Hurdling into the record books

With a fast new track at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, both the sprint and one-lap hurdlers, will be looking at securing some quick times at the BAUHAUS-Galan Diamond League meeting taking place on Sunday, 2 July.

At Saturday’s press conference at the Scandic Hotel, Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who had just flown in fresh from a second place at the Diamond League meeting yesterday evening in Lausanne, said, “I am exhausted but I will get my rest and I’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”  

The world champion added, “I am running better and better.  I have come here from Lausanne as I need to be race sharp before the championships.  The hurdles is a very technical event so I feel back to back races are a good way to prepare me.”

When asked if she felt the stadium record of 12.38 was in her sights, the world ranked number one said, “I don’t worry too much about times at races;  I just want to get through the hurdles safely and cross the line in first place then I can look at the clock!”

Finland’s Reeta Hurske took fourth place last week at the European Team Championships in Poland and will be looking to build on her outstanding indoor season that culminated in the gold medal in the 60m hurdles at the European Indoor Championships.  She set a personal  best of 12.70 last month in her home country and she is hoping the fast track will help her improve on that tomorrow. 

“I’ve been training for many years now and, in Finland, we have four good girls pushing each other which is helping us all. Tomorrow there is a good line-up and I'm very happy to be part of that.  I am sure it will help me get a good result.”

In the 400m hurdles, Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm is also hoping to take full advantage of the new track following a strong season debut in Oslo two weeks ago.  After last season’s injury he is happy to be back fit and strong this year.

The Norwegian said, “Of course I did not like being injured but it has probably made me appreciate the sport a bit more.  I worked hard when I came back and to take the European championship victory was not a bad season.

On his plans for this season he added, “I started my season a bit later this year after competing in the indoor season.  What makes me love competing is to step up to the start line and know I can compete well.  This means I like to take some space between races as this suits me best.  The World Championships in Budapest are my main goal so after tomorrow I have the nationals next week – which is quite tight for time to be honest.  Then I have the Monaco Diamond League as my last one before the champs.”

With the stadium record of 46:80 going to Alison dos Santos at last year’s event, Warholm is keen to win it back, “I am very keen to win back the stadium record after he stole it from me!   I started well in Oslo but I think I can go faster if the conditions are good and maybe that could be tomorrow.”