6 June 2013

Long jumper Shara Proctor (coach: Rana Reider) was the pick of the British athletes in action in the Rome leg of the IAAF Diamond League this evening.

Proctor twice jumped a season’s best as she eventually leaped to 6.91m in the final round, just 4cm short of her British record, to finish third in a truly world-class long jump competition. American Brittney Reese was on top form again as she defeated compatriot Janay DeLoach with a jump of 6.99m.

Dai Greene (Malcolm Arnold) finished fifth in his first 400m hurdles appearance of the season. The reigning World Champion ran a time of 48.81 in a race won by Johnny Dutch, the current world leader.

Hannah England (Bud Baldaro) finished fourth in a competitive women’s 1500m race in a time of 4:03.91 while fellow Brit Lisa Dobriskey (Ricky Soos) was tenth in 4:05.79. Abeba Aregawi of Sweden was a convincing winner in 4:00.23 to extend her lead in the Diamond Race over second placed Genzebe Dibaba.

2009 world champion Phillips Idowu (Femi Akinsanya) jumped a big season’s best of 16.44m in the triple jump for seventh place. USA’s Olympic and world champion Christian Taylor finished first with 17.08m as the field jumped into a headwind throughout.

Eilish McColgan (Liz McColgan) secured an IAAF World Championships ‘A’ qualifying standard with a time of 9:41.50 in the 3,000m steeplechase. The 23 year old finished in tenth place in a race won by Kenya’s Milcah Chemos who ran a season’s best 9:16.14.

There were three GB & NI representatives in the men’s 400m, despite this not being an IAAF Diamond Race . Nigel Levine (Linford Christie) was first home of the three Brits in fourth place with a 45.64 clocking, with Michael Bingham (George Williams) just five hundredths adrift in a time of 45.69, whilst  Martyn Rooney (Rana Reider) was ninth with 46.31.

There were two British athletes in action in the men’s B 100m race; James Ellington (Rana Reider) finished fourth in 10.32 and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (Rana Reider) was eighth with 10.39. There was disappointment for Steve Lewis (Dan Pfaff, Scott Simpson) as he failed to clear a height in the pole vault due to three failures at 5.50m.

In a 100m Paralympic race, GB & NI’s T44 sprinter Laura Sugar set a personal best as she won a thrilling race by one hundredth of a second in 14.12.