I was much closer to the women’s high jump at my end of the stadium where, urged on by an enthusiastic British crowd, Morgan Lake won from Australian Eleanor Patterson, who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics. Lake won with a jump of 1.96m, defeating four athletes who had finished in the top six in Paris. Lake set the bar at 2m to attempt a new British record. Her first attempt was close, the second closer and on the third it looked like she was clear but she brushed the bar on the way down to come tantalisingly close to the significant mark.
The spectators, the largest one-day athletic crowd in the world, provided a great atmosphere on a day when the British Government officially backed the British Athletics bid for the 2029 World Championships.
The knowledgeable British spectators not only support home athletes but enthuse over excellence from athletes of any country, as they did at the 2012 Olympics, the 2017 World Athletics Championships and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. They would be outstanding hosts. I hope the bid is successful.
The crowd had plenty of British success to support beyond Lake’s win in the high jump. Georgia Hunter Bell won the 800m with a season’s best of 1m 56.74s over a quality field. Charlie Dobson ran a personal best 44.14s for 400m to beat British teammate and Olympic silver medal winner Matt Hudson-Smith in a result that bodes well for the British 4 x 400m relay team in Tokyo in late September.
Earlier in the day, the 4 x 400m team of 1997 were awarded their upgraded World Championships gold medal following a subsequent disqualification of the United States team. The ceremony and the presentation from Lord Sebastian Coe was a special moment. Britain gained further relay encouragement with their women’s 4 x 100 team setting a world-leading mark in an early event on Saturday.
Noah Lyles (USA) had a surprise defeat by Oblique Seville (Jamaica) in the 100m (9.86s, 10.00s) while Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia) impressed in the 200m, defeating Dina Asher Smith (Great Britain) and a stellar field with a time of 21.71s which was a national record, a meeting record and a world leading performance.
Femke Bol (Netherlands) again impressed with a technically smooth 400m hurdles, cruising to win in 52.10s, over a second faster than American Jesmine Jones. Every young long hurdler should be forced to watch Bol.
All 14 events over the almost three-hour programme were stacked with talent.
The depth was probably best illustrated in the women’s mile won by Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia) in 4m 11.88s, setting a national record, a meet record and a world leader. In her wake were four further national records, two area records and six additional personal bests, including Cooks Gardens winner Linden Hall.
The field events concluded with the leading three over the previous five rounds having one final trial and with the event leader first in the order in that final. No other event took place during those finals with 60,000 pairs of eyes on the dramatic shootout.
It was great that a New Zealand athlete excelled on such a day.