All eyes at the AIT Grand Prix were on the high jump on Wednesday in Westmeath, Ireland, as 23-year-old Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar was attempting to become the first man to leap over 2.43m indoors. As the 2014 indoor world champion sailed over the bar easily on his first attempt at 2.41m, a World record seemed imminent. 

FULL RESULTS

No such luck, however, as Barshim failed on three consecutive attempts at 2.44m before smiling and waving to the packed crowd of over 1,500. The Asian record holder would have to settle for a slight improvement on his old record, which was 2.40m entering today’s competition. That mark was set just two weeks ago in Slovakia. 

 

While Barshim’s theatrics were the showcase, the running events were also exciting, and at times even bizarre during the three-hour meeting. 

 

The oddities started when Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell pulled out of the 60m right before his race was set to go off, telling reporters that he injured his groin while warming up for the event. Powell was one of the biggest names of the evening, but the former World record holder never even removed his tights in Westmeath. No word yet on the severity of the groin injury. 

 

The event that Powell intended to run did its own part to mystify even in the 32-year-old’s absence. 

 

After a false start occurred in the final of men’s 60m, the secondary gunfire used to signal a transgression was registered too late by the athletes, and the field completed the race anyways. The men were ordered back to the start line, and ran once again, this time finding a winner in Jamaican Winston Barnes in 6.67. That time was identical to American Harry Adams’, but the former ran a faster qualifying time in the heats (6.60), which gave him the victory. 

 

If that wasn’t weird enough, the women’s 60m did its best to one-up their male counterparts. After American Tianna Bartoletta won the women’s 60m final, a timing error was revealed, with no performances having been recorded. A re-run was staged, but many of the elites, including Bartoletta, decided against it. 

 

Former World champion Carmelita Jeter ran 7.44 in her heat, handily beaten in that race by Tahesia Harrigan’s 7.29. Wednesday was the 35-year-old’s 2015 debut. 

 

The American men swept the 400m, 800m, and mile races in Westmeath. 2012 4x400 Olympic silver medalist Manteo Mitchell won a close race in the 400m, narrowly beating Luke Lennon-Ford 47.18 to 47.27. The quarter-miler made his 2015 debut in his primary distance on Wednesday night, having run the 60m, 200m, and 300m races earlier this season.

 

Nike's Erik Sowinski continued the strong start to his 2015 season by winning the lightly competitive men’s 800m in 1:47.42, clearing 2nd place Niall Touhy by more than 2.5 seconds (1:49:93). Sowinski was the lead-off leg for the Team USA DMR world record (9:19.93) team last month at the Armory, and returned to that very track last week to win the 1,000m race at the Millrose Games in a time of 2:21.18. 

 

The highly anticipated mile delivered on its promise to finally have a sub-4 mile indoors in Ireland. Oregon Track Club’s Ben Blankenship showed aggressive tactics from the beginning, dragging teammate and Irishman Ciaran O’Lionaird with him through the halfway point in 1:57. 

 

The teammates looked poised to duke it out over the final laps, but O’Lionaird began to fade badly with 400m left to run, leaving Blankenship all alone to secure the victory and become the first man to ever break the magical four-minute barrier indoors on the Irish island. Blankenship's winning time was 3:56.75, well clear of 2nd place finisher Andreas Bueno in 4:02.75.

 

O’Lionaird faded all the way to tenth in 4:11.73.