05 March 2012

The big competition of the weekend was the McCain Indoor City Challenge at Lee Valley which was reported separately, but the most noteworthy performances came outdoors at Loughborough and were highlighted in particular by Sophie Hitchon’s landmark British hammer record.

Loughborough, March 3/4

In the Loughborough Winter Trials, Sophie Hitchon (coach: Derek Evely) became the first British women’s hammer thrower to break 70m when she smashed the British record in her first competition of 2012. She set a British record of 69.94m in round two before improving that to 70.40m in round five. The Olympic B standard is 69.00m.

Sarah Holt (Robert Weir) just missed her PB with 66.38m to go second in the rankings.

In the men’s event Commonwealth silver medallist Alex Smith (Shane Peacock) set a personal best of 75.63m. That puts him top of the McCain Power of Ten rankings and places him fifth on the UK All-Time lists and it was the furthest British throw for a decade. The Olympic B standard is 74.00m.

Mark Dry (Derek Evely) set a PB in second with 73.36m to go second in the rankings.

Goldie Sayers (Dan Pfaff) opened her 2012 season with an Olympic qualifying mark of 62.18m in the javelin to go top of the McCain Power of Ten rankings. The Olympic A standard is 61.00m.

Mervyn Luckwell (Esa Utriainen) achieved an Olympic B standard (79.50m) with his win in 79.70m in the men’s event to also go top of the rankings.

Michael Painter (John Painter) went second in the under-20 hammer rankings with a PB throw of 67.05m in narrowly defeating top-ranked Norwich clubmate Callum Brown (Lorraine Brown).

Results: http://www.rankinglists.com/results/results.aspx?meetingid=62776

England Under-17 and Under-15 Combined Events Championships, Sheffield, March 3/4

Shirin Irvine won the under-17 event with a McCain POT ranking-topping performance and PB of 3570 points from Nikita Campbell-Smith (Sharon Morris) who took the Midland title with 3507 while Lucy Chappell (Bruce Bewley) won the Northern title in third on 3168.

In the boys’ competition, Aled Price (Edward Thompson) won with 4499, which also gave him the Welsh title while Matthew Campleman (Alan Childs) in second won the Northern title with 4245 points.

Results: http://www.athletics-uk.net/england/2012/

National 10 Miles Championships (Race Walking), University of Warwick, Coventry, March 4

In cold and wet conditions at the University of Warwick, Tom Bosworth (Andi Drake) led from the start and came home in a new personal best of 1:10.07, over 10 minutes ahead of the silver medallist Stuart Kollmorge.

The absence of Commonwealth Games champion Jo Jackson (Andi Drake) in the women’s race meant the race was dominated by Pembrokeshire Harriers and junior Heather Lewis (Martin Bell) – the Midland champion – won her first national senior title in a personal best of 85:03, with Rebecca Collins (Andi Drake) in second.

The 10km supporting races were won by Jamie Higgins (Andi Drake) who took a minute off his personal best and recorded the fastest time by a British junior since 2009 with 45:27 to go to the top of the McCain Power of 10 Rankings, while Tasha Webster (Martin Bell) set a PB of 52.45 to go top of the junior women’s rankings and move to fifth on the UK All-Time list.

South Bend, March 3

Former National indoor U17 and U20 champion David Forrester (Ray Vose) ran a personal best mile of 3:59.13.

Results: http://www.butlersports.com/sports/c-track/2011-12/files/AWResults.htm

St David’s Day 5K (Inc Welsh Champs), Cardiff, March 3

Triathlete Helen Jenkins went top of the McCain Power of Ten rankings at 5km with her victory in a PB 15:51.

Results: http://rankinglists.com/results/results.aspx?meetingid=59363

IAAF World Challenge Melbourne, March 3

Andy Vernon (Nic Bideau) finished fifth in a quality 5000m in a season’s best of 13:33.52.

Results: http://www.iaaf.org/Mini/IWC12/Results/ResultsByEventIWC.aspx?/eventcode=4946/

Dessau, March 2

Steve Lewis (Dan Pfaff) set a personal best of 5.77m in the pole vault and went top of the McCain Power of Ten rankings for 2012. In jumping the highest any Briton has for a decade, he moved to second on the UK All-Time list.

Results: http://leichtathletik.de/results/4626_dessau_030212.htm