Good conditions helped create another night of world class athletics at the famous Ostrava Golden Spike meeting, with Niall Flannery (coach: Nick Dakin) continuing his 2014 unbeaten run..

This year has been a real coming of age for 23 year old Flannery, who has seemingly beaten more and more esteemed opposition every week. This week he took the scalp of Olympic decathlon champion turned 400m hurdler Ashton Eaton, powering round the top bend to catapult himself to yet another 2014 personal best down the home straight. Flannery’s PB clocking of 48.80 puts him top of both the British and European rankings this year.

Bianca Williams (Lloyd Cowan) is another athlete who is making 2014 a year to remember, and she set a further personal best of 22.79 to push Olympic champion Allyson Felix all the way to the line. That time puts her second on the Power of 10 behind namesake Jodie Williams (Christine Bowmaker), taking a further 0.14 off her personal best set earlier this year. In the same race Anyika Onuora (Rana Reider) was fifth running 23.39. 

Martyn Rooney (Reider) took a massive stride back towards his best, which is quite apt for the man who stands at 6ft 5", as he finished 3rd in a quality 400m in 45.03. That time puts him top of the Power of 10 rankings and is his best performance since May 2012. Luke Lennon-Ford (Linford Christie) was eighth in the same race, running 46.95.

Lawrence Clarke (Malcolm Arnold) used every muscle in his neck to take victory in the men’s 110mH out dipping his counterparts to clock 13.50 (-1.6m/s). In the evening finale, the men’s 100m, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (Reider) and Sean Safo-Antwi (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) were fifth and sixth respectively in 10.19 and 10.21.

Jenny Meadows was the pick of the bunch in the women’s 800m, finishing ninth in a massive field of fifteen athletes in a season’s best of 2.01.11. Two places further back came Jemma Simpson (Mark Rowland) clocking 2.02.22, with Laura Muir running a below par 2.03.83 in 13th.

Andy Vernon (Nic Bideau) found the going extremely tough in a blistering men’s 3000m, finishing 16th in 7.58.70. In the field, Yamile Aldama (Frank Attoh) was fifth with a best triple jump of 13.79, whilst Steve Lewis (Dan Pfaff) failed to record a height in the men’s pole vault. 

Next step for the majority of these athletes is the Sainsbury’s British Championships next weekend. Tickets for that event are on sale here.