Ethiopia dominate women’s events in Ostrava

One year on from breaking long-standing meeting records at the Czech Indoor Gala, Belgian 800m runner Eliot Crestan and Hungarian 400m sprinter Attila Molnar returned to the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday and revised the marks in their respective disciplines.

Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom produced one of the performances of the night in the 1500m, holding off compatriot Saron Berhe to win in a world-leading and meeting record 4:00.62. 

Berhe followed closely in 4:01.23 which, pending ratification, would be an improvement on the official world U20 short track record of 4:01.57.

The women’s 800m also went to Ethiopia as world indoor silver medallist Nigist Getachew led from the gun and never relinquished control, winning in 1:59.98 ahead of Slovakia’s Gabriela Gajanová (2:00.45).