European Athletics – (EA) – Aregawi and Perkovic stay unbeaten, Tamgho sends out message and Farah has the final say

In the build up to the women's 1500m at the IAAF Diamond League in Birmingham on Sunday, talk was that Abeba Aregawi had not been well.

But by the finish it would have been her rivals who were feeling a bit queasy as once again the brilliant Swedish middle-distance runner delivered a superb performance.

It is now four wins out of four for Aregawi in this magnificent season in the Diamond League and this success was arguably her toughest.

She had made no impact during the race and with 250m left, it looked as though any illness was setting in.

The woman who triumphed in the event at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg in March, and has not stop winning since, seemed as though she was struggling as Russia's Yekaterina Sharmina took the lead.

But within 50 metres Aregawi was back to her best, overtaking Sharmina and storming away to win in impressive style in 4:03.70.

Kenya's Nancy Jebet Langat came through for second in 4:04.53 with Sharmina third in 4:04.55.

Sandra Perkovic ensured she too maintained that same four-out-four record in the discus, and with 64.17m in the opening round, the competition was all but over.

Though Gia Lewis-Smallwood, of the USA, threw 62.46m in the second round, Perkovic, of Croatia, saved her best to the last round when she hit 64.32m.

Teddy Tamgho had just one legal triple jump but it was enough to confirm his place as the No.1 in Europe.
Yet the Frenchman was still left digesting finishing second as the Olympic champion Christian Taylor denied him a famous win.

Tamgho's third round jump on Sunday of 17.47m was his furthest of 2013 by 17 centimetres but then American Taylor landed 17.66m in the fifth round to win.

A week after their victories at the European Athletics Team Championships, Aleksandra Menkov, of Russia, and Ukraine's Bohdan Bondarenko were celebrating again.

As he did in Gateshead, Menkov beat Britain's Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford, even though he did not leap as far.

Then it was 8.39m but this time a fourth round 8.27m was enough for the win with Rutherford second with 8.11m.

Bondarenko won the high jump in the North east of England with 2.28m and heading south, he cleared 2.36m, equalling the meeting record.

Perri Shakes-Drayton can do little wrong at the moment and once more she was all smiles as she won again – this time in the 400m hurdles.

A week after being the British captain in Gateshead, where she won the 400m in style, Shakes-Drayton this time beat her teammate Eilidh Child.

Child had triumphed in Gateshead over the barriers but the standard set by Shakes-Drayton was of the highest as she won in 53.82, the second best time in Europe this year.

The race was not a Diamond League points-scoring event but Child needed a personal best to finish second in 54.22.

In the women's 400m itself, there was a return to winning ways for Britain's 2008 Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu who triumphed by the slimmest of margins, beating Botswana's Amantle Montsho by just 0.01 – 50.63 to 50.64.

In the men's 400m hurdles, Britain's Rhys Williams proved how he is hitting back after adversity with another outstanding performance in a year where he lost his national lottery funding because he was not seen as part of the medal hopefuls for the Olympics in Rio in 2016.

Williams, 29, who won gold at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki a year ago, came powering home to finish second in 48.93 as Puerto Rico's Olympic bronze medallist Javier Culson triumphed in 48.59.
Britain's world champion Dai Greene was in fifth in 49.55.

Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen won the javelin with a fifth round effort of 83.94m on a day when European champion Vitezslav Vesely, of the Czech Republic, retired after the second round when he had thrown 69.89m.

A week after her brilliant victory in Gateshead, Britain's Jessica Judd, 18, broke two minutes for the first time as she triumphed again in the 800m in a personal best 1:59.85.

But if the biggest name in British athletics was left to last, what a race the men's 5000m turned out to be – and Mo Farah once more demonstrated the power he has to go with the speed.

Six men were in the lead pack at the bell and Farah was not having it all his own way, as Ethiopia's Hagos Gebrhiwet, the world junior record-holder, took the lead.

Farah responded but then another Ethiopian, Yenew Alamirew, moved in front.

Suddenly, with the decibel levels rising from the packed crowd at the Alexander Stadium, Farah took over and with 150m left, he just charged away.

He was not stopping, winning in 13:14.24 from Alamirew in 13:14.71, with Gebrhiwet third in 13:17.11 Farah, who is flying to St Moritz on Monday for high-altitude training, said: "I am the man to beat, I had to dig in and you have to make sure you have something left. Now it is all about the World Championships."

 

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