Last night, the best Bosnian athlete, Amel Tuka, took part in the 800-meter B race of the World Athletics Continental Silver Tour in Madrid, Spain, where he achieved the season’s best time at the Vallehermoso Stadium.
Tuka, namely, ran this section in a time of 1:45.91 and in the competition of seven competitors, he was fifth in his race, in which all three first-placed: Mariano Garcia Garcia (Spain) 1:45.26, Alex Botterill (Great Britain) 1:45.27 and Saul Ordonez Gavela (Spain) 1:45.39 and the sixth-placed Spaniard Ronaldo Olivo Mercedes (1:46.36) also achieved this season’s best results.
Tuka achieved this season’s previous record last month at a meeting in Asti, Italy, when he ran 1:46.64.
“Madrid has always been special for me. And this time too!!! Finally the best result of this season 1:45.91 SB!!! The real results are yet to come! I have a lot to share with you through everything I’ve been going through, but we’ll talk about that next time. Now the focus, we always look forward. Let’s be better tomorrow than we are today. Thank you for your unconditional support! I will pay back with the best possible results,” he wrote a message to his fans on Facebook.
In the main A race at 800 meters, which ended the meeting in Madrid, 11 middle distance runners took part last night, four of whom achieved this season’s best times, while two achieved personal records.
The winner Eliott Crestan (Belgium) ran this section in his best time of the season – 1:44.28, as well as the second-placed Adrian Ben Montenegro with 1:44.41, while the third-placed Edmund Du Plessis (South Africa) set a new personal record – 1:44.49.
The Irishman Mark English achieved a personal record with a time of 1:44.53. The best time of the season was achieved by sixth-placed Moad Zahafi (Mauritius) 1:44.92 and seventh-placed Alvaro De Arriba (Spain) 1:45.24.
Tuka ran only 1:47.83 at this meeting last year, while in 2015 and 2016 he triumphed in the Spanish capital. Tuka did not perform at this year’s European Championship in Rome, which was held from the 7th to the 12th. of June and at which they are from Bosnia and Herzegovina competitors were Mesud Pezer in the shot put and Abedin Mujezinović in the 800 meter race.
This summer, Tuka and Mujezinović will have to fight to meet the standard, which for their disciplines is 1:44.70, and Pezer has not yet officially met the standard either, with a length of 21.50 meters, but who this season has the longest shot of 21.42 meters, which he achieved at the February performance in Belgrade.
It is also the length of the new personal and national record of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the indoor arena, which he broke after almost six years.
The previous BiH indoor record, a length of 21.15 meters, was achieved in March 2018 at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, with which he was an excellent fifth in that competition. Pezer’s outdoor record is 21.48 meters, from a meeting in Sweden, from August 2019.
Pezer was the only BiH. representative at this year’s 19th World Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, for which the norm was as high as 21.70 meters, but he got the opportunity to perform based on his high rating at that moment in the world rankings.
On Wednesday, at the 15th international meeting in Zenica, Pezer won with a length of 21.04 meters, which is also his first outdoor shot over 21 meters this season. Mujezinović and Tuka did not perform in Zenica.
Tuk’s personal and BH. the record for 800 meters, from 2015, is a phenomenal 1:42.51, with which he won the Diamond League race in Monaco. That year he also won a bronze medal at the World Outdoor Championship in Beijing (China), and in 2019 he also won silver at the WC in Doha (Qatar), which is the greatest success of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s athletics, Fena news agency writes.
