Running city

In Germany, the final of the athletics Grand Prix was held on Sunday Stuttgart entirely set in motion. It seemed that everyone from small to great decided to join the city mileage and make a path of 6.7 kilometers from the Central City Square Schlosselz to the Gotlib-Daimler of the Arena. Well, having finished, most of them remained at the stadium to see the second day of the competition of the best athletes in the world, which ended the final of the World League IAAF. In just two days, as announced, 56 thousand spectators visited the competitions, which once again proved the correctness of the decision of the International Athletics Federation to transfer the tournament for the next three years to this German city.

Hero of the day

The organizers of the competition invite not all winners at a press conference, but only those who showed the highest results in Stuttgart. On Sunday

Such a choice was a foregone conclusion. The American with a funny combination of the name and surname Tyson Gay showed one of the best results in history in 200 meters running - 19.68. Only the world record holder Michael Johnson and Xavier Carter ran faster than him. And Frankie Fredericks showed the same result at one time. The famous Frederix was present at competitions in Stuttgart as an honorary guest and was one of the first to welcome Gay after the finish. “I am very glad that at my favorite distance now there are so many talents, led by Gay. I think that next year they will be able to run even faster and break a world record, ”said Fredericks. The hero of the day answered with enthusiastic thanks - both to the organizers and the famous sprinter: “My God, I am just delighted! This green path is super -line. Can I beat the world record? If Frankie went to the start and helped me, I would have done it. ”

And ours?

Two victories won on this day Russian stars. From Elena Isinbaeva, in fact, they did not expect anything else. The world's strongest jump with the sixth won another victory, albeit without ordinary brilliance. Already at an altitude of 5.75 she made an unsuccessful attempt, but overcame the bar the second time. And then she made three unsuccessful attempts at 5.85. It seemed from the rostrum that she acted so uncertainly that the first questions of journalists after the end of the competition concerned her health. “Do not worry, everything is in order, I have no injuries, and I feel good,” the athlete assured. - It's just very tired, but I have three more starts ahead this year. Well, nothing, I’ll rest for a week, and everything will be in order. ”

Tatyana Lebedev also won, although she was far from the best form. The result of 14 m 82 cm was enough to win in a triple jump, although it was given to her with obvious tension. Lebedeva even refused to test new sneakers. “The sector was very hot and there was no shadow at all. I had to use all my experience and professionalism and force myself to jump as far as possible. This is a good finish of the season for me, although I wanted to jump on. There was not enough adrenaline, ”Lebedeva said.

Andrei Silnov’s height champion could also win, but, taking 2.33, he lost to the Swede Linus Turnbald, who once again proved the power of the Scandinavians in this form. After all, in women, the Swede Kais Bergkvist was exciting here.

African distances

At medium and styers' distances, African victories are becoming a family. Ethioper Kenenis Bekele repeated the success of his 19-year-old brother Tarik, who won the day before 3,000 meters running. Kenenis left no chance to rivals from Kenya (of which there were six of 10 participants in the race) at the five -kilometer distance. And after the finish, he immediately rushed to the car who was waiting for him, throwing him on the run, which was in a hurry to the airport to fly to his homeland. Maybe the secret of African successes in the schedule of aircraft?

The next duel of the Ethiolus Messes Defar and Tirunes Dibab at the Stayers' distances became the decoration of the tournament. Specialists are already comparing their confrontation this season with the great duels of past years of the level of Ovett - COE or Johnson - Fredericks. The rivals are worthy of each other, and if on Saturday on the "five" was a stronger dibab, then on Sunday Defar took a revenge at a distance of 3000 m.

Farewell to the legend

And the competition ended on a sad note of farewell to the big sports of one of the greatest athletes - the Czech speaker Yana Iron. Three-time Olympic champion, three-time world champion, repeated world record holder, and at the age of 40, he remained one of the best on the planet, taking 6th place in this competition. “I will miss the atmosphere of competitions, indescribable feelings that you experience before starts, but everything has its time. It's time to give way to the young, ”said Iron.

09/11/2006 / Miron Goykhman / Stuttgart material published in the newspaper No. 164 dated 09/12/2006.