by Justin LagatRunBlogRun opines: Justin Lagat wrote this piece on the performances of Nijel Amos, Mo Farah and Hellen Obiri. Justin provides @runblogrun readers with a weekly view from Kenya. This piece is on the London Diamond League meeting, aka the Muller Anniversary Games. In 26 days, the London Olympic stadium will be host to the 2017 World Outdoor Athletics Championships.
Amos Nijel confirms, with wins in Paris and London IAAF Diamond Leagues, that his change in training worked and that he is back again on top.
After winning at the last IAAF diamond league event in Paris, Amos Nijel got a chance to confirm at the London Diamond League meeting that he is indeed back to dominate the men’s 800m event. During the race, Nijel had stayed just behind the pace setter who crossed the 400m mark in 49.58, took over the lead after the first 600m mark and maintained it till he crossed the finish line in a world leading time of 1:43.18. It would seem that Nijel’s change in his training program seems to be working well for him.
Late last year when RunBlogRun met him in Eldoret, Kenya he was making some changes to his training including going to a gym, which he had never done before. According to him, he still has time to try different training methods now that he is only 22 years of age and that perhaps one time in the future, although he is not focusing on the world record, “if the record was meant to be mine it may happen,” he had said.
His plans, after last year’s Christmas break, included coming back to Kenya for more training in January to February before shifting his training base to Oregon where he would train under coach Mark Rowland. For the last five years, he had been training in South Africa under a different coach. According to him, his past coach had been great, but he just needed to make some changes and experience some new adventures in his training. It seems to be working perfectly for him now.
USA’s Brazier Donavan was second in a seasonal best time of 1:43.95 while Asbel Kiprop, in his first 800m race this year, took third in 1:44.43.
Mo Farah was at his home ground and had the fastest personal best time of 7:32.62 on the men’s 3000m starting list. And as though in a show of full confidence in himself, Farah trailed the field in the first lap of the race before slowly making his way towards the lead as the race progressed. This was one of his last few races before he moves on to the roads and definitely he was going to give a thrilling race to his home fans.
With about 600m to go, Farah suddenly moved to the front. He had dropped his glasses and looked more focused as the field that had begun to bunch together started to stretch out again as the pace picked up. As usual in his races, the last 100m was the section that he used to clear some space between him and the second place finished as he went ahead to win in a seasonal best time of 7:35.15. Mechaal Adel came second in 7:36.32 while Andrew Buchart finished 3rd in 7:37.56.
In the women’s mile, Hellen Obiri had never raced officially in the distance before and in her first and official race here in the London Stadium, she put herself in t he top ten all-time list and became Kenya’s national record holder over the distance. Laura Muir, in the same race, wanted to break the British one mile record of 4: 17.57, set at the Zurich Weltklasse meeting in 1985 by Zola Budd, but missed it narrowly.
Obiri had stayed on the heels of Muir for the better part of the race and only moved to overtake her with less than 150m to go. Her winning time of 4:16:56 puts her on 6th all-time best in the world and she overtakes Faith Kipyegon as the new national record holder. Muir was second in a personal best time of 4:18.03 while Winny Chebet came third in 4:19.55.
