BAHRAIN’S Birhanu Balew booked his ticket to the medal round of the men’s 3,000 metres yesterday on day two of the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships, being held in Birmingham, the UK.
Balew had twice the reason to celebrate as he also clocked a new personal best en route to securing his qualification.
The talented 22-year-old finished fourth in the first of two first round heats to grab one of the four automatic berths in the final.
Balew completed the race in his quickest-ever time of seven minutes 44.03 seconds. He was not far behind winner and defending champion Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia, who finished in 7:42.83. His countryman Hagos Gebrhiwet was the runner-up in 7:43.55 while Adel Mechaal of Span claimed third place in 7:43.83.
Also qualifying from the heat as fastest losers were Bethwell Birgen of Kenya, Youness Essalhi of Morocco, Clemens Bleistein of Germany and Shadrack Kipchirchir of the US.
From heat two, Selemon Barega of Ethiopia won in 7:48.14. Davis Kiplangat of Kenya followed in 7:48.26, while Yassin Bouih of Italy was third in 7:50.65. Julian Oakley of New Zealand was classified fourth in 7:55.92 and he was the last to qualify from the race.
Bahrain’s Albert Rop was also supposed to compete in the heat but did not start for an unknown reason.
The 3,000m final is scheduled to take place tomorrow at 6.35pm, Bahrain time.
Meanwhile, two Bahrainis are scheduled to compete today on the third and penultimate day of action in the world indoors.
Sprinter Andrew Fisher will be running in the men’s 60m heats while Sadik Mikhou will be doing the same in the men’s 1,500m.
Fisher is set to appear in the seventh and final heat at 1.51pm, Bahrain time. He will be running against a field of seven other athletes. He heads into the race with a personal best of 6.57 seconds, matched by fellow-competitor Eric Cray from the Philippines and bettered only by Ronnie Baker of the US with a 6.40s.
Only the first three in each of the seven heats, plus the next three fastest losers move on to the semi-finals, which are also scheduled to take place today at 10.11pm. The final will be at around midnight.
Mikhou will be running in the third of three heats at 2.26pm, Bahrain time. He heads into the run with a personal best of 3:38.48. Of the seven others competing in the race, Jake Wightman (3:37.43) from the UK, Ayanleh Souleiman (3:35.2) of Djibouti, and Brahim Kaazouzi (3:36.95) of Morocco all have faster personal bests.
Only the top two from each heat plus the next three fastest losers qualify for the final, which will be held tomorrow.
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