The Wanda Diamond League Track and Field series moved to Gateshead last Sunday. There was galaxy of International athletes competing at this prestigious event, stars like Jakob Ingebrigsten, Laura Muir and our own Sean Tobin, who firmly placed himself on the international scene with his performance over 5000m.
Conditions that confronted all the athletes were more Artic than a Summer’s day in May with wind and constant rain the norm throughout the meet, as many athletes found it hard to perform well in such conditions. These conditions didn’t deter Sean as he set about revising his 5000m times when knocking close to 20 seconds off his Personal Best over this Classic distance.
Conditions weren’t ideal for achieving fast times. This performance amounts to a major breakthrough for him on the international circuit and adds to his growing confidence in his quest for Olympic qualification in this event.
The Race started and the pacemaker went about setting a strong tempo and soon had the whole field in Indian file with Sean tucked in around midway. Then as they approached the 1st km, the leading group of 5 opened up a gap on the chasing pack which was tightly bunched with Sean well placed. This was the way the race unfolded as the cameras stayed with the leading group throughout the rest of the race, with approx. 120m between the leading group and the chasing pack with 2 laps to go. Sean kept the pace going as he battled against the inclement weather conditions down the finishing straight and giving it everything to cross the line 12th in a spectacular time of 13 mins 33.93 secs, a massive Personal best. This phenomenal performance saw Sean knock close to 20 seconds off his previous best, 13 mins 53,65 secs, set last year, brilliant.
With points on offer for Tokyo, Sean was always going to be in the mix and with his love of racing, courage and determination to make things happen there was never any doubt about him running faster than ever before.
In such unfavourable conditions for racing, it is very clear that Sean can only go faster in the coming weeks and further improve on his chances of acquiring his Tokyo ticket.
From watching Sean on trackside and cross-country courses the length and breadth of the country, we now had the pleasure of seeing this extraordinary athlete in action from our sitting room! The club wishes our very own superstar the very best in his endeavour to reach the very summit of athletic dreams. Congratulations Sean on another magnificent performance.