media_artricles :: 2015

Solomon wins in 45.15

... qualifies for Worlds one-lap

Jarrin Solomon produced his fastest run this season to strike gold in a men's 400 metres race, at the Résisprint International meet, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, on Sunday.

Solomon stopped the clock at 45.15 seconds to secure top spot in the one-lap “B” race. The Trinidad and Tobago quarter-miler finished well ahead of Sudan's Sadam Koumi, the silver medallist in 45.58. Belgian Antoine Gillet was a distant third in 46.25.

For Solomon, yesterday's run was very significant. In addition to being the second fastest clocking of his career, behind the 44.98 seconds personal best he produced in Belgium last year, the 45.15 run was well inside the 45.50 IAAF World Championship qualifying standard.

Five T&T quarter-milers have now attained the standard for the August 22-30 global meet, creating a potential selection headache for the officials who will travel to Beijing, China with the World Championship team. Only three of the five can run in the individual 400m event.

The fastest of the quintet are Machel Cedenio, who is sixth on the 2015 world list at 44.36 seconds, and Deon Lendore, who is seventh at 44.41. However, Cedenio was disqualified in last month's National Championship final for running out of his lane, while Lendore did not compete at Nationals because of injury.

National champion Renny Quow is third fastest among T&T quartermilers this year with the 44.90 seconds run that earned him the T&T title. Solomon is fourth with Sunday's 45.15 clocking. And 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon is fifth at 45.50. Solomon and Gordon earned silver and bronze, respectively, at Nationals.

Only two quarter-milers were faster than Solomon at the Résisprint International meet--Botswana's Isaac Makwala and Qatari junior Abdalelah Haroun.

Makwala won the men's 400m “A” race in a jaw-dropping 43.72 seconds to move into fifth spot on the world all-time list, behind world record holder Michael Johnson (43.18) and his fellow-Americans Butch Reynolds (43.29), Jeremy Wariner (43.45) and Quincy Watts (43.50). Makwala's 43.72 clocking is a new African record and the fastest time in the world this year.

Haroun clocked 44.27 seconds to finish second to Makwala, yesterday, the fine run pushing him up to second on the world all-time junior 400m list. Only former Olympic champion Steve Lewis has run faster while still in the under-20 ranks. The American was golden at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in South Korea in a world junior record time of 43.87 seconds.

Eighteen-year-old Haroun is joint-fourth with Bahamian Steven Gardiner on the 2015 men's 400m list. Only Makwala, Grenada's reigning Olympic champion Kirani James (43.95) and South African Wayde van Niekirk (43.96) have run faster this year.

Top