RICHARD KILTY feels his season-ending performance in today’s Great North City Games proves he is capable of competing for an Olympic place in both of the sprint disciplines next summer.

Kilty defied dreadful conditions on the Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside to finish second in the 150m, just a hundredth of a second behind Jamaican world relay gold medallist Nickel Ashmeade.

With Olympic champion Greg Rutherford withdrawing from the long jump because of an injury, Johnnie Peacock and Tiffany Porter were the two British winners in the street event on the banks of the River Tyne.

Kilty narrowly failed to complete a domestic hat-trick, but having recorded a time of 14.64secs that would have broken the British 150m record had it not been marginally wind assisted, the ‘Teesside Tornado’ is targeting a sprint double as he looks ahead to next year’s Rio Olympics.

“The time was really quick,” said Kilty. “If you’d taken the rain away and reduced the wind, I still think I would have run a British record. It’s a shame it won’t stand, but it’s a great way to finish for the year.

“I’ll be stepping up to 200m a lot more next year. In my first Diamond League, I finished third over 200m in Oslo in pretty bad weather, and most of the guys I was matching went on to run quick times.

“Before I won the World Indoors, I ran 20.3secs for the 200m, and that was without really trying. I’m pretty sure I can improve on that if I concentrate on the event a bit more next season, and my main aim is still to break ten seconds in the 100m. I nearly did that this year, but unfortunately I got injured just after Birmingham (at the British trials), and that was a massive blow.”

Teesside-based Rabah Yousif rounded off the most successful season of his career by finishing sixth in the 500m.

The Sudan-born 400m specialist, who finished sixth in last month’s World Championships, stepped up in distance on the banks of the Tyne, and the extra yardage told as he faded in the closing stages of a race that was won by Ireland’s Mark English.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Thornaby and trains in Middlesbrough, secured British citizenship in 2013 after two previous applications for asylum were turned down, and confirmed his abundant potential as he made the final in Beijing.

He will hope to challenge for a medal at next year’s Olympics in Rio, and will head into his winter training programme buoyed by a series of strong performances this summer.

“I’m really happy with the way the season has gone,” said Yousif. “It’s definitely been my best season so far and I couldn’t really have predicted how well things would have gone when I started back on the track at the start of the summer.

“I felt I was in good shape, but I didn’t know it was going to be this good. I’ve been around the game for a while now though, and I’ve always tried to get myself into good positions.

“I managed to do that this season, and I’m just happy with the way things have gone. I’m ready for a break now, but it won’t be too long before I start thinking about next year, which could be even bigger. We’ll see how it goes.”

County Durham’s Cameron Boyek finished tenth in a competitive men’s mile that was won by Kenyan 1,500m world champion Asbel Kiprop.

Kiprop dug deep to hold off Marcin Lewandowski in a thrilling sprint finish, with Boyek, who will relocate to British Athletics’ high-performance centre in Loughborough later this month, running out of steam in the final 100m.

“It was tough,” said the Shildon Harrier. “I’ve been in good shape on the track, but it’s a different ball game on the road. I felt okay coming up the hill, but just didn’t have those extra gears.

“The training’s been winding down in the last couple of weeks so I’ve just been trying to keep things ticking over. It was a last blast out before the end of the season.”

Peacock’s victory in the T44 100m sets the Paralympic champion up perfectly for next month’s IPC World Championships in Doha.

The 100m champion from London 2012 has been eclipsed by American Richard Browne for much of the season, but the tables were turned as he burst out of the blocks to win by a comfortable margin.

Porter, who was disappointed to miss out on a medal at last month’s World Championships, was an equally clear winner of the women’s 100m hurdles in a useful time of 12.78secs.

Candyce McGrone produced an upset when she edged out her American team-mate Allyson Felix in the women’s 150m, Mike Rodgers defied the wet conditions to post a time of 10.11secs as he won the men’s 100m, and Dutch world 200m champion Dafne Schippers brought the afternoon to a fitting climax in the final event as she powered to victory in the women’s 100m.