Gambian sprinter Gina Bass has on Sunday clinched the 100-meter record of the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial meeting in Poland. With 11’17, Gina Bass, who was sixth at the 200m world championships in 2017, outclassed her Polish rival to win the heat, despite Eve Swoboda making a better start.
Gina Bass won thanks to a whirlwind finish, ahead of the Polish in the last 20 meters. With this excellent result of 11.17, the Gambian broke the record for the memorial belonging to Ewa Swoboda.
Another Gambian sprinter, Ebrima Camara, came second in the 100-m with a time of 10’16. Ebrima Camara defied the winner of the event, Italian Lamont Jacobs, to the end. Favorite of the event, the fastest man in the world this year, and European champion in the 60m sprint in 2021 with 9’95 did not disappoint. Like Gina Bass, Jacobs broke by six hundredths a memorial record hitherto held by Marian Woronin for many years.
The Janusz Kusocinski Memorial is an annual track and field meeting held at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow, Poland. The meeting was first held in 1954 in memory of the Polish runner Janusz Kusocinski, the 1932 Olympic champion over 10,000 meters, who was killed on 21 June 1940 during the German AB-Aktion Operation.
From its inception to the present day, the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial has attracted world record holders and Olympic medallists.