An electric final 200 metres, timed unofficially at 25.2sec, saw the man who leads this year's world lists at both 5,000m and 10,000m home in 7min 40.15sec.

"Today was just to see where I am, to try a different strategy and go hard at the end there," he said.

Farah's flourish at the Aviva London Grand Prix rounded off a programme which saw some of the great rivalries in world athletics playing themselves out in the last major meeting before the IAAF World Championships get underway in Daegu, on August 27.

There were two world-leading times for 2011 as well, as Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer won the women's 400m hurdles in 52.79 and Grenada's precociously talented 18-year-old World Junior champion Kirani James won the 400m in 44.61.

The big 100m rivalry has been a little harder to manage this year, with former world champion Tyson Gay out for the season following a hip injury and Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell yet to meet.

Powell, who leads this year's world lists with 9.78, said on the day before tonight's final that he was running better than at any time since his first world record breaking year of 2005, but he made a late decision to withdraw from the 100m here in order not to exacerbate a groin problem he had picked up racing in Hungary during the previous week.

In Powell's absence, Jamaican colleagues Yohan Blake and Nesta Carter stepped, swiftly, up to the plate, with Blake - a relatively late addition to the 100m field here – proving to be the first to finish with the event as he managed a time of 9.95, which equalled his season's best, but was surely superior to his previous version given the headwind of 1.6 metres per second into which he was running.


Carter was second in 10.01, with Michael Rodgers of the United States third in 10.04.

The first meeting of the season between the two greatest 800m talents of the moment  – David Rudisha and Abubaker Kaki – ended with the Kenyan world record holder winning in 1:42.91, a meeting record and UK All Comers' record, bettering the time of 1:43.22 set by Steve Cram in winning the 1986 Commonwealth title in Edinburgh.

But the most important thing for Rudisha was the win in a race where, as in their epic race at last season's Samsung Diamond League race in Oslo, the smaller man from Sudan pushed him all the way to the line, teeth bared with effort, doing all he knew to narrow the gap including dipping at the line.

Kaki, who plans to double up over 1500 metres at next year's London Games following his hugely promising third place in Monaco, where he reduced his personal best from 3:39 to 3:31, finished with a season's best of 1:43.13, with Boaz Lalang of Kenya finishing third in 1:44.13.

The 110m hurdles final strengthened the feeling that Cuba's Dayron Robles, who has been so plagued by injury in the last couple of seasons, is regaining his former, formidable sharpness just in time to annexe another global title.

As in the Paris Diamond League meeting, the lithe, bespectacled figure was swiftly out of his blocks, with America's David Oliver looking strangely sluggish.

But whereas the big American virtually got back on terms by the finish in France, on this occasion he was unable to make up the ground and it was his team mate Jason Richardson, who had beaten him at the last Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, who provided the most coherent challenge to the world record holder, who won in a meeting record of 13.04, his best this year.

Richardson got a hug from the Cuban after setting a personal best of 13.08. Oliver, third in 13.19, still maintains a three point lead in the Diamond League race.

"I feel confident but I need to work harder to win in Daegu," Robles said.

"I am working to run under 13 seconds there – I think I can do it."

Germany's Olympic bronze medallist Christina Obergfoll eventually beat the Czech Republic's Olympic champion Barbara Spotakova with an effort  of 66.74 metres after the lead had swapped between them. Spotakova's best was 66.41.

Britain's strength in depth at the long jump is not looking too shabby, with both Greg Rutherford and Chris Tomlinson, who regained his national record from him in Paris last month, looking in buoyant form as the World Championships loom.

Tomlinson won the British bragging rights on the night as he cleared eight metres on five of his six attempts, the best of which was a marginally wind-assisted effort of 8.30m.

Rutherford's sequence was also consistent, with four jumps over eight metres, the best of them 8.19m, which earned him third place.

But both Brits had to give best to Mitchell Watt, the Diamond Race leader from Australia, who managed only two jumps and a foul – choosing to pass on three occasions, including the last two – but won with a massive second round effort of 8.45 that was only nine centimetres behind the personal best he set this season.

The women's 800m, which – unlike the men's version, was within the Diamond League competition – was won in a season's best of 1:58.60 by home runner Jenny Meadows, who moved decisively past Jamacia's Kenia Sinclair as the field entered the final straight.


James, the upwardly mobile one-lap talent, added to his growing reputation with a perfectly judged Diamond League race which took him clear of Jamaica's Jermaine Gonzales, second in 44.85.

Spencer's flourish in the 400m hurdles involved an aggressive display of positive running in which she took a big lead within the first two hurdles and simply refused to allow a field which included the Czech Republic runner Zuzana Hejnova, who had beaten her in their previous Diamond League meeting in Paris in what was the fastest 2011 time up to that point, 53.29.

Towards the end of the evening, spectators produced sustained applause for the former Jamaican sprinting legend Merlene Ottey, who was running the final leg of the sprint relay for her new nation of Slovenia at the age of 51.

She told spectators that she was looking forward to coming back to London next year, adding: "I'm talking about the Olympics..."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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