29 August 2007

A mixed morning for the Norwich Union Great Britain & Northern Ireland team in Osaka saw four athletes progress through their first rounds and four athletes eliminated.

Women’s 1500m

Abby Westley (Hallamshire Harriers) and Lisa Dobriskey (Ashford AC) both booked their places in Friday’s semi-final of the women’s 1500m by securing automatic qualification places from their respective heats on Wednesday morning.

Westley claimed the sixth and final qualification spot in Heat 1 with a time of 4:09.67 while Dobriskey came fifth in the second heat in 4:10.61.

Women’s 200m heats

Joice Maduaka (Woodford Green & Essex Ladies) qualified for tonight’s quarter final of the 200m after coming third in heat 6 with a time of 23.22.

However, there was disappointment for Emily Freeman (Wakefield Harriers) as she exited the heats after being disqualified for committing a false start in heat 2.

Afterwards, Freeman said: “I reacted normally. The rule is the same for everyone and you have to be more disciplined in the blocks. I was trying to hold back a bit after the first false start but I obviously didn’t do it enough. I am a good starter, but perhaps the nerves got to me.

Women’s javelin

Goldie Sayers (Belgrave Harriers) was eliminated from the women’s javelin competition after mustering a best of 57.43m in the qualifying round, well below the type of form she displayed at the start of the season when setting a new UK record of 65.05m.

She said: “I felt absolutely flat and could not get my legs working at all. I could not attack the line and felt really tired.

“I didn’t sleep last night and felt very tired. There’s no excuses though, I just wasn’t good enough.

Men’s long jump

There was disappointment in the men’s long jump qualifying round, where Chris Tomlinson (Newham & Essex Beagles) and Greg Rutherford (Marshall Milton Keynes) both failed to advance to Thursday’s final.

Tomlinson’s best effort was 7.89m (+0.7m/s), leaving him 16th overall, four places and 10cm shy of the final qualification place. Rutherford’s only valid jump came in the second round when he leapt to 7.77m (+1.1m/s) to place 21st overall.

Rutherford said: “Everything has been going great in training. I got myself into really good shape after the rubbish that I have had this year. It just didn’t seem to work today.

“The warm-up went great. The last three weeks have been great. Don’t know what you can take from that. Don’t mess up the landing? That was inexcusable.

“For me, that should have been easy qualification really. I got myself fit, I was feeling good and I was jumping well enough. Maybe today just wasn’t the right day for me? It wasn’t good enough. I’m disappointed because I’ve let myself down. Bit gutted.

Tomlinson said: “Obviously, I’m very disappointed with that. I’ve had a good season, maybe I didn’t realise how difficult it was to jump eight metres. Maybe I should have been a little more ‘come on, come on, come on’. I sort of fell into a bit of a rut really.

“I’ve been beating these guys week-in-week-out all season. Sometimes this happens in sport. Certainly in the field events. If you don’t get it right in qualifying, then you’re out and that happened to me today.”

Men’s 110m Hurdles

Andy Turner (Sale Harriers Manchester) eased through to the semi-final of the 110m Hurdles in a new personal best.

Turner came third in the fifth and final heat in a time of 13.27 (0.6 m/s) after leading the race at half way.

After the race he said: “I am happy but the time is a long time coming and I know I can go faster. That time should have come earlier in the season, but then who cares about earlier in the season? It’s all about performing here that counts.

“I know that if I keep that concentration and pace throughout the race I can run 13.1. I believe I can run that in the semi.”

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