10th June 2012

Weekend Update

10 June 2012

There have been fantastic performances by Brits at home and overseas this week.

Bedford International Games, June 10

European heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis (Toni Minichello) had two good competitions.

She was close to her javelin PB with 46.34m and finished eighth as Laura Whittingham (Esa Utriainen) won with a season’s best of 54.25m to go third in the McCain Power of Ten rankings.

In the long jump Ennis won by a cm in 6.40m.

Isobel Pooley (Fayyaz Ahmed) achieved the best high jump by a Britain outdoors when she won with 1.90m. The Olympic B standard is 1.92m.

Mervyn Luckwell (Esa Utriainen) won the men’s event with 80.81m. He has already bettered the Olympic A standard of 82.00m.

In the men’s hammer Mark Dry (Derek Evily) got the better of top ranked Alex Smith (Shane Peacock) in a tight contest winning in 73.87m to his rival’s 73.31m.

In the women’s 100m hurdles, Olympic 100mH finalist Sarah Claxton (Martey Newman) just missed her season’s best with a time of 13.17. The Olympic B standard is 13.15.

Scott Rider (John Hillier) won the shot in 18.32m to improve his outdoor best and second place in the rankings.

European 400m hurdles medallist Perri Shakes Drayton (Chris Zah) who improved her 400m PB to 51.26, which puts her second in the McCain Power of Ten rankings ahead of Shana Cox’s time in New York and is an Olympic A standard.

In the triple jump, Michael Puplampu (Larry Achike) bettered his outdoor PB by a whole metre as he won with 16.59m to go second in the rankings.

Former world champion Trecia Smith of Jamaica won the women’s triple jump from European junior runner-up Laura Samuel (Glenys Morton) who set a season’s best of 13.67m to go third in the rankings.

Michael Painter went top of the Under 20 hammer rankings with a PB 73.34m, which puts him third in the UK all time lists. The UKA world junior standard is 71.00m

Results: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=65441&pagenum=1#JT800

New York Mini 10km, June 10

London 2012 Olympic marathon Team GB member Claire Hallissey was10th in 33:33. Beijing Olympic 10,000m runner Kate Reed was 15th in 34:23 in her first race of 2012 while British steeplechase record holder Barbara Parker (Sean Burris) was 17th in 35:01.

Results: http://www.nyrr.org/

BMC Nike Grand Prix, Watford, June 9

Junior athletes produced the star performances at this middle distance extravaganza.

The fastest British 800m performance came from 16-year-old Sean Molloy (coach: Mark Hookway) in the B race. His 1:48.24 third place finish took over 1.6 seconds off the UK Under-17 record and his time was well inside UKA’s qualifying time for the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona. It also puts him well clear at the head of the McCain Power of Ten under-17 lists second overall in the under-20 rankings.

Jessica Judd (Jeremy Freeman) already had the World Junior qualifying time of 2:05.00 and her win against a top class field in the women’s 800m A race saw her improve her PB to 2:01.09 to go second on the UK junior all-time lists and run inside the Olympic B standard of 2:01.30. She lies fourth on the senior lists and top of the under-20 lists.

In the women’s 5000m, Emelia Gorecka (Mick Woods) ran a well-paced run to move through to fourth in 15:34.21.That time was a 17 second PB and puts her third on the all-time lists and was well inside the World Junior standard of 16:05.00 and less than five seconds away from the Olympic B standard of 15:30.00. The leading Briton in the race was Katrina Wootton (Andrew Hobdell) who set a PB of 15:33.38 in third.

UK champion Luke Gunn (Bud Baldaro) was the leading Briton in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in second in 8:36.91, but close behind, 17-year-old Zak Seddon (Jeff Seddon) took five seconds off his PB with 8:38.07 to go second on the UK all-time under-20 lists. The World Junior qualifying time, which he had already achieved, is 8:50.00.

In the women’s steeplechase, another improving junior Pippa Woolven (Janet Nash) took 10 seconds off her PB with 10.11.86 in fourth place and that was comfortably inside the World Junior standard of 10:20.0. 

Results: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=64165

Video footage: http://www.athleticos.org/coverage/249437-2012-British-Milers-Club-Watford-Grand-Prix 

Lille, June 9

Andy Baddeley (Andrew Hobdell), who already has the Olympic A standard, made it four wins out of four over 1500m this outdoor season with victory in 3:36.70 while Tom Lancashire (Norman Poole) was seventh in 3:38.84.

Christian Malcolm (Dan Pfaff), who already has the A standard, won the 200m in 20.70/-0.5.

UK record holder Sophie Hitchon (Derek Evely) was sixth in the hammer with a 67.36m. Her UK record this year is 71.61m.

Results: http://bases.athle.com/asp.net/liste.aspx?frmbase=resultats&frmmode=1&frmespace=0&frmcompetition=115276

Fortuna, June 9/10

Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Mike Holmes) smashed her UK junior record in the heptathlon when she finished second with 6248 points, breaking her previous record of 6007 points. It also put well ahead of the Olympic A standard of 6150 points.

