by Alfonz Juck
Two of Great Britain’s finest athletes: Lord Coe and Laura Muir, photo by PhotoRun.net
European Indoor records Muir and Farah
BIRMINGHAM (GBR, Feb 18): The Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham was highlighted by two European records in the distance events. On her 1000m debut, Laura Muir moved to second on the world indoor all-time lists behind Maria Mutola with 2:31.93. Her 800m split of 2:00.56 was just shy of her outright PB (2:00.42) and Lynsey Sharp’s Scottish indoor record of 2:00.30. Kate Grace was second in 2:36.97 while Sanne Verstegen broke Ellen van Langen’s Dutch record with 2:38.72 in third. Mo Farah closed his indoor career by ending the programme with victory in the 5000m in 13:09.16 to break Bob Tahri’s European record of 13:11.13 (Farah ran 13:10.60 in 2011 but that mark wasn’t ratified). In her only indoor race of the season, Elaine Thompson sped to a world-leading 60m mark of 6.98 to move to equal seventh on the world indoor all-time lists, just missing Merlene Ottey’s Jamaican record of 6.96 while Andy Pozzi lowered his world-leading time in the 60m hurdles down to 7.43. Another highlight was the women’s 3000m with Hellen Obiri breaking her Kenyan record of 8:29.41 ahead of Sifan Hassan (8:30.76) who broke Elly van Hulst’s long-standing Dutch record. Casimir Loxsom (1:46.13 WL) and Joanna Jozwik (2:01.12) claimed wins over 800m while Ben Blankenship won the 1500m 3:36.42 WL ahead of Ryan Gregson in an Australian record of 3:36.50. Elsewhere, there were 400m wins for Zuzana Hejnova in 51.77 ahead of Laviai Nielsen in an outright 51.90 PB while Pavel Maslak won the men’s 400m in 45.89 ahead of former Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos (46.16). Ronnie Baker won the 60m flat in 6.55 from Kim Collins (6.58) while Christine Manning took another high profile win in the 60m hurdles in 7.83 from Sharika Nelvis (7.94) and Sally Pearson (7.96). Olympic pole vault champion Ekaterini Stefanidi overcame a cold to win with 4.63m and Lorraine Ugen won the long jump with 6.76m from Jazmin Sawyers an indoor 6.71m PB. Elsewhere, wins for Anita Marton (18.97m shot), Godfrey Mokoena (7.99m long jump) and Erik Kynard cleared a season’s best of 2.31m to beat Robbie Grabarz (2.28m).
RunBlogrun opines: Muller Indoor Grand Prix has been, for the past decade, been one of the top, if not the top indoor global single day meeting in our sport. The stadium is superb, the crowd is involved, and the orchestration of the races, from a nice build to a huge finish, always leaves me wanting more. With Laura Muir’s third NR and second Euro record of season, plus Mo Farah’s farewell indoor race, the day was set. Watch for my five lessons from Birmingham later tonight! Off for some curry.
