BIRMINGHAM, March 1, 2018 –The day after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee and its athlete, it was double delight for the nation at the World Indoor Championships, with Danil Lysenko and Mariya Latiskene both bagging gold in the men’s and women’s high jump disciplines. However, since they, along with six other Russians are registered under the “Authorised Neutral Athletes” category, the Russian anthem couldn’t be heard playing inside the Birmingham Arena as they walked up to take gold.
In the only other final of the day, Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba clinched gold in the 3000m women’s final while the hosts got on to the medal tally with double European champion Laura Muir finishing third.
Lysenko soars high
Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim was expected to set the stage on fire as the 11 men went out in the middle during the men’s high jump final, and he lived up to his reputation by pulling off his first four attempts with utmost grace.
While there were six athletes to go past the inaugural hurdle of 2.20m, only four went past the 2.25m-mark in their first attempts. The interesting part, however, was that of the remaining seven contenders, six of them failed to go past the bar in all their three attempts while German Mateusz Przybylko managed to stay in the hunt only with a third successful attempt. Home favourite Robbie Grabarz, however, had a disappointing evening — taking three attempts to go through to the second round only to crash out.
Hot on Barshim’s heels, however, was Danil Lysenko — with him matching up to Barshim’s trail and clearing on his first four attempts to push the competition to the 2.33m-mark. USA’s Erik Kynard and Przybylko both crashed out at the 2.33m-mark, although the German bagged the bronze owing to a cleaner clearance at the 2.29m-mark.
Both Barshim and Lysenko failed their first two attempts of the 2.36m, although the former did leap 2.38m at the Asian Indoor Championships last month. However, just when a jump-off seemed evident, Lysenko, who had enjoyed an unbeaten winter campaign so far, eased himself over the bar while Barshim toppled it, thus becoming the first world champion at the 2018 event.
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Mesmerising Mariya
Unlike their counterparts, it was one-way traffic for Mariya Latiskene in the women’s high-jump discipline with the 25-year-old just failing once while clinching gold at 2.01m. The second place went to USA’s Vashti Cunningham while Italy’s Alessia Trost took bronze.
While Lastitskene, who clinched the World Indoor Tour title in Glasgow last month, swept through from the inaugural 1.84m to 1.96m, Cunningham and Trost were tied with Great Britain’s Morgan Lake for the second and minor medals with the trio posting identical scores in the 1.89m, 1.93m and 1.96m. They all cleared 1.89m on their first go, 1.93m in their second but failed to go past 1.96m.
That gave Lasitskene a chance to go for glory as she cleared her season’s best of 2.04m but missed out on the 2.07m mark, which would have placed her along with Heike Henkel of Germany for a second-highest indoor record. Cunningham had participated in only two indoor Games before this evening, managing to touch the 1.96m on both the occasions.
While all the women athletes had gone past the inaugural hurdle of 1.84m, as many as seven of them failed to go past the 1.89m-mark with Ukranian Yuliya Levchenko, also the world No 2, and Bulgarian Mirela Demireva bowing out at 1.93m.
Lasitskene had produced the best-seven jumps of the season with Thursday’s action just adding another feather to her glorious crown.
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Dibaba dominates
Defending champion Genzebe Dibaba kept up her winning momentum in the indoor season as she clocked 8:45.05m to bag gold as Holland’s Sifan Hassan finished a close second, trailing the Ethiopian by just 00:00.23s. Home favourite and double European champion Laura Muir finished third, although she led the pack at the end of the first two laps.
Dibaba took the lead at the end of the 2000m and went on to increase the gap as the laps went by before a later surge from Muir and Hassan pushed her to stamp her authority. She completed the last 1500m at just four minutes and three seconds. The win now completes a hat-trick for Dibaba, who had won the competition even at the 2014 and 2016 Indoor Games, in Sopot and Portland, respectively.
It was bit of a disappointment for Konstanze Klosterhalfen though, the German finishing seventh despite leading from the pack from the third lap to the 1600m-mark.
Muir, who won’t take part in the Commonwealth Games in Australia later this year since she would be taking her exams in veterinary medicine, stated that she had a bit of a niggle towards the latter end of the race.
“It was hurting on that last lap but I had to dig deep and I got a medal. The crowd were great and good on them for coming out to support,” she said. “I'll have to see my therapist and speak to my coach but now it's a matter of refuelling and going again tomorrow. I can't describe the feeling, it's brilliant and to get a European medal was brilliant but to get one on the world stage in a world class 3000m, to come through that field, I’m very happy.”
Follow Bihan Sengupta on Twitter: @BihanSengupta91
