Guevara gives Freeman more cause for concern
PARIS, June 8 (AFP) - Mexico’s Ana Guevara underlinedagain she is the woman Cathy Freeman must beat when shewon the 400 metres on home soil in Guadalajara by morethan three seconds to stretch her unbeaten record to 18consecutive races.
Guevara was way clear of second-placed Mayra Gonzalezand although her time of 50.09sec was her slowest of theyear she is looking a powerful contender for the worldchampionships in Paris this August.
Kenya’s Wilfred Bungei produced the outstandingperformance of the Seville Grand Prix meeting onSaturday with a strong run in the 800m to beat prodigalRussian Yuriy Borzakovskiy in a time of 1min 43.62sec,marginally slower than the fastest time of the year setby Bungei in Hengelo last week.
Borzakovskiy clocked 1:43.93 and South AfricanHezekiel Sepeng was third in 1:44.18.
Like Guevara, France’s Marc Raquil is another athletein hot early season form over one lap. He set a newFrench record of 44.80sec to win at the Grand Prixmeeting in Seville on Saturday.
Only Tyree Washington of the United States has runfaster this year, with 44.70 in Oregon last month.
Raquil, a rangy 26-year-old who has never fulfilledhis promise, smashed his own two-year-old record of44.95sec. Alleyn Francique of Grenada was second, alsoinside 45sec and world 400m hurdles champion FelixSanchez finished third.
Britain’s Daniel Caines held the lead at the 200m markbut faded to fourth.
Ukrainian Ivan Heshko, virtually unknown before thisseason, won another Grand Prix 1,500m race, crossing theline in Seville in 3:33.91 to leave Cornelius Chirchirof Kenya and Morocco’s Abdelkader Hachlaf trailing.
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