Coleman and Miller-Uibo sparkle in Birmingham Diamond League
BIRMINGHAM, Uni t ed Kingdom: Christian Coleman and a striking-looking Shaunae MillerUibo put a dampener on Britain’s European sprint champions Zharnel Hughes and Dina AsherSmith’s return to home soil in the Diamond League meeting at Birmingham on Saturday.
Despite overcast skies and a strong wind world indoor 60 metres champion Coleman and Bahamian Miller-Uibo — whose dyed purple hair brightened up the surroundings — produced eye- catching performances in the men’s 100m and women’s 200m respectively.
While potentially more medals await Asher- Smith and Hughes, Britain’s 2012 Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford made his final Diamond League appearance but there was to be no blazing farewell as the injuryplagued star finished last.
Coleman looked set for an easy victory but both Hughes’s compatriot Reece Prescod, who won European 100m silver behind him in Berlin, and the fastest man in the world this year Noah Lyles ate into his lead with Prescod given the same time as the winner of 9.94sec.
“It was a sigh of relief because you never know what to expect when you come back from injury and I got my rhythm back and I came out with the win in a good time,” said Coleman.
“It’s been a test for me to cont inual ly prove mysel f but I’ll use this as a learning experience,” added the 22-yearold American.
Asher- Smith gave a better account of herself than European 100m champion Hughes — who admitted to being tired after finishing fifth behind Coleman — as the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay European champion in Berlin finished second behind Olympic 400m champion MillerUibo, who timed a meet record of 22.15sec, with world 200m champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands in third.
“The main thing for me was just to have a great curve race and once I put myself into the race off the curve I used my 400 strength to power home,” said Miller-Uibo.
“It was a really competitive race and everybody brought their A- game,” added the 24year- old.
Fred Kerley won the men’s 400m in a modest 45.54sec as the young American came through to edge another of Britain’s European champions, Matt Hudson- Smith.
Kerley and Hudson- Smith had to run down triple jump great Christian Taylor, turning his hand to the one-lap race, who had set the early pace before finishing fourth.
“I was a bit ring rusty,” said Kerley. “I didn’t push too hard because this is my first race in two months,” added the 23-yearold.
Hud s on- Smi t h, who s e thoughts about retirement last year dissolved once he moved to the United States and joined Lyles’ coach Lance Brauman, said changing his tactics from the European final when he blasted out of the blocks but tied up towards the finish had nearly worked.
“My coach will be happy with how that race was executed because I was a lot more patient than at the Europeans when I went off like a rocket,” said Hudson- Smith.
Two- time Olympic triple jump champion Taylor deployed Hudson- Smith’s tactics from Berlin.
“It is a new challenge, I watched Matt at the Europeans. He went out hard as did I today but I also died hard!” said a grinning Taylor.
Spain’s 2016 Olympic 110m hurdles silver medallist Orlando Ortega ran a season’s best 13.08sec — the second fastest time this year — beating both Commonwealth champion Ronald Levy and the newlycrowned European king Pascal Martinot-Lagarde of France.
“I’m much happier with the time, but I am a little angry because if I ran like this at the European Championships I would have won gold,” said 27-year- old Ortega, who had to settle for bronze in Berlin.
European champion Lea Sprunger of Switzerland guaranteed herself a place in front of her home fans in Zurich for the Diamond League final with a courageous victory — her first in a Diamond League event —over Jamaica’ s Commonwealth Games queen Janieve Russell in the 400m hurdles.
“It’ s my first win in the Diamond League and it’s really nice after the European title,” said the 28-year- old Swiss.
“To hear ( on the pre- race announcement) that I was the European champion was unbelievable and this coupled with it makes it a great couple of weeks.”