In-form Reekie holds off compatriot Muir as Scots are to the fore in Hengelo
Jemma Reekie’s mission statement for her athletics career is refreshingly simple: “I want to keep winning.
Ayrshire’s Olympic aspirant declared: “Obviously, I always want to run fast, and the faster the better.”
The latest in a string of impressive victories came yesterday in the Dutch town of Hengelo. Not her quickest. Yet formidable nonetheless, with the 23-year-old displaying control and poise at the front of the field in the 800 metres at the FBK Games before picking her moment to charge away to finish in 2 mins 00.77 secs.
Such panache has become engagingly repetitive since thestartof2020,aspellwhich has seen Reekie triumph in ten of her 12 starts over this distance. Just behind was Laura Muir who belatedly shook off the swarm of the pack to give chase but ended just 22-hundredths of a second adrift of her training partner. “I’m just glad to get the win,” Reekie said.
Muir now heads for a showdown with her wouldbe Olympic 1500m rivals at Thursday’s Diamond League meeting in Florence. “For the two of us to come 1-2 in the race is really good,” the European champion said.
Her colleague and conqueror diverts south to Marseille. Others, Muir included, are carrying more hype as Tokyo’s troubled Games near. But despite competing claims from the likes of reigning world champions Dina Asher-smith and Katarina Johnson-thompson, no other British athlete has dismissed high-class company with such regularity in recent times as Reekie. Under the radar? Surely not for much longer.
Similarly, Jake Wightman lacks an A-list profile but the European and Commonwealth medallist has an admirable knack of appearing perfectly at home amid elite company. And the 26-year-old matched Reekie with an imposing win of his own in Hengelo in the 1500m.
He unleashed ferociously off the final bend to clock 3:34.67 with Kenya’s Abel Kipsang closest but almost a second adrift.
More momentum for this month’s British trials with one of his primary rivals, Charlie Da’vall Grice, marooned in 13th. “The main aim was to come here and try to win,” said Wightman. “It’s an historic track to try to do that. Job done. I didn’t need the time because I’ve got my Olympic standard already.
“It’s just about racing and running as well as I can which I feel like I did. There’s no times on the line when it comes to Tokyo. Same for our trials for the British team.”
Sifan Hassan, on home soil, obliterated the women's 10,000m world record with a time of 29:06.82 - knocking over ten seconds from Almaz Ayana’s mark of 29:17:45 that brought the Ethiopian Olympic gold in Rio and throttling the stadium record set by Liz Mccolgan 31 years ago.
Guy Learmonth was only the fourth Brit home in ninth place in the men’s 800m with the Borderer frustrated at the rough conditions. “I would rather I just did time trials at home than travel for something like that,” he said.
However Dina Ashersmith kept up her charge towards Tokyo by winning the women’s 100m in a meeting record of 10.92 secs with fellow Brit Daryll Neita third in a personal best of 11.04.
Elsewhere, Zoey Clark ran a season’s best of 51.99 secs to win the 400m in Bromley.