EMILY Diamond staked her claim to be a genuine contender for the Olympic Games in Rio with a superb performance in Germany.
The 25-year-old Bristol & West AC athletes from Clifton (pictured below) soared to the top of the UK Rankings after smashing her personal best over 400m at the Sparkassen Gala meeting in Regensburg on Saturday.
Diamond cloc
ked a sparkling time of 51.23secs to win the race and carve 0.72secs off her previous best set two years ago. It is the 20th fastest time in the world this year and puts Diamond top of the UK Senior Rankings for the first time in her career.
“It is lovely to see my name up there especially after being out of action for a long time,” said Diamond.
“I was hoping to beat my PB and would have been happy with 51.8secs but to jump straight to 51.2secs was the icing on the cake especially as it was my first proper 400m race of the outdoor season.
“It is something for me to build upon now.”
Diamond will be back in action again this weekend when she travels to Geneva for the Georges Caillat Memorial meeting on Saturday.
“It will be another high quality race so hopefully I can get another fast time,” said Diamond.
“Then it will be a week off (from racing) and then straight to the trials in Birmingham (June 24-26th).”