El Ghazaly throws 66.34m; Sudanese surpremacy on the track in Sollentuna

Sollentuna, Stockholm - After a string of mostly chilly and rainy conditions last summer and at the first meet this year (Gothenburg, 9 June) the Swedish Folksam Grand Prix series was blessed with good weather at Sollentuna – a northwestern suburb of Stockholm – on Wednesday evening (25) - Blue skies, temperature around 25 degrees in the shade (if one could find any) and light breezes.

Ismail and Kaki lead Sundan's night of success

So it was perhaps not surprising that the runners from Sudan really seemed to thrive winning the men's 400m, 800m and 1500m as well as the women's 400m and 400m Hurdles and picking up another four second places. Most impressive of them Olympic silver medallist Ahmed Ismail who was in total control in the men's 800m running an evenly split 1:46.65 winning comfortably.

His compatriot Abubaker Kaki this time had stepped up to the 1500m which unfortunately suffered from very erratic pacing. A much too eager first pacemaker blasted a 25sec opening 200m and Kaki ended up with first two laps in 54.7 – 61.3. At that stage any chance for a great time was lost and Kaki just focussed on winning the race.

That, however, turned out a little bit tougher than he probably expected as Ireland's Dave Campbell not only hang on but also tried to challenge in the finishing straight. But as handling such battles is Kaki's real forte he of course prevailed – 3:39.89 vs 3:40.15. The gutsy Campbell, however, cleared indicated that his 3:39 PB could be significantly – i.e. by some seconds – improved if he just gets into a suitable race.

The same could be said about Australian Kaila McKnight in the women's 1500m. Here the pacing was much better (67+67) but McKnight struck already with 450m to go and finishing with a solo lap of 65.1 she won by almost six seconds in the new PB of 4:10.01. A 4:05 could happen anytime now for McKnight who had 4:19 PB before this year!

A group of young and unheralded Kenyans dominated the men's 3000m. It was finally won by Mike Tuiny in 7:53.23 after opening up a two second winning margin with an impressive finishing sprint. Other names worth watching for the future was Moroccan Malika Akkaoui (won women's 800m by 1½ second in 2:02.18 PB) and Sudanese teenagers Alaywia Mak (17 years) and Amina Bakhit (19 years) who grabbed second places in women's 800m and 1500m respectively.

El Ghazaly – over 66m

But despite this action on the running oval it was the field events that produced the top performances this evening:

Egypt's Omar El Ghazaly displayed impressively consistent 65m discus throwing despite lack of any significant wind assistance. It appears that El Ghazaly very well could be a finalist in Berlin, just as he was in Osaka (when he finished 6th). The Egyptian's winning mark of 66.34 now was just 24cm from his PB set in much more favourable conditions two years ago.

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