11th June 2018
WEEKEND UPDATE
Away from the Stockholm Diamond League and Leverkusen Sport Fest, there were many notable results by British athletes around the world over the last week. Here we round-up some of those.
Racers Grand Prix, Kingston, Jamaica, 10 June
Zharnel Hughes (coach: Glen Mills) stormed his way to the top of the world rankings for 2018 with a sublime 9.91m (0.4m/s) effort to win the 100m at the Racers Grand Prix in Jamaica. Lining up against a quality field, Hughes showed his 200m strength as he moved through over the final 40m to get the better of Noah Lyles and Yohan Blake and move to second on the UK all-time list.
Elsewhere Matthew Hudson-Smith posted a solid 45.40 clocking for fourth in the men’s 400m, a race won by Kirani James in 44.35, whilst Miguel Francis continued his return to form with a 20.59 (-0.2) run for third in the 200m.
NCAA Championships, Eugene, USA, 6-9 June
It was undoubtedly the best collective British performance at an NCAA Championships this weekend, with Tim Duckworth (Toby Stevenson) crowned decathlon champion and five others getting on the podium. For Duckworth, he became only the second athlete in history to win the men’s NCAA multi-events title both indoors and out in the same season, the only other athlete to achieve this feat a certain Ashton Eaton. An outstandingly consistent performance over 10 events, with personal bests in the 400m, 1500m and javelin, saw the University of Kentucky student set a decathlon personal best of 8336 points to take gold by 200 points. That performance also puts Duckworth third on the UK all-time list.
There was a sensational silver medal for Jamaine Coleman (Andy Bibby) in the 3,000m steeplechase as he ran an 8.33.52 personal best when it mattered most. Defending champion Josh Kerr (Joe Franklin) had to settle for third in the men’s 1500m final, edged out in frantic finale, just a quarter of second shy of gold as he crossed the line in 3.45.02, a photo-finish denying him silver. In the field Gregory Thompson (Neville Thompson) also bagged silver with a 58.96m throw in the discus, Nic Percy (Vesteinn Hafsteinsson) struggling to produce his best form as he finished eighth.
Sticking with the throws young Jake Norris (Paul Dickenson) set a British age 18 best to bag bronze in the hammer, launching the ball and chain to 73.24m in round two and also move to fourth on the British senior rankings. There was also a brilliant bronze for long jumper Jahisha Thomas (John Vernon) as she leapt to 6.53m (0.5), just 2cm shy of her personal best.
In addition, Alice Wright (Franklin) and Charlotte Taylor could be separated by just 0.03 of a second as they finished fourth and fifth in the women’s 10,000m, Amy-Eloise Neale was fifth in the 5,000m in 15.44.41 and Lucy Bryan and Joel Leon Benitez (both Alan Richardson) were sixth and eighth in the pole vault, the latter in a 5.45m season’s best.
AtletiCAGenève, Geneva, Switzerland, 9 June
On a weekend of world class 200m running by British female athletes Jodie Williams, Bianca Williams (Lloyd Cowan), Ashleigh Nelson (Michael Afilaka) and Shannon Hylton (Ryan Freckleton) all went inside 23 seconds on a perfect day in Geneva. Jodie led the way in A race, winning in 22.75 (2.0) from Bianca’s 22.80, whilst Hylton clocked 22.99 for fourth, all three times season’s best performances. In the B race there was an extremely promising personal best for Nelson, who stopped the clock at 22.94 (0.5), with a much less generous tail wind. In the men’s B race Tommy Ramdhan (Freckleton) and Thomas Somers (Benke Blomkvist) ran times of 20.59 and 20.97 (0.0) respectively to finish first and second, Ramdhan’s was a lifetime best.
There were season’s bests galore over one lap of the track, Emily Diamond (Jared Deacon) leading the way with a 51.87 run for third in the women’s race, Laviai Nielsen (Christine Bowmaker) chasing her hard with all the way as she ran 51.98 for fourth. In the C race European Junior medallist Hannah Williams (Colin Gaynor) wasn’t to be outdone by sister Jodie as she racen a 52.50 personal best to take the win.
