The pole vault and javelin yielded rich rewards for Olympic medal contenders Mackenzie Little and Nina Kennedy at their last major hit out before Paris. Nicole Jeffery was trackside.
Two Australian medal hopes – world pole vault champion Nina Kennedy and world javelin medallist Mackenzie Little – reinforced their Paris intentions with impressive victories at the London Diamond League, the last major competition before the Olympic Games.
And Commonwealth 1500m champion Oli Hoare gave the Australian team a further boost winning Britain’s most prestigious mile race, the Emsley Carr Mile.
Kennedy, who shared the world title with defending Olympic champion Katie Moon at the Budapest championships last year, has dominated the final two Diamond League meetings leading into the Games, earning favouritism for the gold medal in Paris along the way.
She won in Monaco last week with a clearance of 4.88m, and in London was the only vaulter to clear 4.85m, before lifting the bar to 4.95m to practice at the height where the Olympic medals are likely to be decided.
“There was nothing on the line, I’d won the competition and I just wanted to see if I could clear it,’’ she said, noting that her third attempt was “really, really close”.
“With a bit more pressure and maybe with an Olympic medal riding on that jump, I definitely know I have it in me.”
Kennedy and Moon famously decided to share the title rather than jump off in Budapest, but they have also agreed that if that situation recurs in Paris they will keep jumping until there is a clear winner.
“Last year at the world championships … I got to the end of that competition and I ran out of gas, I ran out of steam, and it’s something I really wanted to fix going into the Olympic Games,’’ Kennedy said.
“I want to be fit. I want to have my best attempt on my last jump (in Paris). If it comes to a jump off, I want to make sure my legs have it in them.’’
lt could have ended much earlier yesterday if Kennedy had not held her nerve. In tricky windy conditions at the 2012 Olympic stadium, she hit trouble when the bar was at 4.65m, requiring three attempts to remain in the competition. But that concentrated her mind for the rest of the competition.
“It really forces you to make sure you clear those higher heights on your first attempt,’’ she said.
“Nobody likes clearing the bar on their third attempt but I think it’s a really good opportunity to practice under extreme pressure.’’
Moon, who was in the same situation, failed on her third attempt and fell to eighth in the standings.
Canada’s Alysha Newman finished second (4.75m) with hometown favourite Molly Caudery third (4.65m).
Meanwhile, Little made an immediate statement at the London Olympic Stadium, hurling the spear to a personal best distance of 66.27m, the second biggest throw in the world this year, with her first attempt.
She took advantage of almost perfect conditions for javelin, with a steady headwind on the runway, and led the competition by nearly six metres after the first round.
The 27-year-old junior doctor worked nights and extra shifts at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital so she could squeeze in two major competitions enroute to Paris. Straight off the plane she set a season’s best of 64.74m to finish second behind world champion Haruka Kitaguchi at the Monaco Diamond League.
With another week to adjust to the time zone, she rose to a new level in London.
Only Colombia’s Flor Ruiz Hurtado has thrown further this year (66.70m).
“I wasn’t necessarily expecting that in the first round, but it just came out so nice,’’ she said.
“It felt easy. Sometimes when you come into a javelin throw and you block really hard throughout your whole body – like a shock – but the really good ones just feel easy.’’
She said her body appreciated the extra rest she has had since arriving in Europe.
“The 12 and a half hour shifts were getting to me,’’ she said.
“I’m trying to keep it really dialed in because I didn’t expect to be in personal best and winning form leading up to the Olympics like this.”
The women’s javelin has been a particularly open event this year. Reigning world champion Haruka Kitaguchi was only fourth in this competition (62.69m), after winning in Monaco, while Serbia rising star Adriana Vilagos set a personal best of 65.58m to take second place behind Little.
“There’s an opportunity (in Paris) and I plan to take it,’’ the Australian said.
Hoare’s early season was disrupted by injury but he is rounding into his best form at the right time. Most of the leading contenders for the 1500m in Paris – defending champion Jacob Ingebrigtsen, world champion Josh Kerr – were absent from this field, and a couple of other hopefuls fell in the first 30m of this race, but Hoare took his chances.
He was pushed violently just before the fall but managed to keep his feet in the 17-man scrum from the start line and surged clear to slot in behind the pacemaker and his Australian teammate Stewart McSweyn.
McSweyn led until 250m to go, when Hoare hit the front, fighting off a late challenge from Norway’s Narve Nordas, the world championships bronze medallist, to clinch the win by 0.03sec in 3:49.03.
McSweyn held on for fifth place (3:49.59), just ahead of 17-year-old prodigy Cameron Myers (3:50.16), who was overlooked for the Olympic team but will be one of the favourites for the world under 20 title in Lima, Peru in August.
Hoare was delighted to take his first Diamond League win after such a troubled year and said he felt he was close to finding his best form and being able to challenge for the medals in Paris.
“I’ve been completing on the Diamond League for four years and I’ve never won one, so to win one was pretty awesome,’’ he said.
“I couldn’t run in November, my first race was at the Australian champs and then this is probably my fifth race of the year and to come out with the win is very nice.
“I feel like I’m a couple of workouts away from 3:28-3:29 shape and from there it’s about getting lucky and racing the right race and I think I can do that.’’
Past winners of this fabled mile race include Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Said Aouita, Haile Gebrselassie and Hicham El Guerrouj – so he is in good company.
The Australian women’s and men’s 100m relays also had strong hit outs before Paris, as did the USA’s favourite for the men’s sprint double Noah Lyles.
The female quartet of Ella Connolly, Bree Masters, Kristie Edwards and Torrie Lewis, set their third national record of the year, 42.48sec, to finish fourth behind Great Britain, France and a second British team.
The Australian men – Sebastian Sultana, Josh Despard, Caleb Law and Josh Azzopardi – finished second to a highly-competitive Japanese team (38.07), setting a season’s best time of 38.31sec.
There were world-leading performances by Olympic favourites in several other events on the programme, most notably British duo Keely Hodgkinson in the 800m (1:54.61, fastest in the world for six years) and Matt Hudson-Smith in the 400m (43.74sec), while Jamaica’s Nickisha Pryce emerged as the new leader in the women’s 400m (48.57sec, the fastest time since the Tokyo Games).
World 100m and 200m champion Noah Lyles closed the program by sending a warning shot to the world’s best sprinters, winning the 100m in a personal best time of 9.81sec, despite a slight headwind.
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