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H Clitheroe (Preston Harriers), K Holmes (Ealing, Southall and Middlesex AC). |
J Pavey (Exeter Harriers). |
D Allahgreen (Trafford AC), S Claxton (Belgrave Harriers). |
J Crane (Sale Harriers Manchester), S Jones (Trafford AC). |
J Whitlock (Trafford AC). |
J Johnson (Herne Hill Harriers). |
K Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers). |
D Fraser (Croydon Harriers), L McConnell (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers), C Murphy (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies), M Purkiss (Southampton AC). |
Holmes back on form in Birmingham |
Double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes was back to her best as she comfortably won the 1,000m at the Norwich Union Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. |
The 34-year-old, running only her second competitive race of the season, shook off the rust to win in two minutes, 35.39 seconds. But she is still undecided about competing in the European Championships in Madrid from 4-6 March. "I'll probably be entered and make my mind up at the last minute," she said. "My training hasn't gone as well as expected but I've got two weeks to decide. "I need to take my time and make sure I feel good about what I'm doing. "I felt very good here but with the crowd behind you, you feel like you can do anything." American |
was the eventual winner of the men's 60m race which almost ended in farce. Three athletes were disqualified for false starting, including Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis, who was the first man guilty of coming out of his blocks too quickly. World 100m champion Kim Collins clinched second spot ahead of world 60m record holder and Scott's training partner Maurice Greene. Jason Gardener's unbeaten run came to an end as he came fifth and he will need to improve if he is to defend his European title in Madrid. "You can't win them all," said Gardener afterwards. "And I was very disappointed as I know I'm capable of doing better." Russian |
was back on record-breaking form in the pole vault at the National Indoor Arena. |
The Olympic champion set a new world mark of 4.88m to break her own record - which she set just six days ago - and beat Russian rival Svetlana Feofanova. It was Isinbayeva's 11th world record - indoors or out - since July 2003. "I'm so happy and I will do my best to break the 5m barrier soon," the 22-year-old told BBC Sport. Jamaica's |
stormed to a personal best of 7.13 seconds to claim the women's 60m sprint. Belgian Kim Gevaert, who will be one of the favourites for next month's European title, took second while American Muna Lee was third. There was disappointment for British pair Jeanette Kwakye and Joice Maduaka who finished seventh and eighth respectively. |
Jamaican |
stretched her unbeaten record to 25 races as she effortlessly claimed the 200m. The Olympic champion set a new indoor personal best of 22.38 seconds - the fastest time in the world this season. |
fought off fellow Briton Tim Abeyie to take the men's 200m in a personal best of 20.88. |
continued her outstanding start to the season, beating a strong international field, which included two-time Olympic 100m hurdles bronze medallist Melissa Morrison, to claim the women's 60m hurdles. The 25-year-old Briton clocked 7.98 seconds while pre-European Championships favourite Russian Irina Shevchenko finished down in sixth. Ethiopia's |
failed in her bid to smash compatriot Berhane Adere's world 3,000m record but still won the event in emphatic style. The Olympic 5,000m champion was inside record pace but dropped off over the final third, finishing in eight minutes, 33.05 seconds - the fourth fastest time ever recorded for the event. Britain's Jo Pavey bravely decided to go with Defar as she strode away from the field and took second in a season's best 8:41.43. Kenyan |
also missed out on the indoor 1500m world record, which Hicham El Guerrouj has held for the last eight years. |
Lagat settled for silver behind El Guerrouj in Athens and was almost four seconds short of the Moroccan's world best, clocking 3:35.27 in Birmingham. And |
was still struggling to find his form after the death of his fiancee this year. The Olympic 10,000m champion had comfortably led the men's two mile race after his younger brother Tariku had set the pace. But fellow Ethiopian |
appeared ominously on Bekele's shoulder with two laps to go before surging past him at the bell to win in 8:14.28. Jamaican |
