African stars, Blessing Okagbare, Augustine Choge, Oscar Pistorius and Milcah Chemos shoned brightly on the second day of the Aviva London Grand Prix – Samsung Diamond League at Crystal Palace today.
South Africa's Paralympic champion, Oscar Pistorious, set a new World Record in the 400m Men's T44 category in 47.04 secs, his second 400m race on this track in 24 hours. Britons Ian Jones (51.65) and Richard Whitehead (59.52) were second and third respectively.
An elated Blade Runner said afterwards: "I'm super happy. After yesterday's race, it was really difficult today. I'm happy to have run decent times back to back. Being in London is unbelievable.
"We are going to have to get used to these conditions for London 2012 but the crowds here are amazing.
"Today I went out hard, may be a bit too ballsy but yesterday I started too slow. I'm happier with today's race. It's great to have these Paralympics events at the London Grand Prix," he added.
African 100m champion, Blessing Okagbare, stormed to a new personal best 11.00 secs in the Heats to beat American Carmelita Jeter, but eventually finished third in the final in 11.10 secs.
American Marshevet Myers (11.01) and Carmelita Jeter (11.06) were second and third respectively.
Kenyan Milcah Chemos won the women's 3000m Steeplechase with a fast finish dash in a meet record 9:22.49. Russian Yuliya Zarudneva snatched second place in 9:22.60 ahead of Lydia Jebet Rotich of Kenya, third in 9:23.68).
Augustine Choge took the men's Emsley Carr Mile in a personal best 3:50.14 with Mekonnen Gebremedhin of Ethiopia second in 3:50.35 and American Leonel Manzano claiming third in a personal best 3:50.64.
A delighted Choge, said after the race: "It really means a lot to win this race.It has so much history. I've been training for this and I really wanted to get some Diamond League points.
"I wanted to go from the front today because I knew the others would be strong at the end. I thought they would have a good finish and I didn't want to be left with a gap. When you start behind you can be left with too much to do."