What was intended to be a fast race, with runners aiming for the Olympic standard of 1:59.50, quickly turned into a tactical effort Saturday in the 800 metres at the Oregon Relays Grand Prix Event. It wasn’t the race Melissa Bishop-Nriagu was hoping for, but what she got was a fourth place finish, three tenths behind 2019 world silver medalist Raevyn Rogers, in two minutes and 4.18 seconds. With the mercury hovering around 14 degrees celsius and the rain falling down on the brand new Hayward Field, the field was quite content to let the pace setter run away from as they hit the bell in 62.6 seconds. As the medalists began to pull slightly ahead of Bishop-Nriagu in the final 200 metres, the Canadian record holder was not able to match their surge.
“I’m fuming after that display of a race,” she posted to Instagram afterwards. Her takeaway from Saturday’s effort boiled down to one word – trust. “I could list a handful of thing that I trust in this sport and at the top of the list is me. I have to trust me.”
At the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa it was a mixed bag for the brothers Tommy and Tim Nedow. Tommy, the younger of the two competed, recorded a seasonal best in the discus by hurling the two kilogram platter out to 51.06 metres – just missing out on the final by one spot. However, the shot put was not as kind to either of the Nedow men as they each failed to record a mark – Tommy in Friday’s university section and Tim in Saturday’s invitational section.
Elsewhere, sprint hurdler Keira Christie-Galloway placed fourth at a race in Phoenix, Arizona while Stephen Evans finished fifth in Atlanta. Christie-Galloway, a junior at Arizona State University, stopped the clock at 13.86 seconds in her first race back from injury while Evans clocked in at one minute and 52.48 seconds for 800 metres.