In season’s best form in the men’s races were Cameron Chalmers (James Hillier), third in the 400m A race in 45.75, whilst Martyn Rooney (Graham Headman) won the B race in 46.01.
In the hurdles Niall Flannery (Matt Ellias) continued the season’s bests with a 50.03 run for fourth, whilst Meghan Beesley (Michael Baker) did the same in the women’s race, third in 55.75. In the men’s D race, Alex Knibbs (Nick Dakin) smashed his personal best with a 51.21 run good for both victory and the World Junior qualifying standard.
Sticking with the hurdles, David King (Hillier) went inside the European Championships mark with a 13.59 (0.2) season’s best to finish second, whilst Feron Sayers (Aston Moore) achieved the same feat as he won the long jump with a personal best performance of 8.05m (2.0), his first time over 8 metres.
Portland Track Festival, Portland, USA, 9 June
Running over 5,000m Marc Scott (Jerry Schumacher) produced the second fastest time of his career to date as he finished second to Eric Jenkins. The key thing for Scott however was that his 13.29.27 effort was just inside the European Championship qualifying standard.
Gouden Spike, Netherlands, 9 June
Ieuen Thomas (James Thie) and Jonathan Hopkins both achieved the European standard in the 3000m Steeplechase out in Netherlands for second and third place respectively.
Thomas edged in in a PB of 8:30.98 while Hopkins was right behind him in 8:31.98.
Tijdschema Next Generation Athletics, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 8 June
Commonwealth Games 5,000m bronze medallist Melissa Courtney (Rob Denmark) continues to go from strength to strength as she revised her personal best to 15.16.51 to score a memorable victory over in the Netherlands. There were also season’s bests of 15:17.01 and 15:18.77 from Eilish McColgan (Liz McColgan-Nuttall) and Steph Twell (Geoff Wightman) in second and fourth, all three women inside 15.20 but more importantly inside the European Championship qualifying standard.
There was a fine 2.02.02 800m personal best for European Junior medallist Ellie Baker (Jon Bigg), third in her race, whilst Ben Connor (Steve Vernon) recovered from an early fall to place seventh in the men’s 5,000m in a 13.49.02 season’s best.
European Athletics Classic Meetings, Chorzow, Poland, 8 June
Shara Proctor (Rana Reider) leapt to 6.79m (-0.1) in the women’s long jump out in Poland, good for third on the night, her second best competition of the season, whilst in the hammer Nick Miller (Tore Gustafsson) was fifth with a best of 74.83m. Jemma Reekie (Andy Young) continued her outrageous run of personal bests with a 4.09.54 run over 1500m, the European Junior champion seventh in a strong field.
European Athletics Classic Meetings, Huelva, Spain, 8 June
Guy Learmonth (Henry Gray) and Adelle Tracey (Craig Winrow) were fourth in the men’s and women’s 800m with times of 1.46.46 and 2.01.52 respectively, the latter a season’s best. Phil Norman (Mark Brace) set an 8.35.47 personal best in the 3,000m steeplechase, whilst Chris Baker (Graham Ravenscroft) was second in the high jump.
BMC Gold Standard Races, Loughborough, 6 June
In form Scottish 1500m man Jamie Williamson (George Gandy) lowered his 800m personal best to 1.49.22 as he won the A race, Jess Judd (Mick Judd) taking the women’s race in 2.05.36, whilst Sol Sweeney (Andy Young) won the 1500m in an impressive personal best of 3.43.45.
Warwickshire Open Graded Series, 6 June
Kare Adenegan (Job King) went sub two minutes for the first time over 800m at her home track in Coventry, setting a lifetime best of 1:59.95.
She also set times of 31.75 (-0.6) and 61.52 over 200m and 400m respectively, the latter a season’s best.
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