On a weekend where rain dampened the spark of excellence in most performances on the track, Rosemarie Whyte put in the best show by a Racers athlete with a third-place 51.19 seconds in the 400 metres for women at the Aviva London Grand Prix last weekend. The almost constant rain and cool temperatures prevailed throughout the two-day Diamond League meet on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 July.
The sprinters were the first to suffer. In the men’s 100 metres, Kemar Bailey-Cole could only manage 10.37 seconds running into a 1.5 metres per second headwind to come sixth in heat 1 — thus failing to advance to the final. Although Schillonie Calvert’s 11.24 seconds in heat 2 of the women’s equivalent (wind +1.3) enabled her to come third and progress to the final, she ended up sixth in 11.40 (wind -0.2).
In the men’s 200 metres on Saturday, our men were also below their best. Marvin Anderson came third in 20.55 (wind +1.1) and Mario Forsythe came fifth in 20.60.
The most severely affected was Nickeisha Wilson who finished the 400 metres hurdles in eighth position in a time of 58.46 seconds.
Now that our athletes have experienced the worst of the English weather, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the sun will come out in all its glory for the Olympics in the first week of August. If not, at least they will not be taken by surprise.
