by Stuart WeirThis is the last piece on 2020 Monaco DL, written by Stuart Weir. Stuart always does a piece on the British athletes at a major and non major events.
Jake Wightman, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Brits in Monaco
There were 13 British athletes in the Herculis Monaco Diamond League, many of them experiencing their first real competition of the year. For all that six came away with a PR.
Laura Muir, 2020 Monaco DL, photo by Etienne Fiacre
Laura Muir claimed a British record for the rarely run 1000m, finishing second in 2:30.82. Muir’s training partner, Jemma Reekie, was fourth in 2:31. Muir said: “I would love to have gone out there and won but coming second to the Olympic champion was pretty good. I’ve gone for that British record once before and missed it so to get it here was great”. Reekie commented on Twitter: “Well tonight was fun! Fam Young [a reference to coach Andy Young] smashed it with Laura getting the British record! Pleased with my performance sneaking under the old British record, a new U23 British record and 10th all time. 5 second PR and creeping up in high class races to higher places”.
The race was set up by pacemaker Shelayna Oskan-Clarke’s 59.31 second first lap. I suspect that had she kept running Shelayna would have finished with a good time herself.
Jake Wightman, 2020 Monaco DL, photo by Etienne Fiacre
Jake Wightman ran a PR (3:29.47) for third in the 1500m. He commented: “I think whenever you come to Monaco you know you’ve got a chance to run quick, so I wanted to run a PB, under 3:31. To go under 3:30 is what a lot of 1500m runners want to do in their career so for me to tick it off today is a big milestone. That’s my one and only 1500m this season. I’ll try and race some 800m and get quicker over that now”.
Laura Weightman, 2020 Monaco DL, photo by Etienne Fiacre
Laura Wightman ran a PR of 14:35.44 in the 5000m saying: “I’m absolutely delighted. Tonight was about ‘commit, go hard, hang on as long as you can’. I hurt in the last kilometer but I am delighted to be leaving here with a PR and the second fastest British time ever”. Eilish McColgan was seventh in 14:57.37.
Kyle Langford ran a PR (1:44.83) for fifth in the 800m. Andy Pozzi equalled his PR (13.14) coming second in the 110m hurdles.
Adam Gemili was fourth in the 200m in 20.68. Gemili who was fourth in Rio and in Doha last year commented: “It felt good to compete again in front of a crowd after so long. Very rusty running from myself but the aim tonight was just to have fun. Definitely considering changing my name to 4D4M with the amount of 4ths I’ve come!”
Katarina Johnson-Thompson, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
World Champion heptathlete, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, had a disappointing evening in the high jump with three failures at 1.88 for sixth place but still took positives from the occasion: “Monaco was one of my dream places to compete. Every year I always watch the meet and I’m always jealous of the athletes that can compete here so it’s always been my dream to compete in this stadium. It’s a great atmosphere, I loved the lights on the track, the people in the stadium. I just want to compete and I’m not in the shape I was last year because I’ve worked so much. Being away from my coach has been damaging a little bit so now I’m back into the swing of things and to me, it’s just about competing, so next year is not a complete shock to the system”.
Naomi Ogbeta was in the Triple Jump with 13.56. Zak Seddon was 11th in the 3000m Steeplechase in 8:38.86. Daryll Neita was eight in the 100m in 11.50, a race won by Ajla del Ponte (Switzerland) in 11.16.
