Georgia Hunter Bell not on the podium
How can you run 3.56 in a Women’s 1500 meters and come fourth? It is a comment on how the event has moved forward. That was the experience of Georgia Hunter-Bell in the Diamond League final. That one race, however, should not detract from a wonderful season for the British athlete.
In March, she won the 1500m at the World Indoors in Poland; in August, she won the European Championship 1500m, and between the two, she came first in the 800m at the Commonwealth Games. Add to that Diamond League wins in Paris and Rome, and it certainly qualifies as a successful year. It was her 18th race of the year.
She told me after the race: “It was good. Obviously I would have hoped to win today, but honestly, the last few days have been really tough mentally for me, just to get the adrenaline going. It’s been so many races this year. I think this is like my 18th race with three championships, three titles; I’ve tapped into the adrenaline just so much to really lock in for that. I’m kind of running out of steam as we get towards the end of the season. It’s a bit of a disappointment here, which hopefully means that I can come back next week [at the Ultimate] and find that fire again.
“Running 356 when I’m pretty tired shows I’m fit. But it’s been more mental. Usually when I just talk or think about the races, I get the adrenaline going in my stomach. And today I was looking for it in the warm-up, like ‘Come on, get it out of you’. I think that just happens when you do a really long season. I’m really happy with this season. It’s been amazing.
“This was my first experience of a year like this. Like in the Olympic year, I was on such a high because I was having my fairy tale year; I did five races after the Olympics with no problem. Now, staying at the very top every week is a different thing altogether. I’ll just go away, regroup, go to Budapest, get some training, and a bit of fire in my belly again after today. I really respect Klaudia. She’s been on an absolute tower this season, and I think she was really brave in how she raced it today and really bold. And it’s cool that the 1500 meters week on week, you don’t know who’s going to win it”.
The final result was
1 Klaudia Kazimierska 3:54.05 – for a World Lead and national record.
2 Dorcus Ewoi 3:54.72
3 Jessica Hull 3:54.73
4 Georgia Hunter Bell 3:56.40
The winner commented: “I was completely focused on competing and ‘being Klaudia’ throughout the race. I hadn´t won anything this year, and I wanted to finally win again. The result surprised me just as much as it did everyone else. I worked on a lot of small pieces, and they seem to have clicked together wonderfully. This is the fruit of consistent work, and I think the times will keep coming as I keep chasing wins and titles. This race came at exactly the right time for me to find a second form peak after the European Championships [she was second]. I had the Diamond League Final, the World Ultimate Championship and Athlos London all lined up, so it wasn´t hard for me to find focus again”.
Disappointment for Hunter Bell, but when you run 18 times and win 14, it hasn’t been a bad season!
