The 76th edition of the ISTAF meeting held 27. August once again showcased steeplechase specialist Gesa Felicitas Krause in front of her home crowd at Berlin Olympic stadium. Following the pace-making of Personae teammate Caroline Tuigong Chepkurui (1000m in 3:02.56), Krause eventually found herself trailing only Norah Tanui with two laps to go and on pace to break her national 3000m SC record of 9:15.70 set at the ’17 Diamond League opener in Doha. While Tanui would go on to win in 9:03.70 (’17 world no. 6), Krause’s 2nd place time of 9:11.85 improved her prior personal best and national record by almost 4 seconds, moving her to no. 9 on the ’17 world steeple chart, while also taking back the European lead in the event, which she had given up to Karoline Grovdal on 26. August (9:13.35).
In the Berlin discus competition, Philip Milanov demonstrated a return to top-form after his exit in the qualifying round at the London world championships. Unleashing three throws beyond 66 meters, the best mark of 66.90m earned him 2nd place behind Piotr Malachowski‘s winning toss of 67.18m. Milanov remains in 6th place on the current ’17 world discus chart (4th among Europeans) with his 67.05m from the Stockholm Diamond League meeting. He will compete in the ’17 Diamond League discus throw championship final in Brussels on 1. September, after accumulating 25 points during the season’s first 12 DL meetings, 2nd only to Daniel Stahl (29 points).
Other Personae athletes with noteworthy performances in Berlin included Noelie Yarigo in the 600m (4th in 1:25.78); Albert Rop in the 5000m (6th in 13:14.28); Purity Kirui in the 3000m SC (7th in 9:28.00); and Davis Kiplangat in the 5000m (8th in 13:18.09).