In the men's 800m, Andrew Osagie continued his notable progress on the World stage, running a PB of 1m44.61sec & coming in third behind the barnstorming David Rudisha (Kenya), who broke the meet record with the clock stopping at 1m41.74sec. The time has only previously been bettered by Rudisha, Seb Coe & Wilson Kipketer & is just seven tenths off the world record. Meanwhile, Marilyn Okoro & Jemma Simpson were pleased with their showings in the women's 1,500m that was won by Fantu Magiso (on her 20th birthday) in an Ethiopian & meet record time of I:57.48.
However, for the second week running, high jump springster, Robbie Grabarz leapt to my award for British Athletics Performance of the week, coming second on count-back with a new PB of 2m36, a height matched by American Jesse Williams. In fact, as well as a new meet record, the height is second in the World this season after Ivan Ukhov jumped 2m37 on Friday night in Opole, Poland to surpass the 2m33 set by Robbie in Rome last Thursday. The discipline is fast warming up to be the one to watch this season.
The best thing about the meet being finished in the daylight, was that after rubbing through all the soft tissue recovery work that was required, I was able to go out with a few of the guys for a civilised meal & a wander down to the Empire State Building. After deciding against emptying our wallets ascend to the viewing gallery (as a few of us had been on previous occasions), we were treated to a 30 minute "did you know?" ESB fact barrage by Gordon the Tour Guide, which we decided was far more entertaining. Good times!
