Crystal Palace is the last event for many of the athletes competing at the Olympics for them to run themselves into good shape and achieve good performances to give them confidence leading into the Games. Many top athletes were present and the event finals began with the women’s 400m hurdles.
We were treated to a quite outstanding performance from the young Perri Shakes-Drayton, who announced her intentions for the summer with a barnstorming PB of 53.77sec in winning the 400m hurdles. After a mildly disappointing season up to this point worries were that she was leaving it too late to hit form, and her times had not matched her ambitions thus far. With a new-found aggression and determination she ran the second fastest time ever by a British athlete, second only to the great Sally Gunnel. Blessed with great flat speed Drayton has always seemed to lack belief and often seemed surprised at her success after good performances, hopefully by beating some of her title rivals in Crystal Palace she will enjoy a new-found belief that can result in an Olympic medal in London next month.
The excitement continued with the amazing rivalry that has developed in the 400m hurdles between world champion Dai Green and Javier Culson. The field also contained great American athletes Bershawn Jackson and Angelo Taylor in addition to young British star Jack Green hoping to rub shoulders with the worlds best and announce himself on the world stage. Green was hampered by Bershawn Jackson being disqualified in lane 8 a lane outside of him which meant that he had to run blind, and was the target for the other athletes. The race itself was a mirror of the recent clash at the latest Diamond League event with Dai Green gaining on Javier Culson down the home straight but not quite having enough to catch him. Culson won the event in what once again was a breathtaking time of 47.80, just outside the British all comers record. Jack Green ran a great PB in finishing fourth behind Taylor in 48.60sec, announced himself to the world and beat great athletes including former champion Felix Sanchez!
After watching the 400m hurdles for both the men and women, one thing is clear that the British athletes seemed to have timed their training very well and look set to reach their peak at the Olympic games with all 3 having now run personal bests in the last two weeks.
The 100m semi finals unfortunately for British athletes, threw up no surprises with all of the main protagonist reaching the final and British athletes continuing to fail with Chambers the best of them in the first semi final finishing just 5th in 10.35. This will be a huge disappointment for Dwain who has qualified based on his win at the trials and his past successes and good times.
In the flagship event, the mens 100m final, Tyson Gay won in a time of 10.03. He wasn’t overly impressive, but had too much for the rest of the field that involved his compatriot Ryan Bailey who finished second in 10.09. His job was made a bit easier by Jamaican superstar Asafa Powell pulling out of the event with muscle tightness. In comparison to some of his more notable performances, it seemed that Gay was slightly lacking in his pickup and his transition to top speed. This left him trailing slightly, however in this race he had enough once he was into his running to pull away from the field comfortably in the end. He will need to improve this area to have any chance of Olympic gold however as he will come up against athletes who are as fast if not faster than him, who also have great strength endurance such as Bolt, Blake, Powell and Gatlin. If he gives those athletes the few meters he did the field tonight, he certainly will struggle to claw it back.
In the mens Long jump Chris Tomlinson was back to some good form just before the Games when jumping 8.26. He has struggled this year so far and was selected for the Olympic games without having achieved the qualifying standard, after tonight’s return to the form that the selectors were confident he could achieve, he is hopefully ready to peak at the Games. Mitchell Watt just pipped Tomlinson to the win after jumping 8.28m.
The womens 200m was a close race between Williams and McLaughlin with Williams winning in 22.75sec. This is a good time, however after Felix ran 21.69 in the US trials recently, both will have to find another level if they are to challenge for the gold. The Jamaican hope Simpson who was expected to set the pace at this event ran very disappointingly to finish 6th.
The womens 5000m also went as expected Cheruyiout won comfortably in 14:48.86 and visibly had more to give. Britain Julia Bleasdale ran a personal best in 15:10.06, still nowhere near the elite athletes but progress nonetheless.
In the womens 1500m the British women (England, Dobriskey and Weightman) were left for dead in 4:06.78 by Brunei athlete and former world champion Jammal. Laura Weightman finished fourth in 4:08.19 which is a good performance in a top class field for the youngster and definitely good preparation for the games.
Unfortunately Lui Xiang pulled out of the 110m hurdles final with a sore back, however, the field was still stacked with world-class talent. The event was won by American and world number one Aries Merrit in a brilliant time of 12.93sec a massive meeting record, breaking the long-standing British all comers record previously held by Colin Jackson. Britain’s number one Andrew Pozzi qualified for the final but unfortunately pulled up after the first hurdle and did not finish.
The big finale of the night lived up to the hopes and expectations of a raucous home crowd. Mo Farah looked in amazing shape while winning the 5000m after a devastating last 800m broke the will of his competitors. The world champion looked ready for the Olympics and alongside Jessica Ennis, holds the most realistic hopes of Olympic Gold for the home crowd.
As a whole the Aviva Diamond League Grand Prix last night was a very successful one for British athletes with the performances of Mo Farah and Perri Shakes-Drayton particularly standing out. With a host of personal and seasons bests among the British contingent hopes should be good going into the games. The Grand Prix continues just at this very minute and we can definitely hope for some more great performances.
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