Mario Mutola crowns her career with the seventh World Indoor title. © Jiro Mochizuki / Photo Run
Kenenisa Bekele and Maria Mutola finished with unique results at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow. At the last day of the competition the Ethiopian turned to be the first who won at World Outdoor Championships, as well as World Cross Championships and now also at World Indoor Championships. At 3,000 meters he won in 7:39.32 minutes. Maria Mutola (Mozambique) won a World Indoor Championships gold medal for the seventh time. She ran the 800m in 1:58.90.
In the best competition of the World Indoor Championships, Kenenisa Bekele defeated the steeplechase World record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen (Qatar/7:41.28) and the Kenyan 5,000m World Champion of 2003 Eliud Kipchoge (7:42.58). Alistair Cragg of Ireland showed a strong performance finishing fourth in 7:46.43. “That was nice—I just wanted to give my best,” said Kenenisa Bekele.
A second exciting race was the men’s 800m final. At the end of the finishing curve Wilfred Bungei (Kenya) was leading—and this time he was able to win as well. In 1:47.15 Bungei was ahead of defending champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (South Africa/1:47.16). Olympic Champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy (Russia) wasn’t as strong as in the past and finished third in 1:47.38. “I have achieved very good results so often, but never actually won. That is why it was a good race for me,” said Wilfred Bungei, while Yuri Borzakovskiy said: “I just made the decision to run here a month ago. So the bronze medal is a success. I won’t compete at the European Championships this summer.”
Bungei won the 800m final in Moscow. © Jiro Mochizuki / Photo Run
Maria Mutola had expanded her own World Championships record. No other athlete has won so many World Indoor Championship titles as her. She won well ahead of Jamaican Kenia Sinclair. Clocking 1:59.54 Sinclair improved the National record, she set at the semi-final, for the second time in Moscow. Third was Moroccan Hasna Benhassi, World Indoor Champion at 1,500 m in 2001, in 2:00.34. “The seventh victory is something special for me. But it was harder than I would have loved it. It was too risky to rely on my final sprint, so I took over the lead early in the race,” said Mutola.
In the 1,500m final the Russian tactics paid off, also the assumed favorite didn’t win. Juliwa Chizhenko won the race in 4:04.70 minutes ahead of Jelena Sobolewa, who set a new world record (3:58,28) at the Russian Championships recently. Sobolewa ran 4:05.21. Third was Jamal Yusuf (Bahrain) in 4:05.53. “It was our plan to set the pace right from the beginning, and to avoid that another runner takes the lead,” said World Indoor Champion Chizhenko.
