Photos: \u00a9 Victah Sailer<\/p>\n
Rudisha predicted at a press conference in Glasgoww two days ago that he would run close to 1:42, but the cool, grey conditions and lack of race practice mitigated against him, and the world record holder had to be satisfied with 1:43.34, equalling the time his Kenyan compatriot Asbel Kiprop ran in Paris a week ago.<\/p>\n
It may not have been as quick as he\u2019d hoped, but Rudisha still delivered a solo sub-53 second final lap which left the 15,000 fans gasping after pacemaker Sammy Tangui had run the first 400m in 49.94.<\/p>\n
At that point, Rudisha was leading the chase five metres back but, once in front, he immediately opened a gap, stretching his long legs round the penultimate bend before sprinting down the back straight to go through 600m in 1:16.28, a penultimate 200m of 26.34.<\/p>\n
Rudisha kicked again around the bend and entered the straight 20 metres clear before powering down the home straight and across the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am getting back into shape and I\u2019m happy to run a season\u2019s best time despite the conditions not being the best for a perfect time,\u201d said Rudisha. \u201cI\u2019m happy to have done what I came for.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the 15th Diamond League win of the Olympic champion\u2019s career and takes him to the top of the this year\u2019s Diamond Race ahead of Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos.<\/p>\n
The Botswanan chose to run the 400m in Glasgow, where he finished last in 46.34 in the non-Diamond League event won by his compatriot Issac Makwala in 44.71, while Andre Olivier followed Rudisha home over two laps of Hampden Park.<\/p>\n
Rudisha now ready to return to Glasgow<\/strong><\/p>\n The South African looks likely to be Rudisha\u2019s main rival at Commonwealth Games here in three weeks\u2019 time but he was more than two seconds back in 1:45.65.<\/p>\n It was a happy return to the UK for Rudisha nearly two years after his historic world record in the London 2012 Olympic Games final, a race he described this week as the \u201cgreatest ever\u201d.<\/p>\n This was never going to match that remarkable performance, or get even close, but Rudisha was happy enough to have made his mark in the stadium where he will bid for a Commonwealth title in three weeks\u2019 time and proved beyond doubt that he is getting back to his best after missing most of last season, and months of training, with a knee injury.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great feeling to come here and test the field and the track ahead of the Commonwealth Games, it was a great experience,\u201d said Rudisha.<\/p>\n Ayalew\u2019s performance was less commanding but no less impressive in its way, as the Ethiopian took more than a half-a-second from Sofia Assefa\u2019s world lead, crossing the line in 9:10.64 after another last lap battle with Emma Coburn.<\/p>\n Coburn may have been beaten to the line, just like she was in Paris a week ago, but the US athlete won\u2019t be worry too much about that as she clocked 9:11.42 to break the North American record she had threatened in the French capital.<\/p>\n Coburn record part of a magnificent seven marks<\/strong><\/p>\n Indeed, it was a marvellous race for depth as behind Coburn there were national records for Sweden\u2019s Charlotta Fougberg (9:23.96 in fourth), and Finland\u2019s Sandra Eriksson (9:24.70 in sixth), a world youth best for Ethiopia\u2019s 17-year-old Tigist Getnet (9:28.36 in seventh), and personal bests for three other athletes.<\/p>\n Even Kenya\u2019s world champion Milcah Chemos ran her fastest time of the year, 9:21.91 for third.<\/p>\n It was Ayalew\u2019s second IAAF Diamond League win of the season, and puts her level with her Ethiopian compatriot Assefa at the top of the standings, but this was by far the best steeplechase of 2014.<\/p>\n It was Coburn who set out hard from the start, tucking in behind pacemaker Virginia Nyambura as the rest hung back, her US compatriot Stephanie Garcia leading the hunt.<\/p>\n Nyambura passed 1000m in 3:03.00 and Coburn took over with five laps to go, as Ayalew moved up into second place but five metres adrift.<\/p>\n The field passed 2000m in 6:10.18, with Kenya\u2019s Chemos now 20 metres back in third. Ayalew timed her final effort superbly, moving onto the American\u2019s heels at the bell and taking the lead down the back straight before pulling away down the home stretch.<\/p>\n Coburn was beaten, but remained undaunted.<\/p>\n She clung on over the final metres to take more than a second from the Area record of 9:12.50 set by Jenny Simpson (then Barringer) in 2009, and almost three from the personal best she set in Paris.<\/p>\n \u201cI was proud in Paris recently because I almost made it [the record] there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut today the race was exactly the same and I found myself thinking \u2018not again, not again\u2019. I knew I would have to dig deep but I did it and now I\u2019m just beside myself with happiness.<\/p>\n Afterwards, she hugged her boyfriend Jason Bosshard and her parents in the crowd, and gave thanks to her dog, Arthur, named after the great distance coach Arthur Lydiard.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t wait to see my coach,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd my puppy called Arthur back home will also be pleased.\u201d<\/p>\n David Rudisha, Men’s 800m, Hiwot Ayalew, Women’s 3000m Steeplechase, Glasgow,...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Matthew Brown for the IAAF and the IAAF Diamond League<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"