Sharp takes a tumble as 800m is run without Semenya in Oslo
Lynsey Sharp was brutally obstructed in the 800 metres at last night’s Bislett Games in Oslo.
The former European champion, pictured, pursuing promotion from the back of the field as the bell tolled for the final lap, was left sprawled on the track as an untimely trip terminated her challenge.
Seeking the kind of performance that might suggest a trajectory towards contention for a medal at the autumn’s world championships in Doha, she could only watch as Uganda’s Halimah Nakaayi claimed victory in 2:01.93 with her fellow Briton Shelayna Oskanclarke down in seventh.
The dynamics of the 800m have been turned upside down by the legal blockades which have banished Caster Semenya and other leviathans, at least temporarily, from the fray.
Sharp is among those formerly rendered mortal by the South African who would now dearly love to capitalise. Yet with the door thrust open last night, her bid ended in disappointment. It was a bump in the road and a clarion for the Internet trolls who now routinely hector the 28-year-old in vicious advocacy for Semenya. No matter that she has long fled Twitter. For daring to suggest that she is biologically disadvantaged, the warped warriors still type their worst.
Sunday’s Diamond League leg in Rabat. where Semenya claims she has been denied entry, now acquires additional urgency in Sharp’s determination to contend once more as the Tokyo Olympics peer over the horizon.
“Last year was just dreadful because it took me so long to even get under two minutes,” she acknowledged. “It was only by the Diamond League in London that I got myself together. I really want to get back to that, even if next year is the main goal. It’s all about building towards that.”
Andy Butchart was surer footed in the 3,000m in finishing tenth in 7:43.57 but although it was the Scottish record holder’s second-fastest run at the distance, he was well adrift of Ethiopia’s teenage tyro Selemon Barega, who triumphed in a world leading time of 7:32.17.
Norway’s world champion Karsten Warholm ignited Oslo by bolting to a European record in the 400m hurdles of 47.33 secs. The USA’S Christian Coleman produced the fastest 100m of 2019 so far of 9.85 secs to rout his sprint rivals with British No 1 Reece Prescod pulling up with apparent cramp mid-race.
Marcin Lewandowski celebrated his 32nd birthday by delivering an exquisitelytimed charge to snatch victory in the Dream Mile in a Polish record of 3:52.34, a mere fourhundredths of a second ahead of Kenya’s Vincent Kibet.
Meanwhile Jemma Reekie will chase a 800 metres personal best at tonight’s Dessau Grand Prix in Germany.
The ex-european junior champion, seventh behind Laura Muir in Montreuil on Tuesday, will aim to emulate her training partner who picked up her first major international victory there in 2013.