Stuttgart & Moscow

The 60m in Stuttgart on Saturday looks interesting....

http://www.windiesfans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1461

Lemaitre vs Lerone Clarke and MLF....

And in the women's 60m hurdles, Lolo Jones runs against Vonette Dixon and Perdita Felicien.

And in Moscow on Sunday, the 60m for men features Josh Norman (US), Marc Burns (Tdad), Oshane Bailey (Jca), and Kim Collins (St Kitts).

Not to mention a great 60m hurdles with Robles,Turner and David Oliver. Something special maybe. Also Kaki makes his entrance onto the indoor 800m scene and a fine 15000m for men with top Kenyans and Mekkonen.

I've also noticed that there's a rare 4x100m indoor relay race between the teams of Germany and France on the programme! I can't recall having seen anything of the like before!

From a British point of view, there are some very interesting entries in Stuttgart as the sprint duo of Mark Lewis-Francis and Craig Pickering go into the men's 60m faced with some stern opposition in Mike Rodgers (USA), double European champion Christophe Lemaitre and talented Jamaican Lerone Clarke, in a race that could provide a substantial insight into their form and their prospects this indoor season.

Lewis-Francis is buoyant after a promising winning display in Glasgow, resuming where he left off in Delhi nicely, and will fancy his chances to spring a thumping second win on the trot over a much stronger field and make a serious statement before Paris. This time he'll be running on a faster track than Kelvin Hall too so he will be looking for something considerably faster into the bargain.

Pickering's season debut, on the other hand, was quite alarming to put it mildly, with a reasonable opening of 6.74 secs behind Harry Aikines-Ayreety in his first race before crashing down into last in a second run of 6.80 secs later - his slowest time since 2006. That has raised even more questions rather than answered any over his progress and form and he will need to dig deep and summon a sound reserve of strength to cope with the pressure heaping up to perform. Hopefully, he's going the shake those first impressions off and start turning the corner.

Interestingly enough, Mark and Craig are credited with 10.38 and 10.22 secs in 2010 in the entry list!!

Tiffany Offili looked in very good form and poised to dip under 8 secs behind Jessica Ennis in Glasgow so she will be looking to turn that into shape this weekend, with an eye to upsetting both Lolo Jones and Canadian Perdita Felicien. In particular, I would expect Jones to turn up a much different proposition than in Glasgow where everything seemed to go against her even before she set foot in Britain.

Likewise, Andy Turner will be looking to make the most of the first showdown between David Oliver and Dayron Robles to be drawn to a much faster time than his 7.66 secs opener in Glasgow, while Tom Parsons could emerge into the 2.30s in the high jump against a good level field.

Charlene Thomas makes a rare outing over 3000m on her return to action after an injury-blighted summer and it's going to be interesting whether she could threaten her PB of 9:01.63 against four Ethiopian girls headed by Sentayehu Ejihu while Scot Overall goes in at the deep end facing the likes of Augustine Choge, Eliud Kipchoge and Yenew Alemirew (ETH). Nevertheless, if his recent form is anything to go by, this could shape the ideal set to lay his marker down on the international scene. Not that he would be expected to beat the above mentioned but that he could knock a chunk off his PB of 7:50.66 over the distance.

Rodgers wins in 6.55, Clarke second, Lemaitre way behind....

MLF last, unfortunately. I don't know where Pickering placed.

Craig Pickering came fourth tied with third-placed Emanuele Di Gregorio sharing the same time of 6.66, much much better from him than his season opener last week preceded by a 6.67 secs semi earlier on. Let alone the scalp of Christophe Lemaitre even though the French doesn't look at his very best yet.

Don't know what happened to MLF to trail home last in the final after a good heat of 6.66 (eSB) in the semis. Mike Rodgers so very consistent in the mid 6.5 secs, that's his second run in 6.56 secs in a week!

