Athletics | Berlin’s ISTAF meet takes place with 3,500 fans

Kenya’s Hyvin Kiyeng (left) competes during the women’s 3,000 meters steeplechase at the ISTAF Athletics Meeting in Berlin

Some 3,500 spectators watched under strict conditions as Kenya’s Hyvin Kiyeng and Britain’s Laura Muir ran world-leading times at the coronavirus-conscious ISTAF athletics meet yesterday [Macau time].
Spectator numbers were restricted due to shielding and hygiene measures designed to restrict the risk of infection. Normally 45,000 fans would attend the world’s oldest track and field meeting at Berlin’s Olympiastadion.
Kiyeng won the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9 minutes, 6.14 seconds, ahead of compatriot Beatrice Chepkoech who finished in a season-best 9:10.07.
Muir set a meet record by winning the women’s 1,500 in 3:57.40, beating compatriot Laura Weightman and Jessica Hull from Australia.
World champion Karsten Warholm again narrowly missed out on Kevin Young’s world record of 46.78 seconds from the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in the men’s 400 hurdles. The Norwegian ran 46.87 in Stockholm two weeks ago and 47.08 on Sunday, a meet record in Berlin.
Two-time Olympic champion Christian Taylor withstood a challenge from home favorite Max Heß to win the triple jump in a world-leading 17.57, and Sweden’s Armand Duplantis won the men’s pole vault with a jump of 5.91 meters.
Ivorian sprinter Arthur Cissé was first in the men’s 100 in 10.10. Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands won the women’s race in 11.26.
Germany’s Johannes Vetter won the men’s javelin competition, Lithuania’s Andrius Gudžius claimed the discus ahead of Daniel Stahl, and Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine won the women’s long jump ahead of home favorite Malaika Mihambo. AP