Guyana’s middle-distance star and records holder, Marian Burnett was knocked from her chance to get to the Women’s 800m final at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships at the meet which ended yesterday in Valencia, Spain.
Amid unlikely Russian casualties on the first day of the global meet, Burnett used her trademark grit to run to a new time of two minutes, two point six-five seconds (2:02.65) to place third in her heat on Friday.
That performance got her into the 12-runner semifinals on Saturday, where she clocked 2:02.27 for fifth in the second race in front of a packed Luis Puig Velodrome Palace crowd. However, it was not enough to get the Guyanese into the six-person final, as she finished eighth overall from a field of 12 of the world’s best.
Almost all of the half-milers came away from the three-day meet with season bests (SB), personal bests (PB), national records (NR) or area records (AR). However, in a tactical final, perennial Olympic and world champion Maria Mutola (2:02.97) of Mozambique saw her chance for an unprecedented eighth indoor crown evaporate as she was outfoxed at the end of the four laps and finished her distinguished indoor career with a bonze.
Surprisingly, Australia’s 400m and 800m champion Tamsyn Lewis, who brought her spectacular outdoor season form from ‘down under’, got the gold in 2:02.57. Lewis, had also set a new Australian indoor record (2:01.85) in the earlier rounds. Silver went to Ukraine champion Tatyana Petlyuk (2:02.66) who in earlier rounds had a PB and meet best 1:59.58.
Earlier in the meet, event favourite Natalya Ignatova (Russia) limped over last in the same opening race with Burnett, and was later disqualified for running out of lane. Ignatova who came in with the field’s fastest time of the year (1:58.84) was half of the Russian disappointment as her compatriot Mariya Savinova who holds the season’s third best time (1:59.46) had finished a distant fourth in heat three – 2:06.72.
As is customary, the 5’1″ Guyanese was pitted in a cluster of much taller runners, but managed to defy that adversity with a nifty approach and execution for her best ever indoor performance. The diminutive Burnett, who has been living in Germany after breaking her national one mile indoor record in January in the USA, has been having a favourable indoor season on the European circuit. She won gold and silver, and twice placed 4th in four meets in Germany and Sweden. Burnett who is the only Guyanese listed in an IAAF top-50 world ranking, coming it a #22 as at March 4, will likely ascend the chart with these performances.
Another Guyanese, Deon Bascom also competed at the championships, and recorded a time of 1:55.88 to place fifth among six runners in his heat of the Men’s 800m on the opening day. The US-based Guyanese, whose time was almost six seconds outside his personal best, failed to advance out of the opening round.
Two days later, the Men’s crown was also surprisingly won by teenaged Sudanese Abubaker Kaki Khamis (1:44.81 – PB), who held off pre-meet favourite Mbulaeni Mulaudzi of South Africa (1:44.91), and Bahrain’s Yussuf Saad Kamel (1:45.26).
