DOHA, 15 May 2005 — Olympic 100 meters silver medallist Francis Obikwelu exacted his revenge on gold medalist Justin Gatlin at the Qatar IAAF Super Grand Prix here on Friday.
Portugal’s Nigerian-born sprinter came home in 10.05 seconds ahead of Americans Shawn Crawford, 200 meters gold medalist in Athens, and Gatlin, who both posted times of 10.14 seconds respectively.
Obikwelu, who only entered the Olympic 100 meters as a warm-up for the longer sprint, steamed ahead of the field on a balmy night in the Qatari capital Doha in front of 12,000 spectators.
Elsewhere, Saif Saeed Shaheen of Qatar, formerly known as Stephen Cherono of Kenya before switching allegiances, won the 2,000-meter steeplechase in 5min 14min 53sec, 10 seconds off the record time he was aiming to beat. Kenyan Wesley Kiprotich finished second almost two seconds down.
In the 400 meters, Sudan’s Nagmeldin Ali Abubakr won in 45.52 seconds, just a tenth of a second ahead of Tyree Washington of the United States.
Saudi Arabia’s Muhammad Al-Salhi won the 800 meters in 1min 45.64 seconds, just nipping in front of Kenyan Alfred Kirwa, four-tenths of a second behind.
It was an all-Kenyan podium finish in the 3,000 meters, with Eliud Kipchoge seeing off young compatriot Augustine Choge, the World Junior and Youth 5,000 meters champion who won the World Junior Cross Country title in France last month. Benjamin Limo came in third.
Romanian Marian Oprea was the only jumper to break the 17-meter barrier in winning the triple jump, while Latvian Stanislavs Olijars won the 100m hurdles in 13.11 seconds ahead of American Terrence Trammell.
American Reese Hoffa won the shot put with an effort measuring 21.29 meters, while Denmark’s Joachim Olsen registered 20.78 in second and Slovakia’s Mikulas Konopka in third with 20.34.
In the women’s events, world indoor record holder Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia could only manage second in the 800 meters to Olympic medalist Hasna Benhassi of Morocco.
Kazakh Tatyana Roslanova came in third to edge out Diane Cummings of Canada into fourth.
Fancied American sprinter Allyson Felix won the 200 meters in 22.78 seconds, beating home Christine Amertil of the Bahamas in 22.95 and Senegal’s Amy Mbacke Thiam in 23.10. Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia won the women’s long jump with a best leap of 6.70 meters. Germany’s Bianca Keppler came second with 6.55 while Fiona May of Italy was third eight centimeters behind. Anju Bobby George, India’s World Championships bronze medallist from Paris in 2003, returning to competition after a six-month break, finished fourth with 6.42 meters.
Romanian Szabo Retires From Activity as Athlete
In Bucharest, former Olympic 5,000 meters champion Gabriela Szabo is retiring from athletics, the 29-year-old Romanian said yesterday.
“Everything has to come to an end..,” Szabo told Reuters. “Too much hard training, too much competition stress, that’s enough.”
Last year after several defeats and suffering from burnout, Szabo decided to stop training and competing for a while.
“Then I felt blocked after 16 years of competition at the highest world level,” she said. “Today I think is better to put an end to the happiest chapter of my life.” she added.
Earlier this week, Szabo, who will turn 30 on November, was elected Romanian Athletic Federation vice president.
The diminutive Szabo (1.58-meters in her glory days) largely dominated the 5,000-meter event between 1997 and 2000, when she won the 2000 Olympic title. She married long-term coach Gyongyossy Zsolt in October 1999.
