24 Aug 2014

Commonwealth 800 metres champion, Nijel Amos should win the Zurich meet race if he is to attain his dream of clinching the 800 metres IAAF Diamond League Race. 

Amos surprised a lot of his followers at Stockholm Diamond League race on Thursday evening (August 21) when he finished position 5, clocking 1:46.04.

However, Botswana’s golden boy still has a chance to redeem himself on August 28 in Zurich, where he will compete in the last Diamond league race of the season.According to IAAF Diamond League rules, the athlete with the highest number of points in each discipline at the end of the IAAF Diamond League season wins “The Diamond Race”.

In case of equality on points, the number of victories decides, if there still is a tie, the better result at the final decides. 

For an athlete to win a Diamond race and its associated prize, they must compete in a bona fide way in the final (Zurich or Brussels) of their event discipline. 

As it is, David Rudisha is still leading the log with eight points followed by Amos with six points. Now, for Amos to be declared the 800 metres Diamond League. 

Race winner, he will have to win the race against his nemesis.

Should Amos finish on position one, it means he will finish with fourteen points and if Rudisha finish on position two, he will accumulate twelve points thus giving Amos a lee-way of winning Diamond League this season.

However, Amos told BOPA that he is aware that he was not leading the league at the moment and he was not any under pressure.

Concerning his loss, he said it was part of the game to lose and win some, adding that fatigue contributed immensely to his poor performance at Sweden.

Nijel who scooped gold in 4X 400 metres relay and 800 metres at the just ended African Championships that were held in Morrocco, said he had not fully recovered from the competition. 

“I have been competing in nine races almost every week without resting. In a nutshell I had a hectic schedule and a body can only work to certain point and it can’t carry on anymore so today was one of those days. But after all am happy I still have a chance to win the league if I can run well in Zurich.”

Meanwhile, Nigel’s coach Jean Verster was quoted by Athletics Weekly saying “I think my job at the moment is to make sure he is consistent and slowly improves and I would rather see him run fast at almost every opportunity, at the moment; than to try for records. Remember he is only 20. But I believe he can obviously break the record at some stage.” ENDS