Some fantastic wins by Barcelona-bound British athletes were the highlight of the day at the Aviva British Grand Prix at Gateshead International Stadium on 10 July.
Lisa Dobriskey took victory in the 1500m, and in the Triple Jump Phillips Idowu overcame a world-class triple jump field to win with a third-round leap of 17.38m ahead of Grenada’s Randy Lewis with 17.29m. It was a solid series for the world champion who surpassed 17m with four out of his five counting jumps.
SPAR's athletics ambassador Jenny Meadows made a welcome return to action in the women's 800m after withdrawing from the Aviva European Trials with a niggling injury and although she wasn’t able to make an impact on the lead positions, she appeared to get through the two-lap race without complaint.
"It was a really good field," Meadows said. "When I looked at it on paper I thought, wow. And it was a really good race,” she said.
Meadows’ 2:01.07 for sixth was down on her season's best, but her fellow Brits Marilyn Okoro and Vicky Griffiths achieved season’s bests of 2:01.55 and 2:01.67 for 7th and 9th places respectively. USA’s Alysia Johnson took the race win with 1:59.84.
Ennis returns to the field
World heptathlon and pentathlon champion Jessica Ennis returned after the illness that ruled her out of the Aviva UK Championships two weeks before. Against a world-class 200m field, she finished in eighth in 23.55 secs behind fellow GB athletes Emily Freeman and Abi Oyepitan. Freeman fared the best out of the threesome with 23.34 to equal her season’s best, showing a solid upward curve since injury.
Despite rousing home support from the Gateshead crowd next to the runway, long jumpers Chris Tomlinson and Greg Rutherford came sixth and seventh in their competition with 7.80m and 7.70m respectively. Victory went to Australian Fabrice Lapierre, who flew a staggering 8.20m for maximum Diamond League points.
In the 5000m, Mo Farah and Chris Thompson scored personal bests, and in the 100m Britain's Marlon Devonish set a season’s best of 10.29 in his semi final, showing great form just in time for the 4x100m relay at the European Championships in Barcelona.
The men’s 100m promised to be a special affair when USA’s Tyson Gay coasted to a semi-final victory of 9.96 seconds. With Powell advancing with ease to the final from his semi, it looked set to be a close race and the two sprinters did not disappoint. Powell started off well, blasting away from the blocks and leading through to the 85m point, but Gay suddenly moved ahead in the last few strides to take the win in 9.94 secs to Powell’s 9.96, giving the audience a real spectacle of competitive sprinting.
Disappointment for Rooney in the 400m
The men’s 400m was stacked with GB interest with former SPAR star Martyn Rooney (Nick Dakin), Michael Bingham (Ken Harnden) and hurdler David Greene (Malcolm Arnold). It was a tight race that went to Jamaica’s Ricardo Chambers in 44.99 secs just ahead of Bingham with a season's best of 45.08 and Rooney in third with 45.44 seconds.
Afterwards, Rooney commented: “I was just really sluggish and it was a bad race. I was in a confident mood coming into the race but I’ll have to learn from this and not make the mistake again,” he said. “I’m still hoping to race in Paris because I think it’s important to get another race in. I need to race against the best guys to get better. I should have taken advantage today.”