Powell 9.86 and world lead for Kővágó at inaugural István Gyulai Memorial in Budapest
Hungary returned to the world of international grand prix meetings with a bang on Saturday afternoon and set several records on the way. The event named in honour of Istvan Gyulai, the former General Secretary of the IAAF and one of the most popular and influential Hungarian sports diplomats ever saw a long list of stars in attendance both on and off the track.
The two question marks in the lead up to the competition were whether Hungary will witness the first ever sub-10-second 100m, (Hungarian All-Comers record being held by Linford Christie with 10.03 from 1987), and the weather, as it was wet and cold all week long in the Hungarian capital.
With a star-studded line-up including world leader Asafa Powell (JAM), compatriot Michael Frater (who had to withdraw during the warp-up due to a hip injury) and Zimbabwe’s contender for the newcomer of the year award Ngonidzashe Makusha all having dipped under 9.90 this season, chances were good that Christie’s mark would not live much longer.
Despite the looming clouds above the Ferenc Puskás Stadium Powell once again did not disappoint and strolled to a commanding 9.90 already in the heats, thereby writing his name in the history books.
The Hungarian All-Comers records was shattered but questions still remained; will he be able to repeat it in the final and run his 80th sub-10 second performance of his career, and will that be enough to win him the Dr. Bojidar Spiriev Trophy – offered to the athlete achieving the best performance of the meeting? As it turned out just over an hour later the answer to both of those would be “yes!”. Powell clocked 9.86 in the final to improve his recently set record and was awarded the trophy named in honour of the mastermind behind the official IAAF scoring table who passed away last year.
"It felt really good and I am confident before the World Championships," said Powell, leader of the All-Athletics 100m World Rankings, after the race. "I definitely want to come back here next time, I liked it here," he added
While the world’s fastest man this year ran away with the show, it was Hungary’s Zoltan Kővágó who produced the surprise of the day. The former Olympic silver medallist was up against Virgiljus Alekna and compatriot Robert Fazekas in a much anticipated showdown of the discus throwers. The Lithuanian double world and Olympic champion warmed-up with a Diamond League victory in Stockholm just the night before and was comfortably in the lead until the penultimate round. Kővágó, despite having problems with three of his first four attempts resulting in fouls, went long in the fifth and threw 69.50m for the win to take the world lead just under a month before Daegu. Alekna was forced to settle for second ahead of Roland Varga (CRO) in third also achieving a seasons best.
Another much anticipated showdown was the women’s 200m between Veronica Campbell-Brown (JAM) and Sanya Richards-Ross (USA). “The dual” – as it was hyped in the lead-up resulted in a season’s best for both of them with Campbell-Brown clocking 22.26 for the win, followed by Richards-Ross in second at 22.63.
“I have no complaints as I ran my best time of the year and executed well” – said Campbell-Brown following the race. “I felt that I could run a good race, training went really well the past few weeks so I was hoping to give my very best” – added the reigning double Olympic champion.
It was a battle of the reigning European Champion Kevin Borlée (BEL) versus the newly crowned European Junior Champion Marcell Deák Nagy of Hungary in the men’s 400m. The younger of the Borlée twins lived up to the expectations and crossed the line first (45.91) ahead of the Hungarian champion (46.47), although the field had to battle circulating winds throughout the race. Weather conditions were not any more kind to Niki Hamblin (NZL) and the rest of the field in the women’s 1500m, yet she out dipped Asli Cakir Alptekin (TUR) for the win with 4:05,45.
European Championships bronze medallist Krisztián Pars continued his strong season with a comfortable win on home soil in the men’s hammer throw. Pars was “head-and-shoulders” above the field reaching over 78 metres on three occasions and finishing with 79.37m while Markus Esser (GER) was the closest to him with 76.85m.
The swirling winds made it a difficult afternoon for many, especially the pole vaulters, the high hurdlers refused to settle for anything less than their best Yvette Lewis (USA) recorded a new personal best of 12.76 seconds to edge compatriot Nia Ali and former World Indoor Champion Derval O’Rourke (IRL) in third.
On the men’s side, reigning world champion Ryan Brathwaite (BAR) just missed the podium this time as Joel Brown, Kevin Cruddock and Jeff Porter made it a sweep for the USA.
(Photo by Péter Zádor)
