The USA strolled to a comfortable victory in the Athletics World Cup in London, beating their nearest rivals, Poland, by 57 points to clinch the £450,000 prize and a platinum trophy valued at £300,000. Great Britain, who were buoyed by a victory in the women’s 4x100m relay on Sunday, finished third.
The sobering prospect for the other seven countries in this new team-based competition is that this was far from being the strongest USA squad. Yet they had wrapped up the competition halfway through Sunday evening, winning 11 golds, 10 silvers and six bronze medals to score 219 points from the 34 events. Poland were second on 162, with Britain third on 155, two points ahead of Jamaica in fourth.
Yet there were several performances to cheer the home crowd. The bravest surely came from Morgan Lake, who cleared 1.93m to come second in the women’s high jump behind the American Vashti Cunningham, despite suffering from food poisoning. Adelle Tracey also got a second place in the women’s 800m while Beth Dobbin was third with 22.95sec in the women’s 200m.
“The atmosphere was great,” Dobbin said. “The race was a blur but I am happy to finish third. The crowd were amazing, almost overwhelming. I didn’t step foot inside the stadium before the race but when I did, it was just a normal track and I was not as nervous as I thought I was going to be.”
Britain’s sole win on Sunday was in the 4x100m, as their team of Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Bianca Williams and Shannon Hylton took advantage of an injury on the US team to win in 42.52sec.
As on Saturday’s first day, the quality of the fields in the eight-country competition was mixed. For instance no competitors in the men’s 100m, track and field’s blue ribband event, qualified in last year’s World Championships.
However the crowd, numbering around 20-25,000, were able to enjoy several very impressive performances. Among the highlights were the South African Luvo Manyonga producing an excellent series of long jumps to win in 8.51m, while the American Sam Kendricks won the men’s pole vault with a clearance of 5.83m.
“I have good memories of this stadium and again the crowd was great,” said Manyonga. “The new set-up is quite exciting. The distance came out and I am happy. It feels great to compete in a team.”