Her performances were 13.62/-2.6 in the 100m hurdles; 1.86m in the high jump; 11.83m in the shot; 23.88/-1.6 in the 200m; 6.41/0.6 in the long jump; 38.68m in the javelin; and 2:14.56 in the 800m.

She set personal bests in the 100m hurdles (despite a strong headwind), shot, javelin and 800m, and was close to her best in the other events. The world’s current number one junior now ranks seventh all time in the World Junior lists, fifth on the UK senior all-time rankings and lies second in the UK women’s lists for 2012 behind Ennis.

Commonwealth champion Louise Hazel pulled out after six events.

Results: http://www.iaaf.org/Mini/WCE12/Results/ResultsByEventWCE.aspx?/Mini/WCE12/Results/ResultsByEventWCE.aspx?/eventcode=4912/sex=W/discCode=HEP/combCode=hash/roundCode=7/summary.html#det

New York Diamond League, June 9

Robbie Grabarz (Fuzz Ahmed) finished second in the men’s high jump with a personal best of 2.36m which puts him equal second on the 2012 world lists and top of the McCain Power of Ten rankings. His previous best was 2.33m outdoors and 2.34m indoors and the Olympic A standard is 2.31m.

Samson Oni (Trevor Llewelyn) was sixth with 2.25m and Olympic silver medallist Germaine Mason (Steve Francis) no heighted at 2.15m in his opening competition of 2012.

Andrew Osagie (Craig Winrow) continued his excellent form over 800m to finish third in a race won by World Record holder David Rudisha. Osagie’s time of 1:44.61 trimmed his PB at the head of the UK rankings and was his fourth successive run inside the Olympic A standard of 1:45.60.

British discus record holder Lawrence Okoye (John Hillier), also with an Olympic A standard, was a solid but fifth in the discus with 63.87m.

In the women’s 400m, Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu (Lloyd Cowan) was fourth in a season’s best of 50.69 but it was notably quicker than she achieved in any competition before the 2008 Olympics and puts her well clear at the head of the UK rankings. Also inside the Olympic A standard of 51.55 was Shana Cox (Cowan) who was seventh in 51.54.

In the women’s 800m, top ranked Marilyn Okoro (Ayo Falola) just missed her season’s best of 1:59.33 with a third place 1:59.37 and was again inside the Olympic A standard of 1:59.90. Jemma Simpson (Mark Rowland) was sixth in a season’s best of 2:00.97 which is inside the Olympic B standard of 2:01.30 and puts her third in the UK rankings.

Results: http://www.diamondleague-newyork.com/Live-StartlistsResults/Overview/

UK Women’s Premier League, Birmingham, June 9

The top individual performance came from recently crowned England champion Sarah Holt (Robert Weir) who won with 65.50m. Birchfield were comfortable winners.

Results: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=60785

Georgi Pavlov International Athletics Meeting, Sofia, June 9

Abigail Irozuru (Larry Achike) had a huge breakthrough as she improved from an outdoor best of 6.39m to an Olympic A qualifier 6.80m, to go second in the UK rankings and sixth on the all time lists and just 10cm below the British record.

Results http://www.iampp.net/results2012.html

British League, Premiership, Birmingham, June 9

Birchfield Harriers made it a winning double as they also won the men’s match. Javelin thrower Lee Doran (Coach: John Davies) won the javelin with a seasin’s best of 78.20m which puts him second in the McCain Power of Ten rankings. Scott Rider (John Hillier) won the shot with 18.30m, which puts hims second in the outdoor rankings. He threw 2cm more at Bedford the next day UK champion Abdul Buhari (Mark Wiseman) won the discus with 58.47m.

Results http://www.bal.org.uk/bal/portal/main/Results/15%20League%202012/10%20Premiership/Page_1/Match%201%20-%20Birmingham.pdf

IAAF Race Walking Challenge, La Coruna Spain, June 9

Tom Bosworth (Andi Drake) walked the race of his life as he walked the fastest 20km by a British athlete for a decade, ultimately, though, he came up an agonising 19 seconds short of the Olympic B Standard.

He clocked 84.49 to go 11th on the UK all-time list and the fastest ever 20km road time by an under-23 athlete.

Bosworth started in determined fashion as he chased the B Standard of 84.30; he passed the 5km point in 20.48 and was still well on course when passing the 10km point in 41.55 (which in its own right would have been a personal best for 10km). The challenge was to hang on over the second half. He stuck to his task and lifted his pace between 11 and 15km, passing 15km in 63.04, but unfortunately he became isolated and had no help as he began to tire over the final 4km.

Despite a last kilometre of 4.08 he came up just short of his goal, finishing in 14th place and missing out on the Olympic B standard.

Having reduced his personal best by almost two and a half minutes this year, his target now is to improve his UK national record over 5000m at the Aviva 2012 Trials and going forward, to qualification for next year’s World Championships in Moscow and Rio in 2016.

