21 July 2010

With only two events to go, David Guest (coach: Michael Guest) is in a brilliant position to challenge for a decathlon medal in the IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada (19-25 July), Britain’s first in the gruelling event since Dean Macey’s silver 14 years ago.

In a successful morning for the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team, there were also qualifying performances from Jack Green (coach: June Plews) in the 400mH and Laura Samuel (coach: Glenys Morton) in the triple jump, plus an outstanding lifetime best for Sarah Kelly (coach: Liz McColgan) who qualified for tomorrow’s 800m final with an impressive 2:02.89 clocking. In the decathlon, however, Ashley Bryant (coach: Ian Grant) was still ruing a lost opportunity.

Not surprisingly, it was another tough morning for the combined eventers.

Guest continued to build on his solid performances on day one where his first half total was good enough to see him start the final day of competition in third place overall (4073). He opened with a second place finish in his 110mH heat with 14.25 (+0.9m/s) to secure 942 points, but it was event leader Kevin Mayer of France who took the win and 948 points with 14.21 (+0.9m/s).

Bryant, who had achieved lifetime best performances in the early stages of the competition prior to a hugely disappointing high jump, was not giving up. Following on from Tuesday’s 400m – another lifetime best in the final event of the day – he commenced Wednesday’s early session with victory and another PB in the 110mH (14.38/+0.2m/s). “I’m in such great shape,” he said with a sigh, his immense frustration clearly evident.

After the discus, event seven, Guest had moved up to second with 5687 points, his best effort of 40.36m enough to close the gap on leader Mayer with 5722. Bryant’s best of 41.66 gave him 698 points, his total rising to 4857 for 18th.

*THE POLE VAULT WAS STILL ONGOING AT TIME OF POSTING – UPDATE WILL FOLLOW IN EVENING REPORT*

Individual performance of the morning (at time of writing) was undoubtedly Kelly, though, who qualified as a fastest loser for tomorrow’s 800m final (Thursday 22 July, at 20.20, 01.20 UK time).

Having made sure of her place in the semi final of the women’s 800m with a fourth place finish in her heat (2:07.72), Kelly looked strong and confident as she booked her place in the final.

She worked her way into third as the pack went through 400m in 59.76 and pulled clear of the chasing group as the lead two, Annet Negesa (Uganda) – the fastest qualifier from the heats – and Elena Lavric (Romania) set the pace.

As USA’s Laura Roesler came back at her going in to the final 120m, she regained her composure to pull clear for third.

“I started to panic at 200m so I just tried to move through the field,” said the Dundee Hawkhill Harrier. “Coming into the home straight for the first time they seemed to slow up but then suddenly the pace changed and it made me feel really heavy, then they picked up again. As we went through 400m I thought ‘yes, I’m on for a PB, I don’t care where I come’. I heard the US girl coming but I thought, ‘no, you’re not getting me’. I’m really happy with how I ran. I felt better in the race than I did in the heat and I had more left in me.”

Earlier in the session, Green had advanced through to Thursday’s 400mH semi final (22 July at 11.20m 15.20 UK time) courtesy of a 52.16 clocking for an easy automatic qualifying spot in second, while Samuel recorded a best effort of 12.98m (+0.1m/s) to progress to the women’s triple jump final on Thursday (20.00, midnight UK time).

Today’s evening session starts with the men’s decathlon javelin – event nine of ten – at 18.10 (22.10 UK time).