The European season started out with a reminder that even the seemingly unbeatable can be beaten as Ariane Friedrich (GER) defeated Blanka Vlasic (CRO) to win the first leg of the Golden League event. Friendrich's winning jump of 2.06m was a national record, meet record, and took over the yearly lead from Vlasic. Quite a feat as Vlasic has owned the event for the past couple of seasons.
The women were the top stars of the meet as Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS) set a meet record of her own as she upped the world lead with her winning 4.83m vault and Sanya Richards (US) ran a world leading 49.57 in the 400 meters.
The men were lead by a hot 1500 meters as Augustine Kiprono Choge lowered his own world leader to 3:29.47 as no less than 10 individuals in the race set seasonal or personal bests! Ditto the men's 5000 meters as Kenenisa Bekele ran the #2 time on the season (13:00.76) while leading 9 others to seasonal or personal bests.
The rest of the meet was rather ho hum in comparison, as the lack of big names showed. The Golden League should be a bit more careful in scheduling its meets - especially as it expands next season. With several National Championship meets being held within the next two weeks, it might be prudent to avoid scheduling too close to these meets. Just food for thought.
Full results of Berlin can be found here.
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