Double golden success (From The Northern Echo)

Double golden success

9:18am Tuesday 1st September 2009

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PHILLIPS Idowu and Lisa Dobriskey celebrated their World Championships medals in style as they led the British charge at yesterday’s Aviva British Grand Prix at Gateshead International stadium.

Competing for the first time as a world champion, Idowu jumped 17.32m to win the triple jump, while Dobriskey went one better than her second- placed finish in Berlin as she produced a typically strong finish to win the 1,500m.

Olympic 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu was the other British winner on an afternoon that saw 33 medallists from this month’s World Championships competing in the North-East.

Idowu’s success was his first at Gateshead, and after producing his best leap of 17.32m in the final round, the Londoner admitted it had taken him most of the competition to shake the World Championships-weariness out of his legs.

“It was a decent performance, but it took me a while to get warmed up,” said Idowu, who finished 28cm ahead of Bulgarian Momchil Karailiev. “It wasn’t the greatest of conditions, but a couple of 17.30m jumps were good enough to win.

“After winning the world title, it was nice to come here and put a stamp on things by saying, ‘I am the world champion and I’m going to produce a winning jump’.’’ Dobriskey would also have been a world champion had she run two hundredths of a second quicker in this month’s World Championships final, and Britain’s latest middle-distance star admitted she felt the pressure of living up to her billing following a breakthrough performance in Berlin.

“I was really nervous coming out onto the track because I got a really good reception from the crowd,” said Dobriskey, who edged out Slovenian Sonja Roman in the final 100m. “I feel really tired because of the travelling and emotion that went along with Berlin, but I really wanted to win in front of a home crowd and run well. You never know what’s left towards the end of the season, but I wasn’t going to let that one slip away.”

Ohuruogu has suffered an injury-hit campaign, but having failed to win a medal in the World Championships, the reigning Olympic and Commonwealth champion rediscovered some of her best form to outclass a 400m field that included highly-rated Americans Debbie Dunn and Shana Cox.

It was something of a case of ‘After the Lord Mayor’s Show’ for Jessica Ennis however – although it was really a case of ‘Before the Lord Mayor’s Show’ as the heptathlon world champion will attend a civic reception in her hometown of Sheffield this evening to receive the freedom of the city.

Ennis finished fifth in the 100m hurdles, a decent enough result given that she was competing against three of the finalists from the individual event at last month’s World Championships in Berlin.

“It was great to compete in front of a home crowd,” she said. “It’s been a great year and that was a good way to finish it off. It was tough out there. I was stood on the line looking at the hurdles and I suddenly thought, ‘Ooh, I have to run a race here’.

“It’s hard to get straight back into things on the back of a major championships.

But it was nice to be able to go out in front of a home crowd and thank everyone who’s supported me this year.”

Idowu, Dobriskey and Ohuruogu apart, British athletes found themselves recording a series of second-placed finishes.

Four Britons claimed a runner-up spot, with Martyn Rooney’s strong display in the 400m making him one of the stand-out home performers.

Rooney finished less than four tenths of a second behind world and Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt, a result that suggests he is capable of reproducing the form that saw him finish sixth in last year’s Olympic final.

“It was good to make a race of it for once,” said Rooney.

“It’s been a hard season for me, but at least I was competitive today. I think Merritt was just having fun, but it was good to give the world champion a race. Hopefully, I’ll be stronger next year and then 2011 has to be a big year for me.”

Andy Baddeley pushed American Leonel Manzano all the way in the 1,500m, only to be out-sprinted on the way to the line, while Will Sharman, a former timekeeper on the television show Gladiators, reproduced the form that saw him claim a surprise fourthplaced finish in the World Championships 110m hurdles final to finish second behind Olympic silver medallist David Payne.

Emily Freeman also finished second in the women’s 200m, although she was comprehensively beaten by threetime world champion Allyson Felix, who cruised to victory in arguably the most eyecatching performance of the afternoon.

World silver medallist Tyson Gay then rounded the afternoon off with a comfortable win in the men’s 100m, posting a time of 10.15sec to see off Caribbean duo Kim Collins and Marc Burns.

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