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Women’s Sprint hurdles in Monaco
The 100 meters hurdles Is one of my favourite events. I love the way it combines speed and jeopardy! And when I say speed, I mean speed with six of 8 athletes in the Monaco race having a PR of 12.40. The favorite had to be Masai Russell, the Olympic champion who had lowered her PR to 12.17 this year. But the winner was Megan Tapper whose 12.34 equalled the PR she had set earlier this year.
Tapper said of the race: “I did not get the opportunity to get here in 2023, so this is my first time in Monaco, my first Diamond League meeting of the year and my first Diamond League win. I knew I was in a good shape, my team did an excellent job in preparing me for Monaco. I just came here with faith and I just did what I had to do. I love hurdling with all my heart. I would not be here if I didn’t love it. I love the opportunity to hurdle. It’s a feeling I cannot explain. And I love it. Hurdling presents 10 opportunities to fly”.
I saw Megan get a bronze medal in those strange Olympics in Tokyo and spoke to her afterwards. She was excited to have won a medal but then she said that as she stood on the podium, all she could think was that there was not a person in the stadium to see her, The greatest moment of her sporting life and none of her family allowed to be there to see it.
Ditaji Kambundji was second in the Monaco race. It is great to see her build on her excellent indoor form when she won the 60 meters hurdles at the European Indoors and came second in the World Indoors. Last week she ran a windy 12.39 and in Monaco a legal 12.43. She commented: “The race was good, I felt really good. I knew from the beginning that I just wanted to do my own race and I could do that. I was close to my PB, we are on the good way. The wind-aided time of 12.39 I ran in Madrid just confirmed that it is a time I can really run, with tail or headwind. I want to run those times consistently so that the really fast times can come out at some point too. I think I need competitions, I feel that we approached this season slowly. We have competed and then put in training blocks again, now I really want to race more. With the eye on Tokyo we decided that we need to keep training through all those weeks to be fit at the World Championships”.
Nadine Visser was third. She seems to have been running forever but is only 30. From a European perspective it was great to see two Europeans finish send and third and ahead of the three Americans in the race, given that USA normally dominates the event.
