28 August 2015

It was a quiet start to the seventh day of action at the IAAF World Championships with high jumper Robbie Grabarz (coach: Fuzz Ahmed) the lone British athlete in action in the morning session.

Needing 2.31m for automatic qualification, the Olympic bronze medallist could only manage 2.26m, which saw him miss out on a place in the final. Grabarz, who returned this season after a year out with a knee injury, was buoyed by his return to the world stage despite not reaching the latter stages.

Grabarz said: “I’m just happy to be here, I shouldn’t be saying that – but I am. Surgery was just a year ago, and my body feels great – I just need to get technically fit, which shouldn’t be too difficult – it’s harder to get your body back than your technical things and my body is back. That’s just a nice feeling to be honest

"It is nice having that feeling in my mind that I can come in higher than everyone else and get a couple of clean sheets, but when the bar went up I probably just tried a little too hard, it’s always the way. This surface is unforgiving if you do anything wrong. – if you do it right you get massive rewards. Unfortunately I didn’t do it right at the bar that was critical but as the same time, my body is absolutely fine now so I am happy.

"Rio, it’s Olympic year, that’s exciting enough and I’m not starting a winter hampered by my body this year, I’m starting it in the best shape of my life physically, so that’s a nice feeling to take forward… albeit to a long cold winter in Birmingham." 

2.40m jumper Andriy Protsenko and Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov were also among the big names to not progress further in the competition.

This evening’s action will see a number of finals taking place with Lorraine Ugen (Shawn Jackson), Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Mike Holmes) and Shara Proctor (Rana Reider) going in the long jump final, while Dina Asher-Smith will look to continue her personal best-breaking form through the rounds at the 19 year old lines up in the 200m final.

Sister act Tiffany Porter (Reider) and Cindy Ofili (James Henry) will be hoping to make it through to this evening’s final, which takes place two hours after they go in semi-final one and two respectively.

Also targeting final places are Goldie Sayers (Mark Roberson) in the javelin qualification, while Chris O’Hare (Terrence Mahon) and Charlie Grice (Jon Bigg) will have their sights set on final places in the 1500m.

British Athletics medals at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing, China

Gold –

Mo Farah (10,000m)

Jessica Ennis-Hill (Heptathlon)

Greg Rutherford (Long jump)