Ethiopian Fereweyni Hailu, Leonardo Fabbri, Natalia Kaczmarek, and Andreas Kramer provided the standout performances of the Szewinska Memorial in Bydgoszcz, as meeting records took a tumble at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting.
Fereweyni produced a controlled run to take the women’s 1500m. The 2022 Sweden 1500m champion stayed close to the pacemaker through the early laps, then maintained the tempo on the final lap. Hall was close behind Hailu, and at one point moved onto her shoulder, but the world road mile silver medalist kicked on to win in 3:58.69 with Hall taking second in 3:58.96.
The first nine athletes finished inside the previous meeting record of 4:03.86, five of them setting PBs. There was a similar flurry of PBs in the men’s 800m. After a swift opening lap, Algeria’s Mohamed Ali Gouaned took up the running and held the lead for a fair stretch before fatigue set in down the home straight. Kramer, the world indoor silver medalist, then came through to take the win in 1:44.08, breaking a meeting record that had stood for 13 years.In the men’s shot put, Fabbri led throughout and improved as the competition progressed. The world silver medalist from Italy opened with 21.54m, which would have ultimately been sufficient to win, but then improved to 21.92m and 22.03m.
After a foul in round four, he unleashed his best throw of the day, 22.38m, in round five before ending his series with 22.28m. Jamaica’s Rajindra Campbell was a distant second with 21.22m.
