28 August 2007

Men’s 400m Hurdles

Tim Benjamin (Cardiff AAC) progressed to the semi finals of the 400m dipping over the line to beat off the challenge of Chris Lloyd to take third spot in 45.44. Martyn Rooney (Croydon Harriers) and Andrew Steele (Trafford) were eliminated at the first round stage both coming fourth with respective times of 45.47 and 45.54 – a new season’s best for Rooney.

Benjamin said: “Certainly I was relieved to get through. The gods weren’t with me for the lane draw and I really had to pull it out of the bag. It feels good to be only a couple of tenths behind the winner in a poor lane draw.

“Hopefully I’ll get a better draw tomorrow and we’ll see what happens. I’d like to come and run 45 seconds and if I can do that tomorrow I’ll be happy wherever that gets me it gets me. I’m not in the best shape and I’ve had a lot of problems this year so it’s great to come out here and produce when it counts.”  

Rooney said: “It was hard being on the outside but you should be used to it and able to deal with every lane. I do feel I should’ve gone out a bit harder, I felt I had some running in my legs in the closing stages so maybe I should’ve used that energy earlier.”

Steele said: “I’m not too sure how to assess that, I didn’t run my best race and that’s what I wanted to do. I’m very annoyed. I’m not happy because this is the place to win your best race and run your best time. I wanted a pb, when you’ve got that you know there is nothing more you can do than that, but it hasn’t happened.

Women’s 400m Hurdles

Tasha Danvers-Smith (Shaftesbury Barnet) held off a late challenge from Russia’s Lyudmila Kolchanova to take second behind Jana Rawlinson in the 400m hurdles semi-final and claim a spot in Thursday’s final with a season’s best run of 54.08.

Danvers-Smith, who knocked more than a second off of her previous best time this year said: "None of my times this season have been of the speed where you would say Tasha is going to be in the World final. But running in the AAAs and at Crystal Palace I have been consistent and running consistently is the key.

"My theme was that I’m not going home, I want to be in that final. My coach told me to zone in on those last three hurdles and that’s what I did. My last hurdle could have been better, but Rome wasn’t built in a day and I’m getting there.

"I want to shoot for a medal now as being in the final I want to do the best I can do."

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