made the most of a blistering start to take the men's 400m title in 45.91 seconds. World indoor champion, Alleyne Francique, faded badly and finished in fourth while American duo Jerry Harris and James Davis took second and third respectively. Swede |
showed her class in the long jump as she stole top spot from Jade Johnson with the very last jump of the competition. The Olympic heptathlon gold medallist reached 6.66m to better Johnson's mark of 6.52m - her second personal best inside a week. "I was quite surprised because I didn't think I'd end up with second place," said Johnson, who wore London's 2012 Olympic bid slogan, "Back the Bid", on her shorts. "But I'm pleased and hopefully I'll get a bit better for the Europeans. I really want to win a medal." |
won the men's event with a season's best of 7.95m, taking the scalp of world indoor champion Savante Stringfellow of the USA. |
O'Sullivan commits to Dublin race |
Sonia O'Sullivan will seek to regain her title at the Bupa Great Ireland Run on 9 April in Dublin. |
The 35-year-old was beaten into fourth at last year's event, having won it a year earlier. "I understand she's had a solid winter's training down in Australia after recovering from a minor injury," said race director Matthew Turnbull. Mark Carroll, Irish record holder at 3km, 5km and 10km, will make his debut in the mass participation 10km race. Carroll has stepped up his form in recent weeks and in late January scored an impressive 3,000m victory over leading American Alan Webb in Boston. Carroll will be facing stiff competition from Australian Craig Mottram, winner in Dublin for the last two years. |
Record fails to lift lacklustre meet |
Yelena Isinbayeva may have produced another world pole vault record, but her achievement could not hide the fact it was not the best meet we have ever seen in Birmingham. |
And hey, there are not many meets that go by without the Russian breaking a world record. |
Apparently, Isinbayeva has cleared five metres in training and I would just love her to put us out of our misery and have a go at it rather than extending the indoor record by one centimetre at a time. Athletics to me is all about pushing the barriers and being the best you can, and I would like to see her have a go at 5m in competition. Mind you, every time she breaks the record she gets $30,000 so she can afford to be deliberate about it. World records aside, I thought it was a very encouraging evening's work for Kelly Holmes. She looked good and was very positive. Agnes Samaria, who came second, is in very good shape and is in the world's top three 800m runners this season. Yes, Samaria let Kelly get away, but there was no coming back over the last 200m as Kelly dominated the race, so beating Samaria is a bit of a benchmark for Kelly. My gut feeling is that Kelly would like to run in the European Indoor Championships, but she just hasn't convinced herself she is fit enough to do so. On the other hand, I think Jason Gardener is struggling to come near what is going to be required to win the men's 60m in Madrid. He started well in the final but still could not stay with the front-runners. Jason has a lot of experience indoors but for some reason he is struggling to maintain his pace through to the finish. |
It would have been nice to see what Mark Lewis-Francis could have done in the final, if only he hadn't got himself disqualified. He was blatantly playing the false-start game to his advantage, but it tripped him up and made him look a bit silly. My view is you're meant to go when the gun goes and not before. And if you try to unsettle your rivals by employing the false-start tactic you have to remember not to false start yourself again. Having said that, Mark is looking in much better shape. But I haven't seen anything from Mark or Jason yet which suggests France's Ronald Pognon - who has run 6.45 seconds - will be under threat at the Europeans. From a British point of view, Sarah Claxton's victory in the 60m hurdles was the best thing to come out of the meet. |
Something else that probably went unnoticed was Melanie Purkiss winning the women's national 400m race in a new personal best of 52.98 seconds. AAAs champion Kim Wall came second in another lifetime best so we have a very strong 4x400m squad going to the European Championships. Scotland's Lee McConnell is probably going to run too, so we have a real prospect of a medal. From an international perspective, I thought Meseret Defar was disappointing in the 3,000m, but I don't think the pace-making was great. Canadian Heather Hennigar set a fast early pace but could not maintain it and if Jo Pavey had been in last year's shape she would have given Defar a real run for her money. She had a go but just could not hang in there. We were also expecting a bit more from Bernard Lagat in the men's 1500m. But he has only just come over from the USA, so he may not be that sharp and I still think he is in great shape. As for Kenenisa Bekele, he was well beaten by Markos Geneti. But we only had half expectations for Bekele as he has been struggling this season. It was very hot in the National Indoor Arena and I felt uncomfortable in the commentary box. I think those conditions affected the distance runners and in fact Defar complained to her coach after the race that she could not get her breath properly. |
