Britain’s Amy Hunt was given a jolting reminder of the gap between her and the world’s very best female sprinters as she finished nearly half a second behind Julien Alfred in the Diamond League 200m final.
But afterwards Hunt insisted that coming third in a season’s best time of 22.16sec, on tired legs on a dank Brussels night, amounted to one of the better races of her career.
“I’ve shown the last few 200s, I’m getting a lot stronger, and I think I was probably one of the closest athletes up to my personal best tonight,” said Hunt, who won four European gold medals last month in Birmingham. “So on a very freezing cold night in northern Europe, in September, at 10pm – I think that’s probably one of the best 200s I’ve ever done.”
Certainly there were plenty of signs for optimism as Hunt made a fast start and was in touch with Alfred around the bend. But then the St Lucian, who won 100m gold in the Paris Olympics, applied the afterburners to take victory in 21.79, with Kyla White of the US second in 22.00 as Hunt faded.
“That was the closest I’ve ever been to Julien on the bend, and I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, if I had completely fresh legs, I could really take you on right now,’” said Hunt. “And that’s such an exciting thing to me because she’s such an incredible athlete. She’s so fierce, but also kind. And to know that that was probably the best first half of the race I’ve ever put together makes it really, really exciting for next season.”
The race of the night came in the men’s 1500m as the Australian Cameron Myers found his way out of a box on the home straight, swerved between Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Phanuel Koech, and then got his nose in front to win in 3:30.14.
It was vindication of sorts for Myers, who was a little disappointing in taking Commonwealth Games silver in the mile behind Josh Kerr in Glasgow last month. But there was also encouragement for Ingebrigtsen, even though he ran out of steam in the final 30 metres, as his time of 3:30.52 was the quickest since his comeback after missing 11 months due to an achilles injury.
This Diamond League final also doubled as the 50th memorial meeting to be staged in memory of Ivo Van Damme, the brilliant Belgian athlete who won silver medals over 800m and 1500m at the 1976 Olympics before dying in a car accident later that year, aged just 22.
After a lengthy tribute to Van Damme, several of the famous athletes to grace this track – including the nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis – were paraded in front of the crowd and Philippe, King of the Belgians.
Lewis had taken his place next to the king in time to see the Jamaican world champion Oblique Seville take the men’s 100m in 9.90sec, recovering from a poor start to beat the Commonwealth champion Emmanuel Eseme by three-hundredths of a second.
Soon afterwards another world champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, had the crowd standing to applaud as he destroyed a strong field to set a meeting record of 1:41.80 in the men’s 800m.
“Today was all about winning and I knew that I would have to run 1:41 to win and I did,” said Wanyonyi, who finished nearly a second ahead of the Algerian Djamel Sedjati, with Britain’s Ben Pattison fifth in 1:44.29. “The conditions weren’t ideal tonight. The wind didn’t bother me that much, I was happy it stopped raining.”
Elsewhere Busang Collen Kebinatshipi won the men’s 400m in 43.40, breaking his own Diamond League record, while Emmanouil Karalis broke Mondo Duplantis’s meeting record by clearing 6.12m in the pole vault. But there was disappointment as Duplantis pulled out beforehand with tightness in his leg and admitted that his chances of making the new $10m Ultimate Championships in Budapest next week were in question.
“The worst possible thing to do is having to pull out of a competition,” said Duplantis. “My head is everywhere right now. It’s super difficult but that’s the life of an athlete. I try to stay calm and positive. We will see if I can make it to the Ultimate Championships. I don’t have the answer right now.”
The two-day meeting will conclude on Saturday, with Audrey Werro’s attempt on the women’s 800m world record topping the bill. There should be British success too, with Georgia Hunter Bell favourite to win the women’s 1500m – and a first prize of $60,000.