Behind Bosworth, Alex Wright (Ray Hall) set out with similar intentions and was in touch with Bosworth and on B standard pace at 5km (21.02) and 10km (42.24). However, Wright began to struggle soon after the halfway point, pulling out at 13km. He will give the B standard one last shot at the IAAF Challenge in Milan next weekend.

China’s Jianbo Li produced a dominant performance to take victory in 80.55 ahead of Spain’s Miguel Lopez 80.59.

In the Women’s race, Commonwealth Champions Jo Jackson (Andi Drake) continued her comeback from injury and was three minutes quicker than she was in last month’s IAAF World Race Walking Cup in Russia. Her 95.25 was inside the UK Athletics B standard and backs up her A standard from 2011.

Jackson passed 10km 46.30, but was hampered by a bout of sickness in the last 5km which cost her at least one and a half minutes as she was forced to stop to be sick several times as she finished in 12th.

Jackson will now target her national 5,000 metres record at the Aviva Trials before heading to the Pyrenees as she hopefully builds towards London.

Liu Hong took a commanding victory in 87.32 in perfect racing conditions, winning by over two minutes from Spain’s Beatrice Pascual (89.53).

Turin June 8

Continuing their world class form over 110m hurdles, Lawrence Clarke (Malcolm Arnold) ran 13.38/0.7 for fourth and Andy Pozzi (Arnold) fifth in 13.43. Both athletes already had the A standard of 13.52 on numerous occasions.

Dwain Chambers won the 100m in 10.29/0.5 but that only ranks him seventh in the UK rankings and is short of the Olympic A standard of 10.18, which he has yet to achieve this season.

Results: http://www.memorialprimonebiolo.org/ENG/risultati.aspx

Oslo Diamond League, June 7

Nigel Levine (Linford Christie) won the non Diamond League 400m easily in 45.11, which was a PB by over half a second and well inside the Olympic A standard of 45.30 and puts him third in the McCain Power of Ten rankings.

Also winning easily was Gareth Warburton (Darrell Maynard) who front ran his way to victory. He not only broke 1:46 for the first time but also 1:45 with his 1:44.98 Welsh Record. It puts him third in the McCain Power of Ten rankings and was well inside the Olympic A standard of 1:45.60. Guy Learmonth set a PB of 1:47.14 in second.

World 400m hurdles champion Dai Greene (Malcolm Arnold) struggled after a fast start and finished a well beaten fourth in 48.98, just 0.02 off his leading ranking time. Second-ranked Jack Green (Arnold), who already has the Olympic A qualifier of 49.50, was seventh in 49.70.

In the women’s 200m, Abi Oyepitan (Tony Lester) was a fine second in 22.71/1.5 to go top of the McCain Power of Ten rankings and again well inside the Olympic A qualifying time of 23.10.

Tiffany Porter (James Henry) was third in a top quality 100m hurdles in 12.70/0.7 after a 12.75/-0.3 heat. British heptathlon record holder Jessica Ennis (Toni Minichiello) had a promising heat in 12.83/0.4 but false started in the final. Both have run well inside the Olympic A standard of 12.96 already this season.

Eilish McColgan (Liz McColgan) finished ninth in the 3000m steeplechase in a six second PB of 9:39.45, well inside the Olympic A standard of 9:43.00. That puts her second in the UK rankings and fourth on the all-time lists.

Stephanie Twell (Woods) finished ninth in the 1500m in a season’s best of 4:07.49 which is inside the Olympic B standard of 4:08.90 and puts her fourth in the UK rankings.

Nicola Sanders (Lester) was eighth in the women’s 400m in 52.79.

Website: http://www.diamondleague-oslo.com/en/Live-StartlistsResults/Overview/

Polten, Austria, June 7

Conrad Williams (Linford Christie) who already has the 400m A standard won the 400m in a fast 45.54, his best time outside Geneva where he has set his best two times.

Results: http://www.oelv.at//UserFiles//Wettkampf/2012/ergebnisse/stpoelten_070612.htm

Huelva, June 6

Finishing third in the men’s 5000m Nick McCormick (Lindsay Dunn) took almost nine seconds off his PB and bettered the Olympic A standard of 13:20.0 with 13.18.81 to go fourth in the McCain Power of Ten rankings.

Stuart Stokes just missed the top ranked performance in the steeplechase and his season’s best when he ran 8:29.79 and again bettered the Olympic B standard of 8:32.00.

In the 800m, Mukhtar Mohammed (Mustafa Mohamed) set a season’s best of 1:46.17 at 800m which betters the Olympic B standard of 1:46.30.

Results: http://resultados.rfea.es/2012/resultados/airelibre/huelva/ZZS158A_AT@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ESP_date=2012-06-07.htm

American Milers Club, Indianapolis, June 6

Anthony Whiteman continued his superb form over the age of 40 when he improved his world Masters M40 record to 1:48.22.

Results: http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=title&title_id=313&event_id=147