaican Sheri-Ann Brooks and Cydonie Mothersill of Cayman Islands. Perry won the 100m hurdles in 12.70.
Richards was untroubled as she strolled to victory in the 400m in a season’s best of 50.26 seconds.