Jemma Reekie savours Diamond League 800m win over housemate Laura Muir
Even in a year without the Tokyo Olympics it has been a golden summer for Jemma Reekie, and the 22-year-old Scot again emphasised her striking talent by beating her friend and housemate Laura Muir in a tactical 800m at the Rome Diamond League.
Reekie had won five out of six races over two laps in 2020, but given the strength of the field this was always going to be her stiffest test even before a slow and bumpy first lap. Yet Reekie was always prominent, and when Muir struck for home with 200m to go she sat on her shoulder before powering away to win in 1.59.76.
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The 30-year-old Norwegian Hedda Hynne pushed through to finish second, with Muir third in 2:00:49.
“It was good, my race plan went entirely out of the window but I was able to adapt and finish my season with a win,” said Reekie, who moved into Muir’s Glasgow home before lockdown so they could train side-by-side.
“Hopefully I can look ahead to Tokyo next year. I’m going to train really hard over the winter, get stronger and faster but I am not getting ahead of myself.” Muir, meanwhile, was also happy to end her season with another strong performance at distance shorter than her favourite event, the 1500m. “It was a strange one,” she said. “It was all very messy and I wasn’t in the best position. So to come third wasn’t bad. Ultimately I have ended the year with the world lead over 1500m.”
There was another British winner in the men’s 110m hurdles as Andy Pozzi came through in 13.15 sec - just 0.01 sec off his personal best - while the Norwegian Karsten Warholm and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson were also impressive in the men’s 400m hurdles and the women’s 100m respectively.
However the performance of the night undoubtedly came from the 20-year-old Mondo Duplantis, who cleared 6.15m in the men’s pole vault - the highest clearance outdoors in history.
The way he cleared the bar suggested that the Swede, who holds the world record with 6.18m set indoors earlier this year, will be setting plenty more records in the years to come.
