Måkestad again lowers Norwegian national record in 800 meters...

ZAGREB, Croatia--Former Washington Husky Ingvill Måkestad (left/photo courtesy runingvill.wordpress.com) once again lowered the Norwegian national record at 800 meters with a scintillating third place finish at the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial Meeting Wednesday.

In finishing third behind Jamaica's Kenia Sinclair (1:58.59), and Morgan Uceny of the Mammoth TC (1:59.49), Måkestad broke two minutes for the first time in her career, and dropped the Norwegian national record down to 1:59.82, exactly one second from her previous national record set on August 10th in Goteborg, Sweden.

Måkestad, whose primary focus this season has been the 1500, told Norway's NRK Sport, that they ran a good pace against a good field. She did express the fact that she got boxed in at certain points during the race.

Needless to say, she expressed joy over the fact that breaking two minutes in the 800 was one of her biggest goals since she first started in the sport.

After her run on Sunday in Rieti, Italy, she told paulmerca.blogspot.com that she was shooting to go under 2 minutes in Zagreb.

In the women's discus, Federal Way's Aretha Thurmond, the three time US Olympian, finished sixth with a best mark of 195-7 (59.61m), as local favorite Sandra Perkovic took home the victory with a meet record throw of 215-1 (65.56m).

The featured event of this IAAF World Challenge meet was the men's 100 meter dash featuring the co-world leaders in the event, American Tyson Gay, and Jamaica's Nesta Carter.

Despite the cool air, Gay closed over the last 40 meters to overtake Carter and win in a time of 9.92.

You can watch the race here…



Complete results from Zagreb can be accessed here.