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LRC: LetsRun.com Recap of Day 1 of 2008 London Grand Prix
The 2008 London Grand Prix was a shocker on a number of fronts. Coming into the meet, it seemed as if many were expecting Beijing to serve as an easy coronation for Allyson Felix as queen of the 200m and for Bernard Lagat as king of the men's 1,500m (and possibly the 5k). Today's meet showed that nothing will be easy. You must be totally on top of your game to win Olympic Gold. Men's Mile (48:20 into WCSN.com broadcast) Instead, Lagat tried to move out but before he could do so, the big Aussie Craig Mottram had also moved up on the outside. Thus Lagat was forced to move back before he could get out and a slew of guys moved ahead of him, including former FSU Seminole Tom Lancashire. Thus with 110m to go, Lagat was only in 6th running in the outside of lane two. Once he broke free, Lagat was moving as fast as anyone in the field (Baddeley was probably equally as fast over the final 100m) but it was too late as he finished a well beaten third. Korir, the bronze medallist at last year's World Championships, stayed in the lead the entire last circuit, controlling the race once the rabbits left. Baddeley made a furious charge at Korir in the final 30m and almost got him just before the tape but ran out of room. It was a nice consolation win for Korir as he's not going to be running in Beijing this year. This was his 2nd big mile win of the year as he also won the Pre Classic. *Message Board Thread on Shedrack Korir's Win In Men's Mile at 2008 London Grand Prix
Women's 1,500m (1:47:00 into WCSN.com broadcast) This race was very entertaining. The pace dawdled for the first two laps. At 800m (2:19.38), Donohue was in a decent position (third), but on the rail. The problem with being in on the rail in a slow race is that the entire field can pass you on the outside and that's seemingly what happened as with a lap to go Donohue was in 8th. Donohue made a gigantic move to the lead from 300m to 200m to go. Her bid for glory was very spirited but in the end Dobriskey responded and got the win as Dobriskey and Donohue proved themselves to clearly be the class of the field. Dobriskey won in 4:08.97 thanks to a stellar last two laps. Her last 800m was roughly 2:06 with her last lap being sub-60 seconds.
Other Events In the men's 100, Asafa Powell was challenged by Marc Burns (9.97) but got the win in 9.94. In the women's steeplechase, former Providence Friar Roisin McGettigan got the win in 9:33. But the highlight of the day came from the women's heptathlon 100m hurdles where the third hurdle was put in the wrong spot. Fortunately no one got hurt just a few weeks before the Olympics. A must watch highlight however. 2:04.00 into WCSN.com broadcast. We must mention (since we often give the announcers a hard time) that Carol Lewis's announcing for the men's mile and women's 1,500m was surprisingly pretty good. She was also on top of the fiasco in the women's hurdles right away. Just by the way so many competitors were thrown off stride, she realized the hurdles had to be out of place. *IAAF Recap: Andrey Silnov Jumps World Leading 2.38m (7'9.75) He was only 4th in the Russian champs.
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