Puma Great North CityGames Report

Former European and Commonwealth 110m hurdles champion Andy Turner enjoyed a champagne send off, and endured some water treatment from his Great Britain team-mates, in an emotion-filled climax to the Puma Great North CityGames on Gateshead Quayside.

Former European and Commonwealth 110m hurdles champion Andy Turner enjoyed a champagne send off, and endured some water treatment from his Great Britain team-mates, in an emotion-filled climax to the Puma Great North CityGames on Gateshead Quayside.

At the age of 33, Turner brought an end to his top-flight career in track and field with a third-placed finish behind Dayron Robles, the 2008 Olympic champion from Cuba (13.40sec), and fellow Briton William Sharman (13.52), clocking 13.76sec and claiming the scalp of world record holder Aries Merritt, who finished fourth in 13.79.

Not long after crossing the line, sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and several other members of the British team poured water on the popular Nottinghamshire athlete and a bottle of champagne was thrust into his hands.

“It wasn’t quite supposed to be like that,” said Greg Rutherford, who had earlier won the long jump. “The plan was for me to throw a bucket of water over Andy as he crossed the line and then spray the champagne over him, but I couldn't get across there in time.

“We’ve been planning his send off for a few days and we did think of throwing him in the Tyne until we were told how serious that would be. My plan now is to keep as sober as possible tonight and have him in a whole world of pain. We’re taking him out on the town to give him some punishment.”

Turner, who won a brilliant World Championship bronze medal in Daegu in 2011, following up his two gold medals from the 2010 European Championships and Commonwealth Games, was close to tears afterwards.

"I can't describe the emotions I felt leading up to that race," he said. "I thought I'd be fine but they played the music and montages and it got me. I'm struggling for words right now. I've taken more out of my career than I could have imagined.

“I’m not the most talented athlete – just an average guy from Nottingham who grafted and got the best out of himself. I had a dream to make the Olympic Games and I was lucky enough to do it three times.”

Rutherford won Olympic long jump gold in London in 2012 and has enjoyed a golden summer in 2014, adding Commonwealth and European titles to his collection and topping the world rankings with a British record 8.51m. The 27-year-old Milton Keynes athlete had been selected to compete for Europe at the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech next weekend but has decided to draw a line under his season after struggling to victory on Tyneside.

Londoner JJ Jegede led from the first round with 7.76m and it took Rutherford three attempts to better that, eventually prevailing with a fourth round effort of 7.92m. “I just feel emotionally tired right now,” confessed Rutherford. “I had to pull out everything just to win today.

“I’m not in shape to do myself justice in Marrakesh and I would only go there if I thought I could win it. I’m going to walk away from what has been a fantastic year for me with a win from what is my favourite event.

“I love competing in the CityGames and to come here and win is a great way to end a great season. I can relax, enjoy myself and put my feet up now.”

There was a somewhat relaxed atmosphere surrounding the novelty of the women’s 500m, with athletes from contrasting specialties – world 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, European 400m hurdles champion Eilidh Child and 800m runners Lynsey Sharp, Jenny Meadows and Alison Leonard – all wondering how they might fare in an event run without lanes and on the road for the first 350m then on the track for 150m.

Racing in trainers, Child slipped at the start and fellow Scot Sharp – with whom she had roomed the night before and woken at 4am to catch a red-eye flight, having competed in the Ivo Van Damme Memorial meeting in Brussels on Friday – shot into an early lead. The European and Commonwealth 800m champion was overtaken before the track section by Ohuruogu, who proceeded to power to a decisive victory in a highly impressive 1min 07.46sec, with Sharp second in 1:08.05 and Child third in 1:08.11.

Asked whether she would consider stepping up event farther in distance, to 800m, Ohuruogu replied: “I definitely won’t be doing that. This is the longest competitive race I’ve ever done. I thought the extra 100m would be hard but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

“It was a great fun event to do. We were all laughing on the start line because we didn’t know how we were going to start. Fair play to the girls who ran in Brussels last night. They were good sports for turning up.”

Unlike her fellow Scots, Laura Muir was unable to get on to the rostrum at those home Commonwealth Games or at the European Championships in Zurich but the 21-year-old veterinary student has clocked some world class 800m and 1500m times this summer and that pedigree showed in what was only the second mile race of her highly promising track and field career.

The Dundee Hawkhill Harrier seized the lead after 200m and managed to maintain her composure even after Helen Obiri, the 2013 World Championship bronze medallist from Kenya, edged past her with 400m remaining. Muir judged her effort to perfection, sweeping ahead 100m from the line to win in 4min 34.84sec, a personal best, with Ireland’s Ciara Mageean snatching second place in 4:35.47.

“We went into the race with a winning plan,” said Muir, giving a nod of appreciation to her coach, Andy Young. “I don’t normally take it on like that in races but I thought this was the race for trying it out.

“I thought someone might go past me but I managed to trail them and finish strongly.”

Asha Philip started and finished strongly to win the women’s 150m in 16.69sec, 0.15sec ahead of Jodie Williams, a fellow member of Britain’s European champion 4 x 100m relay quartet. Both Britons claimed the scalp of Olympic 200m champion Allyson Felix, who clocked a world leading 22.02sec for 200m in Brussels the night before.

“That was just amazing,” Philip reflected. “I went out fast and it was hard to hang on but I managed it.”

US sprinter Michael Rodgers was unable to do the same thing in the men’s 150m. He was pipped on the line by the fast finishing world indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty, who won by 0.01sec in 15.32sec.

“I tore my hamstring in Zurich but I kept it quite because I don’t like to make excuses,” revealed the 25-year-old Gateshead Harrier. “It just shows you what the mind can do. I came here relaxed and excited in front of a home crowd and I think that helped, especially in the last 50m.”

There was also a British winner of the women’s 100m hurdles, European champion Tiffany Porter clocking 12.79sec, for a decisive victory over world champion Brianna Rollins of the US, who finished second in 13.02. “It’s great to win right in front of so many British fans,” she said. “I love the CityGames. This is my favourite meeting of the year.”

The men’s IPC T44 100m race was won by Richard Browne, the American clocking a season’s best of 10.94sec to beat British Paralympic champion Jonnie Peacock by 0.15sec.
London 2012 champion Jenn Suhr of the US won the women’s pole vault with a third-time clearance of 4.52m, while Germany’s Homiyu Tesfaye held off Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop to win the men’s mile in 4min 00.92, breaking Mo Farah’s Games record.

See more at: https://www.greatrun.org/News/Article.aspx?nid=599#sthash.lRd39lcl.dpuf

 06 Sep 2014 | tagged in: Domestic

Source: BUPA Great North Run