On the eve of the Sainsbury’s Birmingham Grand Prix, four of the best athletes in the world assembled to share their thoughts on their season’s so far and the big day tomorrow.
With just three IAAF Diamond League events to go, Valerie Adams, Kirani James, David Rudisha and Greg Rutherford are all in different places in the overall standings, but are all aiming for victory at the Alexander Stadium tomorrow.
Valerie Adams is undoubtedly the queen of track and field, her unbeaten run stretching 54 competitions over four years and a day. She already has the Diamond League race sewn up, but wants to keep her unbeaten run going tomorrow despite a long term shoulder problem that she’s been managing all year.
“My goals are to be unbeaten for as long as possible but my biggest goal is to go to Rio and be dominant there. I'm going to try and defend my title again but I know it is going to be tough. Every year you have to seek goals to aim towards but Rio is the ultimate.”
Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford has had a fantastic 2014, clinching gold at both the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships as well as breaking the British long jump record with an 8.51m jump in the USA back in April.
Having only competed in one Diamond League fixture so far this year, finishing second in Lausanne, Rutherford currently lies a lowly seventh with just two points, but that being said he’s only six points off the lead. Victory in Birmingham and at the final in Brussels would see Rutherford leap frog others ahead of him and make a late bid for Diamond Race glory.
“I've had a week off in the build-up to this to recharge my batteries a bit. That could work fantastically well or it could go the opposite way. But I'm really excited to be jumping here and looking to jump well. I've jumped well in Birmingham before so for me I'll be going out there to win as I do with every single competition I enter.”
Although the 600m race that David Rudisha will contest isn’t a Diamond League race, the 800m world record holder leads the Diamond Race by two points ahead of the final in Zurich. On the rarely run 600m that he’ll run tomorrow, the Kenyan commented:
“This is going to be my first 600m so it will be quite difficult to judge the pace. I’m hoping for 47.0 at 400m and then I’ll push the last 200m and see how fast I can go. It’s going to be an exciting race as 600m is between the two races I like the most, 400m and 800m. I’m hoping it’s going to be very close to a world record. I’m targeting 1.12 so it will be close.”
Famous for his world record breaking performance to win the Olympic title in London two years’ ago, Rudisha was pleased to be competing in the UK again, having already race in Glasgow twice this year.
“It’s great being in the UK. It’s been exciting for me and from the Commonwealth Games it’s an indication that I have many new fans here. It will be great to get a good reception from the Birmingham crowd. I’ve seen the forecast and I hope it won’t be raining so I’m hoping for a fast race.”
Kirani James is cool customer, and he was relaxed as ever as he spoke to the media ahead of tomorrow’s race. The Olympic 400m champion ran a scintillating 43.74 in Lausanne earlier this summer, before going on to add the Commonwealth Games title to his sparkling resume.
His no pressure approach seems to be working wonders, and of this he said:
“Every day is a blessing, especially to be doing something which you love. Every day is a challenge. “
“The Commonwealth Games was a great experience, especially to be around my Grenadian teammates who I haven’t seen for a while. I enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the Games – the athletes and the fans were very friendly and supportive.”