21 June 2010

The major focus of British Athletics was the Spar European Team Championships where British athletes had a fantastically successful weekend.

See http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/june-2010/19-06-2010-etc-day1/  http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/june-2010/20-06-2010-etc-day2/

Elsewhere the highlights came from Jo Jackson (Andi Drake/Maureen Jackson) who improved her British Record for the 20km walk in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge Meeting in La Coruna, Spain. In a high quality race, she finished a fine seventh in 1:30:41 improving on her previous best of 1:31:16 set in Lugano in 2009. The UKA A standard for the European Championships was 1:31:15.

Jackson walked a very even race with 5k segments of 22:22, 22:35 (reaching halfway in 44:57) , 22:48 and 22:56 and this was despite being on two cards for the last 10km of her race.

Most eyes at Bedford were on the Aviva World Junior trials and Under 20 Championships, where the British athletes vied for World Junior qualification.

http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/june-2010/19-06-10-world-junior-trials/ and http://www.uka.org.uk/media/news/june-2010/20-06-10-world-juniors-day-two/

However, while the Under 23 age group also competing at Bedford had no big championship to aim for, there was still some great results:

European Under 23 champion Eden Francis (Glenys Morton) went top of the Power of Ten rankings  when she retained her discus title with a championship record. Her 58.99m throw was a big seasonal best and superior to the 58.50 European Championships B standard of 58.50. Francis later won the shot in 15.83. 

In the Men’s discus, Chris Scott set a championship record and personal best of 59.90 which moved him up to fourth in the Power of Ten rankings while teenager Curtis Griffith Parker (John Hillier) set a big personal best of 57.07 in second to move to fifth on Power of Ten.

Another Championship best fell  in the hammer to Pete Smith of Birchfield. His 69.92m was a big improvement on his previous best of 68.05m.

Another top class result in the field came from James Campbell in the javelin who won with a throw of 73.41m. He already is a clear second in the Power of Ten rankings with an earlier 76.65.

Leevan Yearwood (Michael Afilaka) won the 100m in 10.31, though there was a big tailwind behind the European U23 silver medallist. His time was 0.01 quicker than his legal best set in Regensburg, earlier in June.

Trevor Okoroafor made use of the strong winds to smash his triple jump PB, albeit with a windy mark. The Croydon Harrier enjoyed a 4.3mps tailwind as the former English Schools and U17 Champion  won by close on a metre with 16.00, to become the fifth British athlete to surpass the 16m barrier this year.

Windsor’s Lawrence Clarke (Malcolm Arnold) – the 2009 European Junior gold medallist, won the 110m hurdles in easily his fastest time of 13.60, chased hard  by Alex Al Ameen of Newham and Essex Beagles, who also set a lifetime best of 13,66 though the wind was over the legal limit with +2.5.

Sale Harriers Manchester’s Ryan Oswald, only ranked 78th on Power of Ten at 200m prior to the competition with a 21.95 best this year, sped to surprise win in 21.23.

World Championship pole vault representative Luke Cutts (Trevor Fox) won the pole vault with a leap of 5.25

Luke Lennon Ford  (Roger Walters) of Birchfield won the 400m in 47.16 while Joseph Durrant (Ray Daniel) won a tactical 800m in 1:52.54.

Naomi Taschimowitz of Taunton took gold at 5000m in 16:41.28, while Ashley Helsby won a wind assisted 100m hurdles in 13.39 which only two athletes have superior times to in Britain this year.  Yeovil Olympiads Laura Parker followed up her victory in the South of England 1500m last weekend with a 3000m steeplechase victory  in a lifetime best of 10:21.33.

For more results please visit http://www.athletics-uk.net/england/results/bedford_u23.htm

On Saturday, in the Combined Challenge meeting at Ratingen, Louise Hazel (Fayyaz Ahmed) timed 13.70 for the 100m hurdles  while in Bilbao, there was a high jump win for Robbie Grabarz with 2.15 with Adam Scarr third with 2.10. Tim Abeyie was fourth in the 200m in 21.43 for his best legal mark of the year while Matthew Burton was close to his best with a windy 7.62 for third in the long jump.

Chris Baillie was second in a season’s best of 13.60 for the 110m hurdles in Herouville St Clair in France on Wednesday. The wind of 3.7mps invalidates it for qualification purposes The UKA Barcelona B standard is 13.62 while Chris has a legal best of 13.63 in 2010.

Martyn Bernard (Dan Pfaff) was eighth in a top class high jump in Buhl in Germany with 2.22 with Matthew Roberts 12th in 2.18

In the UK 100km Championships,at Boddington in Gloucestershire there was a close victory for Brian Cole of Blackburn and the Royal Navy in a personal best 7:07:21 but after 62 miles, he won by just over a minute from David Kirkland (7:08:45). Emily Gelder of Dulwich Runners won the women’s race by 35 minutes in 8:15:36, a personal best by 40 minutes.