Muir class on display at Sainsbury's Indoor Grand Prix
There were four British winners in today’s Sainsbury’s Indoor Grand Prix, as the world’s biggest indoor athletics meet once again proved a thrilling show for those attending the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.
And whilst the world class sprint performances on show did not disappoint, it was the gutsy world-beating, Scottish-National-Record-breaking, personal-best-achieving 1500m win by Laura Muir (handicap MINUS 1.5) that proved the pick of the British performances on show.
Tracking the early leaders in the women’s field she moved up into the lead with 200m to go and was strong enough over the final lap to hold off the relentless attack of Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan, who also broke her own national record in pursuit of Muir.
“I was really shocked; I didn’t know I could run that fast. I felt really good and I found myself holding myself back at some points so it was really good,” said Muir.
“The likes of Obiri and Hassan are world class athletes so it gives me a lot of confidence.
“It makes it a bit difficult (running well over both 800m and 1500m) to choose, I think 800m for the worlds but it would be hard to say which is better for me at the moment.”
James Dasaolu was a hugely dominant force over 60m with a 6.50sec winning time in the final ahead of Jamaican Nesta Carter in 6.53 and crowd favourite Kim Collins in 6.55.
But the sight of him pulling up with a twinge as he crossed the line will no doubt be a concern – nevertheless it was a fine afternoon’s work from the Loughborough based sprinter, who will receive a scan on a potential thigh strain on Monday.
The semi finals had seen Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut and Dasaolu win their respective heats, with Dasaolu’s time of 6.47 the fastest in the world this year, whist Collins and Dwain Chambers were also looking strong.
Yet in the final, Dasaolu was the clear winner with Carter just pipping the evergreen Collins for the second spot.
Of his faltering finish he said: “My left leg felt tight at about 40-50m. I think it’s cramp but I’ll go and see the doctors and see what they say.”
The first British win of the afternoon had, however, come courtesy of the further-rejuvenated Holly Bleasdale who for the third time this season vaulted a height in excess of 4.70m, clearing 4.71m for victory.
Bleasdale said: “That was my third consecutive jump over 4.70m and if you’d told me this time last year that I’d be in this position I’d have been really happy.
“It wasn’t a great day today; I felt a bit rusty and things were a little bit stiff but if I can jump 4.71m on a bad day then I know the 4.80s and 4.90s will come,” she said.
“I love it here; this is my favourite place in the world to compete. The crowd are amazing; they get behind me and cheer and that gives me a bit of an edge. That’s what helped me win today so I was really happy with it.”
Another British athlete performing well to win against world class opposition was Nigel Levine who took the 400m by storm holding off the Olympic silver medallist Leguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic to win in a personal best of 45.71.
The Sainsbury’s British Athletics Indoor Champion went out strongly in the outside lane and at the break was able to cut across into pole position and was never headed despite a strong challenge.
Yet a non-plussed Levine said: “I don’t know how I feel about that really, it’s all about getting ready for the World Indoors.
“It’s a good job I went off quick because everyone came here to win and I’m happy to win for the fourth time in a row so I can’t complain. The plan is to medal in Poland.”
The highlight of the closing events came by way of a world record in the women’s two mile race. As expected it provided the perfect finale to a day of world class athletics with Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba obliterating the world record, stopping the clock at 9.00.48.
The record marked her third World best in as many races and she lapped almost the whole field, including the first British finisher Steph Twell (handicap MINUS 0.9), who worked through the field well for third in 9.42.41.
In the men’s 800m Mohammed Aman showed exactly why he is the reigning world champion as he broke the Ethiopian national indoor record with a scintillating 1.44.53 performance.
In doing so he dragged four athletes with him, one of them Britain’s Andrew Osagie (MINUS 5.7) took fourth, but more significantly ran 1.44.52, the second fastest indoor time ever by British athlete behind only Lord Sebastian Coe.
“I’m massively happy with that. I’ve had a cold this week, which has been a bit annoying, so I relaxed a little bit too much. On another day if I ran my race well I might have got close to a British record,” said Osagie
“It was very frustrating last weekend, mainly because I travelled to Sheffield for essentially nothing, but I got a lot of confidence from it and ticked the box with championships racing. I got a quick time today going into the World Indoors.”
The women’s 800m saw perennial NIA favourite Jenny Meadows (handicap MINUS 0.1) receive a rousing reception upon lining up, but it was fellow Brit Shelayna Oskan-Clarke (handicap MINUS 0.5) who performed best of the UK athletes. Winner was Poland’s Angelika Cichoka in 2.01:60, with Clarke in fourth in a PB 2.03:52 and Meadows fifth in 2.03:57.
In the men’s 3000m Lee Emmanuel showed how confident he is in his current fitness, hanging on to some of the best distance runners in the world to secure the IAAF World Indoor Championships qualifying time with a 7.45.12 personal best.
At the front though, victory went the way of Hagos Gebrehiwet in a last lap burn up from Ethiopian compatriots Dejene Gebremeskel and Yenew Alamirew, the clock stopping at 7.35.73.
The men’s 1500m saw another last lap burn up with Nixon Chepseba of Kenya proving strongest down the home straight to take victory in 3.37.19. Leading the Brits home was Charlie Grice (MINUS 5.5) who broke his personal best clocking 3.39.94 to finish seventh.
For full results click here.