Happy 21st? A day in Birmingham

Happy Birthday to me!! Well, okay not really; not for another few weeks. As part of my 21st birthday present, my parents paid for me to go see the Diamond League Grand Prix in Birmingham, at the Alexander Stadium. We’ve been before; we went for my 19th birthday.

When we bought the tickets some big names were advertised, such as Mo Farah, David Rudisha, Christine Ohuruogu and as time went on, others were mentioned such as Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce, Jess Ennis-Hill and Sally Pearson. Unfortunately, David Rudisha got injured so pulled out, then at the Rome Diamond League, just a few days before the Birmingham event, Sally Pearson fell and broke her arm and Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce pulled her hamstring. The night before we were heading to Birmingham, news broke that Jess Ennis-Hill and Christine Ohuruogu had withdrawn from the event also, meaning me, my parents and a bunch of other people on Twitter were rather peeved!

But, Mo Farah would still be there competing so all would be well! Or so we thought...

Breaking news on Sunday morning was that Mo Farah had withdrawn from the event due to emotional exhaustion surrounding all the drug allegations and drama about his coach etc.  Therefore, after questioning whether to still actually go or not, we decided we should as it would still be a good atmosphere and there would still be some great events going on.

After what seemed like forever, we finally arrived in Birmingham and parked up, then headed into the stadium. Thankfully, like last time we went, we were extremely lucky with the weather; the sun was out and it was warm but there was still a nice breeze. As we walked in, the atmosphere was great; everyone was so positive and upbeat, basking in the gorgeous weather! The only downside was that it was quite crowded- last time we got there earlier so it wasn’t as busy.

By the time we made our way to our seats in the stadium, some events had started; they were doing kid’s races such as Under 15s girls and boy’s relays from different UK athletics clubs. To be quite honest, that’s the reason we didn’t rush to get there, as we weren’t really interested in that.

Once all the other events got started, it was great! We couldn’t really see the high jump, discus or pole vault as they were at the other ends of the stadium but the big screens up allowed us to get a good idea of what was going on. To tell you the truth I’ve never really been all that interested in field events and in all honesty, I’m still not a huge fan, however the javelin was actually really good this time around. This Kenyan javelin thrower called Julius Yego had already been throwing well and towards the final stages of the event he absolutely threw a corker!! It was over 90 metres but a red flag went up, indicating that it was a foul so didn’t count. Everyone was gutted, (probably not his competitors…), including him and after various talks with officials, they were looking like they were measuring it and everyone was willing them on to change the throw to legal!

It turns out that after the meet had finished and people had left, they awarded him the massive throw, meaning he broke various records, including the African Record! And we were there to see it! Woo! It turns out that the officials simply hadn’t extended the lines further than about 85 metres so they struggled to measure it... Ridiculous!

The track events were pretty decent too, to say a lot of the bigger names had pulled out.  Greg Rutherford won the long jump; Christian Taylor tried his hardest to beat a record set by Jonathan Edwards, but unfortunately failed; Martyn Rooney tried his best at the 300m (for some reason they did 300 instead of 400m) but again, nope… and Tiffany Porter was amazing in the women’s 110m hurdles.

Anyway, I was most looking forward to the men’s hundred metre sprints. There were two heats, which included a range of people such as James Ellington, Jimmy Vicaut, CJ Ujah, Richard Kilty and of course, my ‘faves’, Kim Collins and Adam Gemili. (See the video below for my ridiculous screaming as they get introduced- bad times.)

Adam Gemili made it into the final and was claiming he was definitely going to go sub 10 seconds that day and well, he did! He got himself a personal best of 9.97 seconds, dipping at the line to make second place, becoming the 100th man to run sub 10 100m and the sixth Briton to do so. However, unfortunately as he crossed the line, he fell to the ground and looked in absolute agony, clutching his torn hamstring. Ouch. Needless to say, as he was being stretchered off to receive medical attention, he was still smiling and waving at the crowd, clearly pleased with the sub 10 time. Bless him.

All in all, this feels more like I’ve written a review for an athletics magazine but oh well. It was a special day out for me and I loved every minute of it. I’m so lucky to be able to go to events like this and so grateful to my parents for paying for me to go. I had a fantastic time and I can’t wait to get the chance to go to more upcoming events like this. Fingers crossed for London in 2017, haha!

If you enjoy athletics, I really would recommend you go to a meet if you can afford it, it really is worth every penny. The atmosphere is amazing and you really get into it and it’s just such a positive atmosphere, being surrounded by thousands of people who you all share the same interest with. I would have no qualms about going to either a bigger or smaller meet as the atmosphere will be the same. Having lived in Sheffield for the past two years, the EIS has indoor events on every year and I’ve still never got round to going. Hopefully this year I will pull my finger out and actually get round to going!

Check out the small vlog and photos below of my day in Birmingham, UK!

The Flawed Blonde. xoxo