At the last three major indoor championships, Pavel Maslak has been the talk of the 400m. One race into his season, it looks like he could be the name on everyone’s lips again.
Czech Republic star Maslak opened his year in superb fashion on Wednesday night in Ireland with victory at the Athlone International Grand Prix in 46.07 to lead the European Athletics rankings.
Stadium record for Pavel Maslak, the indoor KING. 46.06 pic.twitter.com/K4clLHRdh2
— Cathal Dennehy (@Cathal_Dennehy) February 17, 2016
Having triumphed at the last two European Athletics Indoor Championships, which in 2015 saw him win in front of his home fans in Prague, Maslak now has the chance to make it four in a row with the defence of his world indoor title in Portland in a month.
It has been an interesting year on the European indoor 400m scene, where Maslak has now replaced Poland’s Lukasz Krawczuk (46.26) at the top of the rankings because in third, Slovakia’s Luka Janezic (46.32), and in fourth, Türkiye’s Yavuz Can (46.33), have both broken their national record.
Chris Brown, the Bahamian who won world gold in Doha 2010, was second fastest in Athlone having clocked 46.96.
He will pose a threat to Maslak in Portland but the Czech runner can have such command over this two-lap event, as he showed in the final in Prague last March, when he took the lead after 50m, led at the bell with 20.99 and won without being challenged in a championship record of 45.33.
400m: Congrats to Pavel Maslak, @Mr_FEENEY and Chris Brown #AITGrandPrix pic.twitter.com/0LFNqqM5Yr
— Athlone IT (@AthloneIT) February 17, 2016
Tuesday also saw a fine performance from another of the Czech’s Prague gold medallists, Jakub Holusa, in the 1000m at the Globen Galan in Stockholm.
It was an historic race as Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman (2:14.20) broke the 16-year world record and in fourth, Holusa, the European 1500m indoor champion, ran 2:18.27 to eclipse the Czech national record time of 2:19.51 which Roman Oravec set in 2002.