1.RODGERS, Mike USA 6.56 0.166
2.CLARKE, Lerone JAM 6.63 0.150
3.DI GREGORIO, Emanuele ITA 6.66 0.165
4.PICKERING, Craig GBR 6.66 0.133
5.LEMAITRE, Christophe FRA 6.67 0.131
6.LEWIS-FRANCIS, Mark GBR 6.70 0.152

David Oliver overwhelmed the field to win the men's 60mh by streets in a clear world-leading mark of 7.37 secs, marginally off the US record by 0.01 secs, and looks as though he could seriously threaten Colin Jackson's long-standing world record of 7.30 down the indoor season. Andy Turner got a very good second in a SB of 7.63 secs while Dayron Robles was disqualified on his return to action! Oliver, incidentally, goes equal 6th all-time courtesy of that time!

1.OLIVER, David USA WL 7.37 0.126
2.TURNER, Andrew GBR 7.63 0.152
3.SEDOC, Gregory NED 7.66 0.173
4.CAPETILLO, Dayron CUB 7.68 0.180
5.DARIEN, Garfield FRA 7.86 0.157
-ROBLES, Dayron CUB disq 0.174

Cracking race in the men's 3000m as Ethiopia's Yenew Alamirew turned in a sizzling turn of pace down the home stretch, despite apparently struggling round the tight curves on his indoor debut, to overhaul Augustine Choge to the line in easily the fastest time in the world this season and the third fastest ever of 7:27.80! Choge himself run into fourth all-time in 7:28.00 and Eliud Kipchoge fifth best ever in 7:29.37!! All in a single race!!

There are five men in history to have gone under 7:30 over 3000m indoors and the three have emerged today!

1.ALAMIREW, Yenew ETH WL,MR 7:27.80
2.CHOGE, Augustine KEN 7:28.00
3.KIPCHOGE, Eliud KEN 7:29.37
4.MUTAHI, Sammy Alex KEN 7:44.27
5.MEUCCI, Daniele ITA 7:59.58
6.AMDOUNI, Morhad FRA 8:00.87
7.OVERALL, Scott GBR 8:05.46
8.FERNANDEZ, Alvaro ESP 8:08.93
- BIRGEN, Bethwel KEN DNF
- KENNOUCHE, Abdelslam FRA DNF

Scot Overall should be disappointed with his first indoor result of the season.

Full results can be found here as the meeting is still in progress:

http://www.sparkassen-cup.de/aktuell/results/timetable.html

Charlene Thomas, by the way, made a solid comeback to action by way of a 9:03.34 clocking for fifth over the women's 3000m in Stuttgart yesterday to get things back on track after an injury-ravaged summer last year. Tiffany Offili didn't show up in the women's 60m hurdles.

Here's a link to the results in Moscow:

http://www.rusathletics.com/russianwinter/rez-e.htm

A few British competitors in Moscow and most notable was Richard Buck who got off to a solid and his fastest ever season opener of 47 secs dead for runner-up in the men's 400m B race, slightly behind Russian Dmitriy Buryak who set 46.91 secs. That's the fastest so far by a Brit into the current indoor term which looks to be gradually mounting an upward curve.

Veteran Joice Maduaka was last in her 60m heat in 7.43 secs, a SB.

In Moscow, Kim Collins of St Kitts won the men’s 60m in 6.60sec, split on the photo from Joshua Norman the runner-up who was given the same time. Peter Emelieze (NGR) and Marc Burns (TRI) shared third place in a blanket finish.

The limelight of the meeting in Moscow was, of course, on Yelena Isinbayeva's return to action after taking a year out of the sport, which was eagerly anticipated and built up. The world record-holder did not disappoint as she cleared a first-time global-leading 4.81m from the outset of her new chapter in her career to lay down her mark, also attempting at 4.91m subsequently.

Former world No1 Svetlana Feofanova was a distant second with a clearance of 4.56 at the first time of asking, with Aleksandra Kiryashova taking third at the same height on countback.

Antonina Krivoshapka was the victor in the women's 400m in a SB of 51.98 secs ahead of Denisa Scerbova-Rosolova, who ran 52.21 secs, while Ivan Ukhov continued his impressive early dominant streak of form to go over 2.34m for a convincing win over compatriot Aleksandr Shustov and American Jesse Williams who were tied at 2.31m - the Russian getting second spot on countback.

Also, Ruddy Zang Milama (GAB) scorched to a winning 7.15 secs (SB) in the women's 60m, one of the fastest times in the world so far. Mikele Barber (USA) was second at 7.22 secs (SB).