2016 Great City Games (Manchester)
There were a couple of big changes to this year’s Great City Games in Manchester, the first being a new sponsor for the event in the Co Operative Bank. The second change was that the event moved from a normal Saturday afternoon to Friday evening.
The event started with the Women’s Pole Vault competition on Albert Square, which featured Team GB’s Commonwealth Games Silver Medal winner Sally Peake and Junior Champion Lucy Bryan.
Lucy Bryan started the event and completed the first jump before going out of the event at 4.03 meters. Both Sally Peake and Chloe Henry joined at 4.13 meters and went on to reach 4.33 meters. The winner of the event was Amercian Katie Nageotte who went on to make a jump of 4.50 meters.
Greg Rutherford continued his impressive start to the season with a Great City Games record of 8.20 meters to win the long jump in Albert Square. In far from ideal conditions the Olympic champion was only 10cm below his season’s best set in April.
Rutherford, who has just returned from a three-month training spell in Arizona to compete in Manchester, said adjusting to the British weather was “a bit of a shock”.
Ultimately, its about setting yourself up for the Olympic Games now, I am looking to come back from Rio as Olympic Champion. I have another short spell out in Arizona in a couple of weeks, which will hopefully give me a good run into the Olympics.
Rutherford won this year’s event with Melvin Echard (USA) in second with a jump of 7.53m and Norris Frederick (USA) in third with a jump of 7.47m. Also taking part in the event was JJ Jegede (GB), Ignisious Gaisah (Netherlands) and Ronald Hertog (Netherlands).
Isabelle Pedersen (Norway) made her debut at the City Games in the Women’s 100m Hurdles, she faced strong competition from Tiffany Porter, Lucy Hatton & Serita Solomon.
Tiffany Porter won the race with a time of 12.89 seconds, Lucy Hatton came second in 13.15 whilst Pedersen finished third in 13.30 seconds, Serta Solomon came home in fourth with a time of 13.73.
Former Commonwealth champion Kim Collins won the men’s 100m in 10.08 secs, pushing reigning 60m world indoor champion Trayvon Bromell into second, with Britons Chijindu Ujah and Richard Kilty third and fourth.
Veteran Collins said, “When you step on the line age has nothing to do with it, you step on the line as men, my personal goal is to be the first over forty man to run under 10 seconds in the 100m and then retire.”
Chadwick Media 