20 June 2011

While all eyes were on the European Team Championships in Stockholm, there were plenty of other notable performances from UK athletes over the course of the past week.

World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge, Slovenia, 19 June

England’s Pippa Maddams, in one of the biggest wins of her career to date, won a superb individual gold in the at yesterday’s World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge, leading England’s women to team gold, while Scotland’s men matched that team performance with a dominant display int he mens race.

After an early tumble, it was essentially a gun-to-tape win for the English athlete who won in 4:08:46. Ireland’s Karen Alexander (4:16:21) and England’s Helen Fines (4:19:14) followed her home in second and third respectively.

Maddams and Fines were backed up by an excellent eighth from Anna Lupton to win the women’s team race by over half an hour from Russia, with Scotland’s girls Fiona Maxwell (10th), Andrea Priestly (11th) and Claire Gordon (17th) taking the bronze.

In the men’s race, Scotland’s Tom Owens, following brilliant victories at the Carnethy 5, British Championships round one and Three Peaks, once again showed his class as he took an excellent silver medal in 3:26:59 behind Mitja Kosovelj of Slovenia (3:22:32).

Backing Owens up in third and fourth respectively were 19-year-old Robbie Simpson (3:29:05) and experienced hill running internationalist Jethro Lennox (3:33:21), giving the Scots a 28 minute team victory ahead of hosts Slovenia.

England’s men took a solid bronze in the team race with very strong runs from Oli Johnson (seventh), Graham Pearce (eighth) and Ambleside’s Ben Abdelnoor in 12th.

The event saw 405 athletes from 18 nations compete.

Results here:

Men: http://www.timingljubljana.si/Rez_cat.asp?db=1803&cat=120

Men’s team: http://www.timingljubljana.si/Rez_cat.asp?db=1803&cat=132

Women:http://www.timingljubljana.si/Rez_cat.asp?db=1803&cat=121

Women’s team: http://www.timingljubljana.si/Rez_cat.asp?db=1803&cat=133

Area Championships, June 18/19

North of England Championships, Manchester

The highlight of the North of England Championships at Manchester was the hammer win by Mike Floyd (coach: Kevin Madden) who threw a PB of 71.73m to beat Commonwealth medallist Alex Smith (Shane Peacock) to go third in the McCain Power of Ten rankings. Smith recorded 70.74m.

World Heptathlon champion Jess Ennis (coach: Toni Minichello) won the long jump title with a best of 6.24m to beat Wigan’s Alex Russell by 4cm. Just over an hour later later she was pleased to set a season’s best of 44.81m in the javelin, coming second to Hayley Thomas (coach: Shelly Holroyd) who threw 49.96m.

The top junior performance came from World Junior Championships medallist Jack Meredith (coach: Donald Moss) who won the under-20 110m hurdles in 13.69, well inside the UKA European junior standard of 14.00, to go second in the McCain Power of Ten rankings.

North results: http://www.noeaa-athletics.org.uk/

South of England Championships, Ashford

Mark Longhurst (coach: Allan Williams) won the under-20 pole vault with a PB of 4.90m to go equal second in the McCain Power of Ten rankings.

Chris Scott (coach: Andrew Neale) was over 60m again in the discus with a 60.24m win and top ranked triple jumper Nadia Williams (coach: Peter Stanley) jumped a windy 13.45m and third ranked Javelin thrower Daniel Pembroke (coach: Kevin Pembroke) won the javelin with 73.91m.

South results: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=50479

Midland Championships, Birmingham 

Robbie Grabarz (coach: Fuzz Ahmed) jumped an outdoor best for 2011 of 2.25m to go second in the McCain Power of Ten high jump Rankings.

Andy Pozzi (coach: Paul Bearman) responded to Jack Meredith’s impressive performance in the North Championships with a 13.61 PB victory into a strong 2.3m/s headwind to retain top spot in the Mccain Power of Ten rankings and also go well inside UKA‘s European Junior standard of 14.00.

Nick Cruchley (coach: Scott Simpson) made a big breakthrough to win in 5.35m to go third in the men’s pole vault outdoor rankings, while Jayne Nisbet (coach: Emily Parker) set a PB of 1.83m in the high jump to go third in the rankings.

Midland results: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=50710

Nordic Championships, Helsinki, June 18/19

Decathlete Liam Ramsey (coach: Mike Corden) went to the top of the McCain Power of Ten under-20  rankings with a PB and winning score of 7147 that fell just short of the UKA standard required for European Junior selection (7200).

Results: http://www.njcce2011.org/M20.HTM

Welsh Championships, Cardiff, June 18

Sally Peake (coach: Scott Simpson) set a Welsh record of 4.30m to go third in the McCain Power of Ten pole vault rankings. Phillipa Roles (coach: Maggie Lynes) had her first competition of the year and threw 54.64m in the discus to go fourth in the McCain Power of Ten rankings.

In the Aviva Parallel Success competition, IPC World Championships finalist Scott Moorhouse (coach: Dan Pfaff) extended his lifetime best to 47.33m in the men’s F42 javelin; he’s now less than half a metre off the world lead for 2011 (47.73m).

Results: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=51940

Bilbao, June 18

1998 Commonwealth champion Larry Achike (coach: Frank Attoh) made a solid triple jump debut for 2011 with a fourth place in 16.28m to go second in the McCain Power of Ten rankings.

Simeon Williamson, Aviva National champion for 2009, is also easing back into competition and ran a windy 10.35 100m, while top junior David Bolarinwa (coach: John Powell) ran a windy 10.40.

Aviva UK indoor champion Marilyn Okoro was second in the 800m with 2:04.19.

Results: http://resultados.rfea.es/2011/resultados/airelibre/al_bilbao.pdf

Chula Vista, USA, June 16

Carl Myerscough went top of the UK discus rankings and into the world top 20 for 2011 with his 65.04m when finishing second. His best is 65.10m set seven years ago.

Results: http://results.runnercard.com/Results/results.jsp?meetid=3432

Watford Open Meeting, June 15

Jessica Judd (coach: Jeremy Freeman) improved her 800m PB to 2:02.70 to strengthen her position at top of the McCain Power of Ten under-17 rankings and go second on the World under-18 list for 2011 to date.

Georgia Peel (coach: Mick Woods) went top of the UK under -20 rankings with her PB of 2:05.21 and was also well inside the UKA standard for the European Junior Championships and World Youth Championships.

Results: http://www.britishmilersclub.com/bmcstorydisplay.aspx?storyid=633

BMC Stretford, June 14

Mukhar Mohammed (coach: Mustafa Mohammed) went third in the McCain Power of Ten senior men’s rankings at 800m with his 1:47.13 victory which is well inside the European Under-23 Championships qualifying standard of 1:48.00.

Results: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=49909