Sotherton fumes after blunder in hurdles

10:52am Saturday 26th July 2008

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KELLY SOTHERTON blew her top after an inexcusable mistake saw her thrown off balance in the 100metres hurdles in last night’s Aviva London Grand Prix.

Sotherton set a long jump personal best of 6.79m – but her night was spoiled when a wrongly placed barrier almost saw her stumble to the floor of the Crystal Palace track.

The Olympic heptathlon gold medal favourite was not the only runner affected – three of her rivals also pulled up and fought to keep their stability after the incident which wrecked their stride pattern.

Sotherton struggled when the race was rerun, finishing fourth in a disappointing time of 13.66 seconds. After the improvement of her form in recent weeks, she might have been expected to approach her lifetime best of 13.21sec.

Her frustration was understandable as she said: ‘‘I am totally fed up – the long jump went so well earlier on but someone made a mistake and they have ruined the hurdles.

‘‘In fact they’ve ruined the whole event. The night started well but now I’m angry.’’ Phillips Idowu did not quite produce the big jump he had forecast – but he easily attained his target of going to next month’s Olympics with an unbeaten season’s record.

The world indoor champion, displaying excellent consistency, saved his best effort until the last round in hitting 17.42m for an easy win ahead of fellow Olympic team-mates Larry Achike and Nathan Douglas.

Idowu overbalanced with his first round effort but then produced five further leaps in excess of 17m to thwart the threats of Douglas and Achike – whose best efforts were 17.14m and 17.09m respectively.

The victor said: ‘‘I had to wait until rounds four and five to get going but I’ve been saying all year that I feel regardless of whatever anyone else does, I’m not going to lose.

‘‘I can’t envisage myself being beaten. We had the top three finishers - that’s a nice way to finish before Beijing.’’ Asafa Powell’s 100m win was the highlight of the meeting – even after his head-tohead clash with world champion Tyson Gay was called off due to the world champion nursing a hamstring injury.

Powell clocked 9.94seconds, seeing off Marc Burns (9.97sec) and Michael Frater (10.00sec).

Jamaica’s former world record holder said: ‘‘The race did not go as I quite expected – but felt easy.

‘‘There’s a bit more work to do and everything should be fine for Beijing.’’ Craig Pickering made the final as a fastest loser but finished last in 10.21sec in a field containing seven Caribbean speedsters.

World 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu won her clash with Nicola Sanders, who she beat for last year’s world title.

Ohuruogu ran 50.80sec to see off Olympic team-mates Sanders and Lee McConnell.