Athletics: Israeli runner places 8th at indoor Euros

Gezachw booked his place in the final by setting a personal best of 7:59.44m in Friday's qualifiers.

By ALLON SINAI, AP
gezachw running 88 (photo credit: )
gezachw running 88
(photo credit: )
Israel's Yossef Gezachw finished the 3000 meters final at the European Indoor Championships in Torino, Italy, in eighth position on Saturday after clocking a time of 8:01.78 minutes. Gezachw booked his place in the final by setting a personal best of 7:59.44m in Friday's qualifiers. Britain's Mo Farah broke the championship record to win the 3000-meter gold, crossing the line in a time of seven minutes, 40.17 seconds. Silver went to France's Bouabdellah Tahri who finished in 7:42.14 with Jesus Espana winning bronze in a time of 7:43.29. Fabrizio Donato set a new championship record of 17.59 meters to win the triple jump gold and became host Italy's first medalist of the championships. The 33-year-old failed to record a jump with his first four attempts, but grabbed the lead with his fifth jump. Ivan Ukhov lived up to his billing as pre-competition favorite in winning the high jump gold medal, clearing a height of 2.32 meters. Prior to the competition, Ukhov was better known for competing at the Lausanne 2008 meeting while apparently drunk and he said he was pleased that people have something else to know him by. "My only task was to win this competition and it was a tough job. I did everything to become a winner and show I am a good athlete and improve my name after Lausanne last year. In truth 2.32 meters was not that high for me, but too high for the others." Meanwhile, Britain's Dwain Chambers demonstrated why he is favorite for the men's 60 meters. He won his semifinal in an European indoor record of 6.42 seconds. The final is on Sunday. "Now the most important thing is tomorrow's final," he said. "I am very excited for that and I hope I can sleep in the night. Yesterday I couldn't."