Betway

Olympic champion Elaine Thompson showed that she remains the woman to beat over 100 meters in the world championships next month when she scorched to victory on the same London Olympic stadium track on Sunday despite running in trainers.

The star-studded Diamond League meeting gave the cream of athletics a chance to test the facilities they will experience during the Aug. 4-13 world championships and organizers ensured there was a noisy finale when local hero Mo Farah closed out proceedings with an easy win over 3,000 meters.

Jamaica’s Thompson produced a late surge to get past regular rival Dafne Schippers to triumph in 10.94 seconds, impressive into a headwind of 1.4 meters and even more so as she was running in cushioned trainers to prevent injury.

“The spikes I have I’m not confident with and hurt my Achilles so I’m running in flats,” Thompson said of her unusual footwear choice.

“They have spikes but they are very petite. They are built especially for me and made lighter.”

The wall of noise that brought Farah home for double distance gold in the stadium four years ago was a little more muted on Sunday but the half-full arena was still happy enough to watch him dominate a 3,000m lacking any real African threat.

Farah duly delivered with a 55-second last lap to come home in 7:35.15, fine-tuning his build-up for his farewell appearance next month.

“There’s no place like home, I enjoy racing and not the other stuff,” said Farah, who was in the headlines again this week after leaked documents showed the IAAF had marked his biological passport as “likely doping” before further tests cleared him.

“I’m only in control of my legs. Never will I fail a test,” he said.

Source: Mitch Phillips| Reuters