European Athletics (EA) – News – Shakes-Drayton shows power and speed in Manchester as Schippers and Kazmirek make their moves in Gotzis

Shakes-Drayton broke the world best for the rarely-run 200m hurdles in Manchester – and beat an Olympic champion.

The event was part of the Great CityGames on the specially constructed track in the city centre.

And in a time of 25.74, Shakes-Drayton smashed the world best by 0.08 with Russian Natalya Antyukh second in 26.23 and Britain’s Eilidh Child third in 26.27. Jamaican Delloreen Lewis, the only other runner, was fourth in 27.15.

Shakes Drayton, the 400m champion and a member of the winning 4x400m relay team at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in March, is a hurdler by trade.

But this was a race with a real difference – because it was a straight 200m as the track.

Shakes-Drayton failed to make the 400m hurdles final in London as Antyukh took gold but she has long put all that disappointment behind her as she showed in Göteborg.

In Manchester she led virtually from the start in lane three with Antyukh to her left and they proved successful tactics because she was never past.

Not daunted by Antyukh’s presence, Shakes-Drayton looked much more fluid on this track and immediately burst into a smile when she crossed the line to break the world best time held by France’s Patricia Girard.

“I ran a 400m pb last weekend which gave me confidence," said Shakes-Drayton. "But I am hurdler. I came out here yesterday and ran down this track and said ‘this is long…no!

“But today, the crowd helped and the more I ran, the more I was getting into it.

“It was different, I enjoyed it and it was a good day in the office.”

As Colin Jackson, the double world champion commentating on BBC television, said: “What a great run by Perri because the 200m hurdles is a difficult race because the stride pattern is different when you are going quicker than normal.”

He won with 7.99m as he beat his fellow Briton Chris Tomlinson who was second with 7.69m.

"I had a few problems at the start but I gave it everything in the last jump,” said Rutherford.  “While I was really keen to get over eight metres to give the crowd a good distance, I will take 7.99m. I am pretty pleased.”

French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre retained his 100m European title in 2012 and he looked good on Saturday as he won the 150m.

Lemaitre produced a fabulous turn of speed in the final 20m to win in 14.90 from Kim Collins, of St Kitts & Nevis, who was second in 15.15 with Britons James Ellington third in 15.49 and Dwain Chambers fourth in 15.69.

In Austria, after the opening day of the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis,  Russia’s world champion Tatyana Chernova has been left with it all to do in the heptathlon.

She ended in seventh place with 3633 points as Canada’s Brianne Theisen leads over night with 3816 from Dafne Schippers, of the Netherlands, with 3811 and the Ukraine’s Hanna Melynchenko with 3740.

Belgian’s Sara Alerts had established the early advantage with the quickest time from the opening event, the 100m hurdles, which she won in 13.16 to score 1100 points but she failed to land a mark in the high jump and that saw her end the day back in 24^th with 2876 overall.

A clearance of  1.87m gave Belarusian Yana Maksimava victory in the high jump where Theisen, who had scored 1096 in the 100m hurdles, had a best of 1.84m.

Germany’s Julia Machtig, who did not finish the 100m hurdles, won the shot put with 14.73m while the final event of the day, the 200m, saw Schippers have the quickest time of 1071 to move into second.

Chernova looked well placed after scoring 1003 in the 100m hurdles but a high jump of 1.72m set her back.

In the decathlon, the European athletes were left chasing Canada’s Damian Warner who took the lead after the 100m which he won in 10.36 for 1008 points but by the end of the day Germany’s Kai Kazmirek had narrowed the gap.

Kazmirek won the long jump with 7.51m before victory in the shot put went to his fellow German Pascal Behrenbruchger with 15.99m for 851 points.

The fourth event, the high jump, saw American Gunnar Nixon win with 2.15m with the top European being Adam Helcelet, of the Czech Republic, whose 2.03m brought him 831 points to leave him third overall behind Warner and Dixon going into the day’s final event, the 400m, where Kazmirek pushed himself into contention for the title.

With a superb time of 47.39, Kazmirek won the discipline to move into second overall with 4244 points as Warner leads overnight by just 96 with Nixon third with 4239.