JULY 20-21 @ATHLETICSWEEKLY
JONNIE PEACOCK stormed to a popular win in the
T44-64 100m as he brought back memories of the
London Paralympics with a stirring victory.
The 26-year-old clocked 10.70 victory as he
produced a powerful finish. It was not far off his
PB of 10.64 either.
“I am reasonably happy with that. It’s one of my
faster times,” he said. “I feel good at the moment, I
have been training well and I have only had three
races this year. It’s been great to get back on the
track, I have always loved training and this year I
feel like the hunger is back. I am going home every
night and watching video and wanting to improve.”
In the T53-54 800m, meanwhile, the wheelchair
event was won by Dillon Labrooy in 1:38.13 in a
close race with GB team-mate Richard Chiassaro.UNTIL last weekend Haile
Gebrselassie was the last – and
only – Ethiopian to win the Emsley
Carr Mile. The legendary runner
won the race when it was held at
Gateshead in 1999 and now, 20
years later, Samuel Tefera followed
in his fellow countryman’s famous
footsteps by out-kicking Filip
Ingebrigtsen in a thrilling finish on
day two of the Müller Anniversary
Games in London.
Tefera’s time of 3:49.45 was
also the quickest since 2003 as
he held off Ingebrigtsen, who ran
a Norwegian record of 3:49.60. It
meant the 19-year-old wrote his
name into history – quite literally,
because a post-race tradition is for
winners to sign an Emsley Carr Mile
book which dates back to 1953 and
includes names such as Seb Coe,
Steve Ovett and Hicham El Guerrouj.
“I am very happy to get the win
and to be the quickest in the world
this year,” said Tefera, who won the
world indoor title in Birmingham
last year. “It was very strong
competition so I knew I had to push
all the way to the line.”
Ingebrigtsen’s national record
came 24 hours after his younger
brother, Jakob, set a Norwegian
5000m record when, coincidentally,
being outkicked by another
Ethiopian, Hagos Gebrhiwet.
“Two national records for theIngebrigtsen’s is how we like it,” he
said. “With him doing a national
record I thought I at least have to
PB.”
Passing 400m in 55.2 and 800m
in 1:53.0 with Bram Som setting the
pace, Tefera was the only runner to
go with it with everyone else adrift
but Ingebrigtsen bridged the gap
from the chasing group to Tefera
and caught the Ethiopian with 500mto go before hitting the front at the
bell, only to see Tefera surging past
with 100m to go.
Similar to the middle-distance
races on the first day of this
Diamond League meeting, there
were a number of good British
performances further down the
field. Jake Wightman, the 2018
Emsley Carr Mile winner, clocked a
PB of 3:52.02 in third. Chris O’Harenarrowly missed his PB with
3:53.35 in seventh, just ahead of
Josh Kerr, who spent the middle
part of the race towing the chasing
pack around and who clocked a
PB of 3:53.88, while rising star Jake
Heyward continued his comeback
from injury to clock a fine 3:54.78 in
10th and Piers Copeland and James
West also broke four minutes with
personal best times.Jonnie Peacock:
showed great
form in 100mPeacock blasts to victory
Tefera writes name in history
Samuel Tefera and
Filip Ingebrigtsen:
classic duel over
one mile in London