ACTION MÜLLER ANNIVERSARY GAMES, LONDON
ZHARNEL HUGHES delighted the
British crowd as he clocked
9.95 to finish runner-up behind
Commonwealth champion Akani
Simbine’s 9.93 in the 100m.
Yohan Blake, Yuki Koike and Andre
De Grasse broke the 10-second
barrier, too, while Adam Gemili
made a fine return from injury to
run 10.04 in sixth.
Hughes staggered a little as he
came out the blocks as he tried to
keep pace with the South African
winner and said: “I am quite happy
minus the stumble but I think
I ran a great race and held my
composure and it was good to be in
front of a London crowd.”
Even more dramatic, however,
was James Ellington’s comebackafter serious injuries sustained in
a motorbike accident in January- Many felt he would never
run competitively again but the
33-year-old defied expectations
with a 10.93 clocking on Saturday
and says his true goal is to make
the Olympic team next year.
“I am lapping every moment of it
up,” Ellington said. “But I’m going to
go back to the drawing board and
try to sort these injuries out.
“I had a back problem three days
ago and could not walk but there
was no way I was going to miss this
race.
“Yesterday I started to feel a bit
better but in the warm-up I started
to feel pain and I walked out
limping but I was not missing this.”XIE ZHENYE clocked an Asian record of 19.88 (0.9) as Miguel Francis
clocked 19.97 in second to go equal third on the UK all-time rankings with
Adam Gemili.
“I’m not in the greatest shape so to run 19.97 in the shape that I’m in is
actually very pleasing,” said Jamaica-based Francis, who was born in the
British overseas territory of Montserrat and has a PB of 19.88 set before he
transferred his allegiance to GB.
Behind, fellow Brit Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake ran 20.28 in fifth while
European under-23 champion Shemar Boldizsar was eighth in a 20.56 PB.
Earlier, Mitchell-Blake had anchored a GB team that included CJ Ujah,
Zharnel Hughes and Richard Kilty to a world lead and meet record of 37.60
ahead of Japan (37.78) and Netherlands (national record of 37.99).
There was a large contingent of Chinese media in London and they
saw another of their athletes, Xie Wenjun, win the 110m hurdles in 13.28
from Wilhelm Belocian, Omar McLeod and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde as
Andrew Pozzi finished top Brit in sixth in 13.52.Xie makes his mark
Speed merchants on show
Xie Zhenye (far left): 200m win in Asian record 19.88
Akani Simbine: South African pips Zharnel Hughes to the line in the 100m