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Nadia Power (file pic). Morgan Treacy/INPHO
Irish Eye

Mixed evening for Ireland's Olympic hopefuls at Golden Spike meet in Ostrava

There were personal bests set, while Nadia Power was ‘fairly disgusted’ with her showing in the 800m final.

IT WAS A mixed evening for Ireland’s Olympic hopefuls at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Nadia Power finished sixth in the women’s 800m final after running a time of 2:02.72, well off her recent personal best of 2:00.98.

The 23-year-old Dubliner was 1.62 seconds off the top three this evening, with Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji and Sweden’s Lovisa Lindh finishing first, second and third respectively.

Power told Irish athletics journalist Cathal Dennehy that she was “fairly disgusted with that time” afterwards.

Seán Tobin clocked a season’s best time of 7:49.37 and finished fourth in the men’s 3000m. Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei won it out in a world-leading time of 7:33.24, with USA’s Paul Chelimo and Oscar Chelimo, also of Uganda, second and third.

John Fitzsimons set a personal best of 1:46.62 in the men’s 800m final, the Kildare man finishing seventh overall, while Mark English was 11th with a season’s best of 1:47.85. Max Burgin of Great Britain triumphed in 1:44.14.

In the 1500m, Luke McCann also clocked a personal best and finished 10th in 3:37.77, while the reigning Irish champion, Paul Robinson, was among three competitors not to finish. Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski was first home with a season’s best time of 3:35.57.

Elsewhere at the Golden Spike meet, American sprinter Fred Kerley won the 100m in 9.96 seconds, seeing off 2004 Olympic champion and veteran compatriot Justin Gatlin.

Kerley posted a sub-10 second time in April when he clocked 9.91 seconds for the second fastest time so far this season, trailing Trayvon Bromell’s world-leading mark by 0.03 seconds.

At Ostrava, Kerley beat 39-year-old Gatlin who clocked 10.08 and Canada’s Andre de Grasse on 10.17.

“I feel like it was perfect, I can’t complain. It was pretty good,” Kerley said. He added that in the run-up to the postponed Tokyo Olympics, he was “just gaging, listening to my training” for the time being.

Kerley also ran the 200m finishing second behind fellow American Kenny Bednarek, who clocked 19.93.

Sha’Carri Richardson won the women’s 200 metres in 22.35 after making waves earlier on Wednesday with a tweet from Ostrava that read “First & last time here, not impressed at all”.

Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo set a world-leading time of 26:33.93 in the 10,000m, the seventh-fastest race of all time.

“I did not expect such a time, I was hoping for something under 27,” said Kiplimo. “The seventh time in history is something I really did not even think about.”

Kiplimo stayed almost 23 seconds behind the world record set last October by his compatriot Cheptegei, who won the 3000m.

Ethiopia’s Getnet Wale set a new world-leading time of 8:09.47 in the 3000m steeplechase.

World record holder Armand Duplantis won the pole vault with an effort of 5.90 metres, beating two-time world champion Sam Kendricks by five centimetres.

“I think of course I can jump higher than 5.90 but today I just never really got the rhythm and I just didn’t really jump that well,” the 21-year-old Swede told AFP.

But he put on a conciliatory tone when asked about the prospects for his Olympic debut.

“I have a lot of time for the Olympics. I think I’m in good shape right now,” he said.

Burkina Faso’s Fabrice Hugues Zango won the triple jump with a 17.20m effort, almost a metre behind his 18.07-metre indoor world record from earlier this year.

“There are some good things to take from this competition because I was able to fix my run up today so I think technically I get something,” Zango said.

“So in the next competition with good weather, maybe more warm, I think that I will go further.”

Having used the Golden Spike as an outdoor test, the top athletes will now move to Gateshead, England, for Sunday’s Diamond League opener in the run-up to the delayed Olympic Games, which are due to start on 23 July.

- Reporting from Emma Duffy and © – AFP, 2021

Screenshot 2020-11-24 at 9.04.07 AM

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