7 July 2008

With the Aviva UK Championships & Olympic Trials looming, many British international athletes chose this weekend to tailor their preparations in training.

However, there were a few that chose to compete and many did so with great success. In Madrid on Saturday, Marilyn Okoro (Shaftesbury Barnet) clocked the fastest 800m by a British athlete this season, clocking 1:59.02 to finish 2nd to Olympic and World silver medallist Hasna Benhassi (Morocco).

Amongst those finishing in Okoro’s slipstream were legendary Maria Mutola (Mozambique) and World Indoor Champion Tamsyn Lewis (Australia). It was the second time in five days that Okoro bettered the Olympic A selection guideline.

Also in the Spanish capital, Craig Pickering (Milton Keynes) encountered some tricky conditions as he logged a time of 10.23 (-1.1m/s) to finish 4th in the men’s 100m.

Elsewhere, Andy Turner (Sale Harriers) was 2nd in the men’s 110m hurdles in 13.60 (-0.5m/s), David Greene (Swansea Harriers) was 6th in the 400m hurdles in 49.79 and Nathan Douglas (Oxford City) was 7th in the triple jump with 17.08w (+2.9m/s).

To view results – follow the link to the Madrid website

On the home front, there was a timely PB from 20 year-old Alex Nelson (Sale Harriers) who clocked 20.49 (0.8m/s) to win the 200m at the BAL Premiership at Eton to better the Olympic A qualifying guideline. Second-placed Tim Abeyie (Woodford Green & Essex Ladies) was also inside the A guideline of 20.59, clocking 20.57.