Jemma Reekie continued a sensational season of 800m running for Britain’s women as she led home four sub-two minute runners at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.
Reekie’s run of 1:57:79 means she now has the fourth- and ninth-best times of the year worldwide, in a top-10 list bookended by British runners, with Keely Hodgkinson’s 1:55:78 leading the way in 2024 and 17-year-old Phoebe Gill’s breakthrough run of 1:57:86 in 10th.
In Sweden Reekie finished almost a second clear of Kenya’s Vivian Chebet Kiprotich and a personal best of 1:59:59 from Eveliina Määttänen of Finland, while Ethiopia’s Nigist Getachew also dipped under the two-minute mark.
Laura Muir provided another British middle distance victory in the 1500m, the class of the field providing a trademark kick to sprint clear from the final bend to win in 3:57:99 ahead of Kenya’s Edinah Jebitok and Australia’s Georgia Griffith.
Quincy Hall and Vernon Norwood made it an American one-two in the men’s 400m, with Hall contributing a season’s best of 44:68 to pip his compatriot’s 44:80. Zakithi Nene of South Africa was third in 45:29.
The home faithful were thrilled by Armand Duplantis’s victory in the men’s pole vault after a gripping head-to-head with Sam Kendricks of the USA. After the pair both cleared 5.90m at the first attempt, they skipped a height and the Swede cleared 6m at the first attempt, with the American unable to follow suit.
In the women’s 200m, Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson won in a season’s best 22.69, with local favourite Julia Henriksson roared on to a personal-best 22.89 in second and Britain’s Amy Hunt in third with 22.92.
In the men’s 800m, the final track event of the evening, Jake Wightman could only manage eighth as he continued his comeback following injuries that scuppered his 1500m world title defence last year. A frantic race was won by Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati in 1:43:23, ahead of Bryce Hoppel of the USA and Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela, with Wightman’s fellow Britons Ben Pattison and Elliot Giles fourth and sixth respectively.
