In the initial race of his European campaign, Jeremy Roff has finished eighth in a hotly contested 1500m at the prestigious Berlin ISTAF meet.
In front of a crowd of over 60,000 athletics fans, Roff, who will make his world championships debut in August in the same stadium, slashed three seconds from his previous personal best to clock 3:34.39. The time rockets him to sixth on the Australian all-time list and takes almost two seconds off the previous NSW record held by Youcef Abdi, which he set in 2002 and equaled in 2003.
The race was taken out by Kenya's Augustine Choege in a world leading 3:29.47. The time was the fastest time recorded in the world since July, 2006.
Roff was selected for the world championships following the national championships after having recording two B-qualifiers during the domestic season; for those who may have doubted the basis of that discretionary selection, Roff's run in Berlin well and truly vindicates the faith that the selectors placed in him.
Video of the Berlin ISTAF meet is available from Universal Sports. Following the 30 second introductory ad, fast forward to 27:15 for the introduction of the men's 1500m, or 28:50 for the start of the race.
Interestingly, as well as affirming the quality of the Australian selectors' judgment, Roff's run also gives them more options for the 1500m event, which along with the men's 400m, is Australia's strongest discipline on the world stage in terms of depth. The entry rules for the world championships allow for one athlete with a B-qualifier to be selected per event per nation; now that Roff has an A-qualifier to his name, the door is open for another B-qualifier to be chosen. The most likely candidate, should he demonstrate the same form in Europe as he showed during the domestic season, where he set a new Australian junior record, is 19 year old Ryan Gregson.
The only other Australian competing at the ISTAF meet, the opening leg of the IAAF Golden League, was long jumper Fabrice Lapierre, who improved on the 8.02m he jumped last weekend at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, USA, leaping to 8.04m (+0.8) to finish fourth. South Africa's Godfrey Khotso Mokoena took out the event with a jump of 8.33m (+1.0).
The highlight event of the meet was a thrilling contest in the women's high jump, with the home crowd support of the German crowd lifting Ariane Friedrich to a new personal best and upset defeat of Croatia's Blanka Vlasic. When Freidrich cleared 2.06m on her first attempt, Vlasic, who had failed at hers, was forced to raise the bar to the next height - 2.09m - equal to the world record set in 1987 by Stefka Kostadinova.
Vlasic missed her two attempts, as did Freidrich at all three of hers, but it was the German who looked closest to clearing the height. Vlasic has had numerous attempts at the world record over the previous few seasons, but with the added competition of Freidrich it appears that one, or the other, is a strong chance to break the record throughout the course of the season.
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