The Men's 800m was a pretty exciting final. The heavy favorite was Mo Aman, the defending world outdoor champion at 800m, but lurking in the final were a couple of Polish harriers with a little home crowd advantage, which can go a long way. Over the second 400m the Poles teamed up with Lewandowski leading from Kszczot but Aman managed to throw down a nice kick over the final 100m to launch himself away from Kszczot to take yet another Gold. Aman has put together quite the resume for himself with a pair of wins over Rudisha, a 1:42.37 PR and now another Gold medal at a world championship. Lewandowski ended up DQd (a lot of DQs coming this weekend for reasons that I can't quite understand) which meant Andrew Osagie of Great Britian jumps up and grabs bronze. He was originally just .01 off of Lewandowski in the pre-DQ finish.
The women's 800m was quite the achievement for PA! Chanelle Price grabbed the world indoor gold leading from the gun in the race and holding her own against some of the other best in the world types. It was a bit of a weaker field than those she will see outdoors, but Price took a big step into the world elite with this dominating win. She took things from the gun and led them out in about 27.8 and then 57.8 which was definitely quick. It was a tad rich for most in the field but Price, who has been racing like this her entire career, was very under control and poised at the front. The tired field was exhausted from that lap and didn't quite rally on the third lap, which was slow. They swung to lane 3 but couldn't get by as Price, rested from the 3rd lap where everyone else was working much harder, had plenty left to hold off all comers in the final 200m and take home the gold. Her time of 2:00.09 may be her fastest ever indoors or out (looked it up, it is). Pretty impressive victory for a woman who had never before made a Senior US World Championship team.
The men's 3000m was a stacked race that included perhaps the two best American distance runners of all time including defending champion Bernard Lagat and olympic silver medalist at 10,000m Galen Rupp. The last 1k of the race was where things really got going (2:22 for the 1k for the leaders) and the boys were blazing around the track. Lagat had perhaps a little bit too much in pack jostling to do over the final laps and ultimately he couldn't quite kick by the surprise victor: Caleb Ndiku. Ndiku held off a late charge from Lagat closing in 26 for the final 200m. The Ethopian studs Dejen Gebremeskel and Hagos Gebrhiwet couldn't hold on to the fast close, despite having the best strength in the field. Gebremeskel ended up the bronze medalist and Hagos ended up 5th behind Galen Rupp, who just missed another medal for his awards stand. Rupp was in the race the whole way but the 3000m proved to have too fast of a close for Rupp to handle, although he performed quite admirably under the conditions. Considering Rupp is a true 10k guy, he really hung well on the final lap of this race.
It's a huge breakthrough for Ndiku who is coming off a massive spring where he dropped his 1500m PR to 3:29 for Kenya. Unfortunately, because he is from Kenya, that 3:29 still wasn't good enough to get him on the worlds team over Chebseba, Kiplagat and Kiprob, three of the best the world has seen in recent years. Ndiku was an impressive junior athlete who won world junior titles in the 1500m in 2010 and in cross country in 2010. The 3:49 miler has a PB of 13:03 in the 5k but this spring we might see that mark take a fairly large tip south.
In the women's 3k, Genezebe Dibaba did not fail to deliver. The women who smashed three separate world indoor records this Winter completed her campaign by throwing down the gauntlet in the final and winning easily. She looked completely smooth and under control running 1k splits in the ball park of 3:24-2:51-2:38. Wow. That was going to make it hard for anybody to come along for the ride and Grunewald (10th) and Rowbury (8th) were never really factors at all for the US. Rowbury hung on the longest but when things began to get going, it was Dibaba in command. Obiri, the defending champion, had a nice close over the final 200m to make the race respectable, although Dibaba was shutting it down, Obiri still finished within 2 second of the winner and took a strong silver medal for Kenya.
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