GLASGOW — Paralympic champion Markus Rehm leaped 8.10 meters to win the long jump at the Glasgow Grand Prix Saturday, boosting his profile while he attempts to prove his eligibility for the Olympic Games.
A single-leg amputee nicknamed “Blade Jumper,” Rehm was making his first appearance at an IAAF indoor event. The German is attempting to prove to the world governing body that his carbon-fiber prosthesis does not give him an advantage over able-bodied rivals, so he can compete in both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Rehm won the event with his fourth jump to beat Fabrice Lapierre (8.08 meters), a Mauritian-born Australian long jumper. Rehm set a world record of 8.40 meters in winning the T44 long jump event at the IPC world championships in Doha in October.
Rehm lost his lower right leg in a boating accident when he was 14. He takes off using his prosthetic leg when he competes in the long jump, and says he doesn’t get any advantage using this technique.
Olympic and world long-distance champion Mo Farah won the 3,000 meters in 7 minutes, 39.55 seconds in his first track race of the year.
“It was kind of a messy race,” said Farah, who said he will not be competing at the world indoor championships in Portland, Oregon, next month. “At the beginning, it was quick, but I knew from 2,000 we were down (on world-record pace), so I was just trying to win the race in front of the home crowd.”
Fellow Briton Sean Safo-Antwi captured the 60 meters in 6.56 seconds, as former world 100 champion Kim Collins pulled up midway through the race with an apparent left leg injury. Collins was quickest in the heats.
All athletes wore bibs with the message “I Run Clean,” as the IAAF grapples with doping scandals.
De Grasse edges Su
Canada’s Andre De Grasse edged China’s Su Bingtian to win the men’s 60 meters in his professional debut Saturday at the 109th Millrose Games indoor track meet while US sprinter Allyson Felix breezed to victory.
De Grasse, 21, captured the crown in 6.61 seconds, .01 off his personal best set last year when he ran for the University of Southern California, with Su second in 6.62 and Jamaican Kimmari Roach third in 6.63.
De Grasse took bronze medals in the 100 and 4x100 relay at last year’s world championships after winning 100 and 200 Pan American Games titles on home soil.
Slow off the blocks, De Grasse produced a strong finishing surge and outleaned his 100m world finals rival Su at the line for the victory.
Felix, the reigning Olympic 200 champion and world 400 champion looking at a double in the events at the Rio Olympics, won the women’s 60 in 7.15, .05 ahead of compatriot Tianna Bartoletta.
Omar McLeod, the reigning Jamaican and US college 110 hurdles champion, won the 60 hurdles in 7.46 with American Ashton Eaton, the reigning world and Olympic decathlon champion, second in 7.53.
Grenada’s Bralon Taplin won the 400 in 45.35, the fastest time in the world this year, with Trinidad and Tobago’s Lalonde Gordon second in 45.51.
Also winning with a 2016 world best was American Ajee Wilson, who took the women’s 800 in 2:00.09.
American Matthew Centrowitz, twice on the world podium at 1,500m, won the men’s mile in 3:50.63 with New Zealand’s Nick Willis, the 2008 Beijing Olympic runner-up, second in 3:51.06 and Britain’s Chris O’Hare third in 3:52.91.
American Erik Kynard, the 2012 Olympic high jump runner-up, won his specialty by clearing 2.20m while Australian Mitchell Watt, the 2012 Olympic long jump runner-up, settled for second behind American Marquis Dendy, who leaped 8.13m to Watt’s 7.86.
Kenya’s Betsy Saina won the women’s 5,000 in 14:57.18, beating Molly Huddle by .13 of a second, while Greece’s Katerina Stefanidi cleared 4.90m to win the women’s pole vault.
