Koech leads Kenya at Germany indoor track meet

By CHRIS MUSUMBA and IAAF

World Indoor 3,000m silver medallist Paul Kipsiele Koech set the fastest time this season for 5,000m when he beat off a strong challenge from his compatriot as Kenya swept the podium in the PSD Bank Meeting in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Wednesday.

Even Miruts Yifter did it almost 40 years ago in a US race against Steve Prefontaine, so perhaps Daniel Kipchirchir Komen is not in such bad company.

The error of judgment happened in the men’s 5,000m as Komen was chasing the front-running Kipsiele into the bell. Suddenly, Komen stopped as if he considered the race to be over, even though the clock read approximately 12:38.

Gripping fast duel

That left Kipsiele racing against the clock, which he soon stopped in a world-leading time of 13:02.95, the fifth-fastest indoor performance of all time. Komen had no problem claiming the runner-up spot in 13:06.27, but the audience was deprived of a potentially gripping fast duel over the final lap.

A third Kenyan, Daniel Salel, took the next spot in 13:15.89, ahead of the 13:19.10 Asian record held by Qatar’s Essa Rasheed. That was just one of eight performances in the Arena Sportpark which equalled or bettered this indoor season’s best. The evening also saw seven meet records set in the fixture’s fifth yearly edition.

It was Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy who claimed the scalps in the men’s 800m race. And he ran his race just as in the old days, lagging behind the rest of the field until only about 300 metres to the tape.

Slowly and methodically, he chewed up the distance behind the leaders and sprinted away to lower his own world-leading time with a 1:45.77 win.

Final back straight

At the bell, Olympic silver winner Ahmad Ismail of Sudan was close behind the Russian. And into the final back straight, young Polish runner Adam Kszczot also made a move to try and overtake Borzakovskiy. Their efforts were futile,but the two were tooth and nail in the final metres as Ismail narrowly held off Kszczot, 1:45.99 to 1:46.00, for second.

Augustine Choge of Kenya broke away from the front runners with 150 metres remaining in the 1,500m race for a world-leading 3:36.75 victory over Juan van Deventer. Van Deventer clocked 3:37.25 – a South African record by more than two seconds – in his maiden indoor race with Geoffrey Rono of Kenya closing fast for third in 3:38.10.