Adel Mechaal has broken the mold. Suddenly, unexpectedly, almost undercover, he broke in Birmingham, on the last stop of the World Indoor Gold Tour, the Spanish record of 1,500. He deleted the 3: 33.32 of Andrés Díaz, which dated from the very distant and already misty 1999, and installed his 3: 33.28.
That Díaz record called to be surpassed in Madrid, on the 22nd, by a Mo Katir who fell a second behind (3:34.32), has therefore fallen into the hands and feet of a generous Mechaal. In that Madrid race he finished in 3:34.82, personal best then. In Liévin, a week earlier, he had come third (3:36.55) in some 1,500 won by Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:32.38). Adel exhibited himself without reservations or rivals in the semifinal and the final of the 3,000 of the Spanish Championship. And in Birmingham he has embroidered it in the 1,500.
The race was, in general, excellent and the Spaniard only bowed to the British Neil Gourley and his, likewise, national record of 3:32.48. It was a great day for the country. Keely Hodgkinson, the graceful and aesthetically pleasing twenty-something (she turns 21 on March 3), clocked 1:57.18 in the 800. A few minutes earlier, Dina Asher-Smith had won the 60 in 7.05. But she had run the semifinals in 7.03. Also national record.
Returning to the beginning, to Mechaal, he will run the 3,000 in the European Championship in Istanbul. There he will meet Ingebrigtsen again.
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