by Stuart Weir
This is article three on Stuart Weir’s coverage of the 2023 Bauhaus Stockholm, from July 2, 2023.
Britwatch Stockholm
There were 13 British athletes in the Bauhaus Stockholm Diamond League. I was going to say warming up for the British Championships but getting soaked would be more accurate. One GB athlete who, like me, had not brought a spare pair of shoes told me she was drying her shoes with a hair dryer! Your correspondent was stuffing tissues into his.
The women’s 100 resulted in a 1-2 for Britain and a first-ever Diamond League win for Darryl Neita, who beat Dina Asher-Smith 22.50 to 22.58. Don’t read anything into times on a cold, wet night. Neita said: “I’m winning Diamond Leagues in a very strong field. I couldn’t let the weather be an excuse to stop me today as I came here to win. I think it was a strong performance”. She added that her coach, Marco Airale, thought that 200m could prove to be her better distance.
Dina Asher-Smith made it a British 1-2, commenting: “It was all right, but I would rather have won – but it is what it is. I was hoping for a quicker time today as well. I am definitely in good shape. I made a few mistakes in the 200 in Paris, but this one was much better”. See a fuller post on the 200.
There were three British women in the 1500m. Melissa Courtney-Bryant was delighted to be the first GB finisher among the three British athletes in the race, finishing in 4:03.81. She told me: “I was ready to run a fast race, but it was very tactical. It’s a long time since I’ve been in a race like that”.
Laura Muir, World and Olympic medallist told me: “I don’t know what to make of it. It was a very odd race – yeah, all over the place, so I’m just glad I got through it in one piece because people were chopping and changing lanes”. Finishing sixth in 4:04.83, she added: “I’m in good shape. It’s just trying to get that on paper that is frustrating. It was a very good field in terms of the depth but the race was just very slow, so it got very messy and people were all over the place”.
The common themes in the athletes’ comments were ‘messy’ and ‘good practice for championships’. It is ironic that the meet set up a fast race with a pacemaker, and the athletes commended it as good practice for championship running!
A few days after Zharnel Hughes’ grabbed attention with his 9.83 in New York, Reece Prescod took second place in 10.14, a decent time in the cold, wet conditions. He told me: “I’m trying to put my technical model together to produce a good run. I take some positives out of tonight, and I have some things to work on”. He had an interesting take on the conditions: “With rain, the problem is mainly mental. I think you have to be ready and go for it”.
Matt Hudson-Smith was third in the 400m in 45.57. I cannot tell you what he thought of the race as, characteristically, he dodged the mixed zone! In the B race, Rabah Yousif was seventh in 48.89.
Revee Walcott-Nolan was fourth in the 800 in 2:01.87, in another of these races with a fast pacemaker (58.4) that no one wanted to follow.
Daniel Rowden was leading the 800, having gone through in just over 53 seconds but dropped out on the back straight. He told me he was feeling his Achilles and didn’t want to take a risk on a cold evening a week before the GB trials.
Jess Warner-Judd was ninth in the 5000m in 15:06.59. It was a race won by Beatrice Chebet, in which the first seven (6 East Africans), broke away from the rest. Jess told me: “I’m really happy with that. The plan was to work my way up through the field. I felt really strong, and I could keep going at that pace, I just haven’t got the courage to go for it, and I didn’t want to go and then die. GB trials and London Diamond League are coming up so that’s more important to chase times there. I just wanted to feel positive going into next week”.
Lawrence Okoye was seventh in the discus in 65.24.
