Clarke runs fastest 60m this season
Jamaica’s Lerone Clarke threw down the gauntlet a month ahead of the
world indoor athletics championships as he posted the fastest 60 metres
time this season here on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Commonwealth Games champion timed 6.5sec to improve
his best time this campaign by two hundreths of a second as he finished
clear of France’s European 100m champion Christophe Lemaitre (6.57sec).
While Lemaitre failed to better his personal best over the distance
of 6.55sec, he was making his first appearance of the season.
His compatriot Romain Mesnil booked his ticket to the indoor
championships in Istanbul (9-11 March) as the three-time outdoor world
medalist in the pole vault achieved the qualifying mark of 5.72 metres.
It wasn’t good enough for the 34-year-old to win the event, that
going to Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe who while he also only managed
5.72m won on number of attempts taken to reach the mark.
The women’s pole vault was won by the previously dominant Russian
superstar Yelena Isinbayeva, who won with a vault of 4.81m, but went on
to fail three times at 4.91m.
Other world bests for the season were recorded by Morocco’s Malicka
Akkaoui and Adam Kszczot of Poland in the women’s and men’s 800m
respectively with times of 1min 59.01sec and 1:44.57.
Morocco’s Abdalaati Iguider posted the fastest time of the year in
the men’s 1500m as well as he finished in 3:34.10.
AFP
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