30 June 2008

Olympic selectors were given plenty to think about over the weekend with A qualifying marks for Beijing set by Susan Scott (Victoria Park City of Glasgow), Martyn Bernard (Wakefield Harriers) and Laura Turner (Harrow AC) among some fine performances by British athletes on the international scene.

Scott was right on the nose of the qualifying standard of 4:07.00 in finishing 2^nd over 1500m in Lille, France on Friday. She is now the fourth British athlete to possess the A standard, alongside Lisa Dobriskey (Ashford AC), Steph Twell (Aldershot, Farnham & District) and Hannah England (Oxford City).

Having made a late start to the season, Twell is now warming to the tasks ahead, most notably July’s World Junior Championships, where she will represent GB & NI over 1500m. She produced a season’s best of 4:09.29 to win the women’s A race at Saturday’s British Milers Club Grand Prix in Solihull.

The same meeting saw a fine men’s 3000m steeplechase with Andrew Lemoncello (Fife AC) at the head of four British athletes going inside the Olympic B qualifying mark of 8:32.00 by winning in 8:27.40. Second-placed Stuart Stokes (Sale Harriers Manchester) remains the only British athlete to have secured the A standard, having gone inside 8:24.00 in Prague a couple of weeks ago.

In a high-quality high jump meeting in Eberstadt, Germany, Martyn Bernard finished joint-first with Cuba’s Victor Moya with an excellent outdoor PB of 2.30m to clinch the A qualifying mark for Beijing. Over in Biberach, Germany, Laura Turner enjoyed similar success as she clocked 11.29secs (0.0m/s) in finishing 2^nd in the women’s 100m to go inside the A standard by 0.01.

At the same meeting, Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers) continued her build up to Beijing by running a fine 200m in 23.92 (-0.7m/s) and 100m hurdles in 13.26 (+1.0m/s).  Back in Lille on Friday, there was also a fine outing over 200m by Anyika Onuora (Liverpool Harriers) who set a PB of 23.13 (+0.8m/s) in securing the Olympic B qualifying standard.

At the European Cup – Combined Events in Jyvaskyla, Finland, Daniel Awde (Woodford Green & Essex Ladies) produced the outstanding individual performance. The 20 year old set a new PB of 7751 to meet the Olympic B qualifying mark, along with Ben Hazell (Basingstoke & Mid Hants) and Richard Reeks (Bournemouth) who scored 7528 and 7009 respectively, GB & NI finished third.

Meanwhile, over in Hengelo, Netherlands, the GB & NI quartet of Phyllis Agbo (Thames Valley) – 5689, Grace Clements (Dartford) – 5682, Julie Hollman (Birchfield Harriers) – 5502 and Louise Hazel (Birchfield Harriers)  – 4991 performed creditably amongst tough opposition in the European Cup – Combined Events Super League.