Yohan Blake wins on the street and reveals Commonwealth Games hopes
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Version 0 of 1. In front of nearly 10,000 people on Manchester's main drag, Yohan Blake matched his electric pink outfit with a high-wattage run – and then gave the strongest indication yet that he will compete at this summer's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Blake left his fellow Jamaican Kemar Bailey-Cole far in his slipstream in the Great CityGames along Deansgate as he pumped and puffed to 150m victory in 14.71sec – the third-fastest 150m time in history on a straight course, behind Usain Bolt and the American Walter Dix. Blake insisted he could have run much faster but had not been able to warm up properly. "I'm feeling in great shape but the warm-up facilities were not good," he said. "I feel I could have got that record but I had to make sure I came away injury-free. I don't want to use that as an excuse but I can't warm up on asphalt because it hurts my feet." News that Blake plans to compete in the Commonwealth Games that will warm the souls of organisers, especially after the recent ticketing fiasco that led to long delays and problems with transactions. "I haven't chosen my events yet," said Blake. "I'm just waiting to talk to my manager and coach when I get back, but I will probably double up. I've got world and Olympic medals and it would be good to have some Commonwealth medals as well." Meanwhile, the much-anticipated showdown in Albert Square between Greg Rutherford, the Olympic long jump champion, and Chris Tomlinson began with a perfunctory handshake ended with an emphatic victory for Rutherford. All four of Rutherford's jumps – 7.78m, 7.98m, 7.86m and 8.02m – were further than Tomlinson's best of 7.77m, but he admitted he had not been as nervous for an event since winning at London 2012. "I got more nervous than I've been for competitions for a long time," he said. "I wasn't as fast and aggressive on the board as I have been but to come out and win is always nice thing. "I put a few things to bed and don't think there were any issues where my foot was on the board." That was a sly dig at Tomlinson, who last month called Rutherford's new national record of 8.51m "illegitimate" because he felt it was several centimetres over the board. But the genial Tomlinson insisted he had "no regrets" in calling for the jump not to be ratified. "You've got to be true to yourself in life," he said. "I'm someone who's a good guy. I don't like confrontational. But I'm the sort of guy, unfortunately, if I'm walking down the street and someone's being kicked in, I'm the one who goes and says something and then gets kicked in the head. I want to beat Greg and he wants to beat me. But we get on well. We used to train together and we shared rooms." Richard Kilty, the world indoor 60m champion, found jet lag and three hours' sleep too great an adversary as he finished behind Femi Ogunode in the men's 100m in 10.19sec. "As soon as I came out of my blocks my legs felt heavy and I was tight," he said. "The travelling took a lot out of me. I had to drink four double-shot espressos to wake me up. I was just a little bit tired and fatigued." Tiffany Porter was impressive in beating the Olympic silver and bronze medallists Kellie Wells and Dawn Harper-Nelson in the women's 100m hurdles, while Meghan Beesley broke the 200m hurdles world best time by 0.69 sec – albeit in the second running of the race. Christine Ohuruogu, the world 400m champion, was unable to celebrate her 30th birthday with victory as she finished third in the 200m. |