Salwa Eid Naser showed that she is the one for the future, beating a strong field in her first ever Diamond League appearance to win the women’s 400m with a time of 50.59s in Birmingham.
The Nigerian-born Bahrain athlete came through the last bend, going past Allyson Felix and getting a measure of Courtney Okolo who was running so well in lane 8, before crossing the line ahead of the other competitors.
Felix at some point looked like she could match Naser’s pace but she couldn’t catch up as she finished 2nd in 50.63s while Okolo (also of Nigerian descent) was 3rd in 50.66s.
Naser’s who en route winning Silver at the World Championships, ran three Bahrain records, and just over a week after she has shown that she could really stay up there as a great athlete
Meanwhile in the women’s 400m Hurdles, Zuzana Hejnova might not have finished on the podium in London, but she produced the sort of performance expected from a former champion to pip Dalilah Muhammad.
Hejnova after scaling the last barrier found the extra gear to sprint past Muhammad and win at the line with a Season’s Best (SB) of 54.18s. Muhammad finished 2nd in 54.20s, while Janieve Russell was 3rd with 54.67s
Botswana’s Nijel Amos was another athlete back to winning ways in Birmingham, taking the men’s 800m in 1:44.50 ahead of Adam Kszcot who was 2nd in 1:45.28 while his Polish compatriot Marcin Lewandowski came in 3rd in 1:45.33
