Five world leads at Mt. SAC Relays

from IAAF - Walnut, USA - In a season holding no special international importance
for US athletes, perhaps it was not surprising that marks at this year’s
Mt SAC Relays, the 52nd edition, should be somewhat off their usual
mark.  That fact notwithstanding, five world-leading performances still
emerged from the three-day fixture contested among the rolling hills
east of Los Angeles.

The most significant of these list leaders
came from a European preparing for this summer’s Barcelona
Championships.  Slovak hammer thrower Libor Charfreitag, the Osaka
bronze medallist, twice pierced through the benchmark 80-metre level,
first with 80.54m and then with 80.59m, to win the event.  The
Dallas-based thrower had nearly a five-metre advantage over Kibwe
Johnson’s second-place 75.70m.

Demus checks her speed in flat
400m

Lashinda Demus, runner-up in the women’s 400m Hurdles at
last year’s  World championships, used this weekend’s competition as a
chance to check her speed in the flat event.  Coming off the final
curve, Demus caught Ebony Collins with 100 metres remaining and nicked
the year’s best by 0.02 with 51.40, not far off her PB 51.24 from eight
seasons ago.  Collins meanwhile coasted home in second with a PB
52.03.  

Jeshua Anderson also eked out a world-leading
performance with 49.11 in the men’s 400m Hurdles, shaving 0.01 off this
year’s previous best.  The 20-year-old reigning World junior champion
let two-time Olympian Bayano Kamani set the pace for the first 250
metres before charging ahead for the win.  Reggie Wyatt of USC slipped
past the fading Kamani right before the end to snare second, 50.45 to
50.61. 

The highlight of the traditional Mt SAC Distance
Carnival, now spread over two evenings, was the world-leading 5000m win
by Kenyan Sally Kipyego, now training with Oregon Track Club Elite in
Eugene.  Before two kilometres had gone by, Kipyego and Molly Huddle
were in a two-person battle, as they left the rest of the field behind. 

Just after the halfway point, Kipyego moved solidly in front en route
to an outdoor PB 15:02.83.  Huddle found some reserve strength in the
final lap as a burst of speed produced a 15:05.71 time, also a career
best. 

The men’s 5000 was won by Dan Huling in a lifetime best
of 13:24.72 with a sprint off the final curve, as Brent Vaughn followed
in 13:26.05. 

It was a good day for Giovanni Lanaro in the men’s
Pole Vault.  Competing in his home stadium, the Mexican had no real
competition and came away with a 5.70 win. 

The two sections of
the women’s hammer saw notable results.  In the elite section, Amber
Campbell heaved the implement past her previous personal best on three
attempts, surpassing 71 metres for the first time with 71.04m, as Berlin
finalist Sultana Frizell of Canada finished second with 69.70m. 

In
the open division, 19-year-old USC student Lauren Chambers twice
surpassed her own American junior record, which now stands at 62.93m. 

Mt
SAC has always been a successful venue for American long jumper Akiba
McKinney, the winner here three times in the last four years.  It would
have been four in five, had it not been for a countback at 6.81m against
Beijing finalist Funmi Jimoh.  McKinney’s second-best of 6.45m lost out
to Jimoh’s backup jump of 6.53m.

The men’s long jump went to
Norris Frederick with 8.03m, the day’s only leap past eight metres,
while Luis Rivera of Mexico held second at 7.93m. 

A pair of
Berlin finalists held the top spots in the men’s discus, as Jarred
Rome’s leadoff 63.77m proved to be insurmountable for Casey Malone, who
ended in second with 62.50m.  Using the event for a workout, Olympic
decathlon champion Bryan Clay saw his only legal throw measured at
46.70m, as he also false-started out of the 110 hurdles earlier in the
afternoon.

The men’s javelin saw Berlin finalist Sean Furey
produce an excellent series with three flings past the 78-metre mark. 

His second-round 79.31m was the best of the day, and the consistently
high level Furey maintained throughout the competition may well have
been the inspiration for 21-year-old Juan José Méndez of Mexico to throw
a PB 76.50m for the runner-up spot. 

The men’s 800m went to
Tyler Mulder who slipped past Duane Solomon on the inside over the last
fifty metres and came away with a PB win in 1:46.44.  Solomon held
second in 1:46.83 ahead of Karjuan Williams (1:47.14). 

The
women’s race was won in much the same way by Canada’s Diane Cummins, a
two-time World championship finalist, who kicked past leader Angee Henry
for a 2:03.25 victory.  Staying close to Cummins in the final steps was
Laura Januszewski, who pipped Henry for second, 2:03.35 to 2:03.63.

