World champion Mary Moraa fought for every hundredth of a second on the home straight of the 600 metres at the ISTAF – a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting – at the Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
With a world record at stake, the Olympic bronze medallist from Kenya stormed to a world best of 1:21.63 on the blue track of the Olympic Stadium in front of 40,500 spectators in Berlin.
South Africa’s Caster Semenya ran the previous world record of 1:21.77 at the ISTAF seven years ago. Mary Moraa improved the record – officially listed by World Athletics as the world best time – by 14 hundredths of a second.
“I am feeling so well and happy. To achieve this record on the first attempt is just overwhelming. I am so satisfied about the way I ran today”, said a jubilant Moraa after her record-breaking coup.
There were also world-class performances in the technical disciplines.
Javelin thrower Julian Weber gave himself a belated birthday present, winning the men’s javelin with a season’s best of 88.64m just three days after his 30th birthday.
The newly crowned Olympic shot put champion Yemisi Ogunleye was given a huge round of applause by the 40,500 fans at the ISTAF.
After a long season, the Mannheim native had to admit defeat to European champion Jessica Schilder from the Netherlands, who won the competition with a best throw of 19.70 metres to Ogunleye’s 18.65 metres.
“It was really nice to see how much attention the shot put got today! Thank you, Berlin!,” said Ogunleye after her performance.
“I’ve had a lot on my plate recently due to my Olympic gold medal. That’s why I realised today that we humans are not machines. I had fun competing today, second place is okay, but I was just not able to throw any further today.”
