ACTION MÜLLER ANNIVERSARY GAMES, LONDON
NIJEL AMOS, who ran 1:41.89 in
Monaco recently, pulled up in the
back straight on the first lap with
injury but his absence did not affect
the quality of what turned out to be
a tremendous 800m race.
Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich – who
ran 1:42.54 this year in Monaco –
won in 1:43.14 from fellow Kenyan
and Commonwealth champion
Wycliffe Kinyamal (1:43.48), as
Marcin Lewandowski of Poland was
two hundredths of a second short of
his PB with 1:43.74 in third.
The hare went through the bell
in 49.48 with only Wesley Vasquezof Puerto Rico going with the pace
and he still led at 600m in 76.67 but
Cheruiyot Rotich strode past with
100m to go and held off Kinyamal.
Behind there were several
notable PBs by British athletes.
These were led by Jamie Webb
in sixth place, who smashed his
1:45.73 to clock 1:44.52 for 10th on
the UK all-time rankings.
Webb has now gone ahead
of athletes like Garry Cook, Tony
Morrell and one of his coaches, Matt
Yates, but he said: “I don’t care who
I’ve passed on the all-time lists,”
he said. “All that matters is that Ibeat my club record (at Liverpool
Harriers) held by Curtis Robb!”
Robb, of course, is a former British
champion who reached the world
and Olympic 800m finals in the
early 1990s before going on to work
as a surgeon.
Kyle Langford also clocked a
PB of 1:44.97 for ninth place – a
remarkable performance given the
fact he missed two weeks’ training
recently after injuring his knee
stretching before a meeting
in Marseille at the start of July.
The man who was fourth in the
world final in 2017 has also facednegative headlines in recent weeks
after the well-publicised incident at
the Watford BMC Grand Prix.
Elliot Giles also ran well with
1:45.03 – narrowly missing his
1:44.99 PB – just behind Langford,
although it was a shame that
Charlie Da’Vall Grice could not get
an entry into the race as he wanted
a blow-out over two laps following
his 3:30.62 1500m in Monaco.
As for Amos, he shouted from a
stretcher while being wheeled off
the track: “I’ll be back!”
n More on Jamie Webb and
Kyle Langford, Digest, p8-9Fast two-lap times in London
Ferguson Cheruiyot
Rotich: first place
as British athletes
behind ran PBs