Both
of the invitational 4x100 relays had close, exciting finishes.  The
Kersee All-Stars, featuring Allyson Felix on the closing carry, powered
past the West Coast All-Stars, whose fortunes were in the legs of Miki
Barber.  Felix, the reigning World 200m champion, accelerated strongly
after the final handoff and pulled out a 43.64 come-from-behind victory
over Barber’s quartet, timed in 43.84.   

It was much the same
script in the men’s relay, as David Neville brought his team, composed
mostly of 400m runners, to the finish line first in 39.90, ahead of the
Arizona State squad, with Ray Miller on the finishing segment, clocking
39.97. 

In the men’s 400m, Joey Hughes outlegged Britain’s
Martyn Rooney over the final metres to claim a 45.37 win, as Beijing
finalist Rooney ended with 45.85, ahead of Donald Sanford (46.16). 

Rubin
Williams withstood a last-gasp effort from Egypt’s Amr Seoud, running
on the extreme outside, to hold on for a wind-aided 20.49 win in the
invitational section of the men’s 200m.  Seoud, whose PB is 20.52,
clocked 20.50w to easily best Norwegian Jaysuma Saidy Ndure (20.77w).
Seoud also won the 'Olympic Development' section of the 100m in 10.22,
setting a new Egyptian record.  The ‘Olympic Development’ section of the
200m saw Greg Nixon take advantage of the wide curve in his outside
lane to defeat world 400m Hurdles champion Kerron Clement, 20.60 to
20.85. 

Miki Barber eked out a narrow win over Mindy McClurkin
in the women’s half-lap race, 23.42w to 23.43w. 

Crystal Manning
used a PB 13.96m Triple Jump to win against the 13.90m of Olympian
Erica McLain, while Haiti’s Samyr Laine saw his leadoff 16.92m outlast
Kenta Bell’s 16.80m to win the men’s event. 

The high jump
titles became the property of Mexico’s Romary Rifka (1.90m) and Tora
Harris (2.25m), the latter winning in a countback against Keith
Moffatt. 

Haitian hurdler Dominique DeGrammont won the 110m
event with 13.58 over Kai Kelly (13.71), as Indira Spence’s 13.13 was
barely enough to defeat the 13.17 of Letecia Wright in the women’s
hurdles. 

Emerging with wins in the 100 metres were Ahmad Rashad
(10.08w) and ChaRondra Williams (11.28). 

Abdulai tops
6000-mark in Heptathlon

Along with the four world-leading
marks set at the main part of the Mt SAC Relays, a further year best was
registered at the Mt SAC Multievents Championships in nearby Azusa two
days before the programme in Walnut.  Canada’s Ruky Abdulai, known
primarily as a long jumper with a 6.74m best, attempted the heptathlon
for the first time and came away with this season’s top score of 6086. 

Personal bests in the shot put (10.46m), javelin (41.37m), and 800m
(2:14.53)—plus a solid 6.67w in her specialty—were instrumental
producing the noteworthy final score for the Ghana-born Abdulai. 

The
decathlon featured a close battle between two University of Missouri
teammates.  First-day leader Lars Vikan Rise of Norway successfully
withstood a last-gasp attempt by Nick Adcock to post a narrow 7693 win
as Adcock fell 21 points short, still in a PB 7672.

Ohuruogu
opens with 52.30 in Azusa

Concurrent with the Mt SAC
competition was the Bryan Clay Invitational held on Friday, also in
Azusa.   Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu, the Beijing women’s 400m champion
and former World champion, ran a relaxed 52.30 in her season opener. 
Her 17-year-old sister Victoria—in what appeared to be a first-ever
outdoor one-lap race—won the second section in 56.10. 

Doha
sprint finalist Samuel Francis of Qatar led all competitors in the 100m
with 10.27 against a slight headwind of 0.4, just before former European
400 champion David Gillick of Ireland clocked a solid 10.71 (1.4) in a
rare appearance in the short sprint.  Both runners tangled several hours
later in the same section of the 200, with Francis’ 20.89 pulling a PB
21.20 from Gillick as a 1.1 wind nudged them along.  Competition honoree
Clay finished fourth in 21.48, missing his goal of bettering his 21.34
PB.

Ed Gordon for the IAAF

Full results of the Mt SAC
Relays

Full results of the Mt
SAC Multi-events competition

Full results of the Bryan
Clay Invitational