Tomlinson stays focused on Europe |
Long jumper Chris Tomlinson has cut his schedule to ensure he is fully fit for the European Indoor Championships. |
The 23-year-old has a minor injury and has pulled out of international meets in Madrid and Lievin this week as well as warm-weather training in Lanzarote. "It's nothing serious," said his coach Peter Stanley. "He strained a muscle in his abdomen at the Birmingham meeting but is back in full training." Sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis will also not compete in Madrid on Thursday. The Birmingham athlete, who clocked a season's best of 6.61 seconds over 60m in Birmingham last week, also prefers to focus his attentions on next month's European Indoor Championships. |
Lewis-Francis, who was runner-up to British team-mate Jason Gardener at the Europeans three years ago, will continue his training at home. Meanwhile, Tomlinson is still searching for this first major medal and this season he has shown he could be in the sort of form to grab a spot on the podium in Madrid. The Middlesbrough athlete jumped a season's best of 7.95m at the Birmingham Grand Prix - good enough to push world indoor champion Savante Stringfellow into second. |
Running around the Olympics |
It was back to official duties last week in my role as an ambassador to London's 2012 Olympic bid. But I still managed to do all my marathon training. |
All the sporting people on the capital's bid team think I'm mad to be taking part in the London Marathon. The bid chairman, Lord Coe, admitted he would never dream of running a marathon, even though he was an Olympic middle-distance runner. |
Kelly Holmes, former hurdler Alan Pascoe and former sprinter Frankie Fredericks - who is now an IOC member - all wanted to know why anyone would want to run that far. You'd have thought all these athletes, who have been running for most of their lives, wouldn't think it would be that bad. But the only person who was positive about my intentions was Tanni Grey Thompson, who has won the London Marathon wheelchair race six times. Even though it was a very busy week entertaining the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Evaluation Commission, I actually found my running schedule easier to follow. When I'm at home, I get distracted by all sorts of things but for the five days I was in London, I was in a pressurised situation, but I found it easy to relax by running. |
On Wednesday, the presentations to the IOC team did not finish until the early evening, so I just managed to squeeze in a 45-minute run. We had an early start on Thursday because we had to visit all the Olympic sites around London, that was pretty shattering, but when we got back to the hotel, I got back on the treadmill. On Friday evening I went along to the special dinner at Buckingham Palace which was a nice occasion. I never feel guilty about eating, especially when I'm exercising. And because it was a rest day I didn't have to feel bad about missing my training either. Anyway, I managed to do another quick run on Saturday ahead of the final IOC presentations, before heading home for my daughter's birthday. |
When I was in London I did all of my runs on the treadmill, which isn't the same as exercising outdoors. One of the IOC's technical staff from Australia ran alongside me one day. We talked about the Sydney Olympics and that made the time go past more quickly. I do find it quite comfortable running in the gym because there is more cushioning. But when you're gearing up to running on the road you need your body to get used to that jarring feeling when your feet hit the pavement. It was good to get out on the road for my long run on Sunday. After the week I'd had I was a bit concerned I wouldn't be able to complete it. But I coped with it very well and, even though it was bitterly cold, I put in 15-and-a-half miles - only another 11 to go then. |
- This year Steve will donate all the proceeds from his London Marathon efforts to victims of the tsunami.Steve will be writing a regular column on the ups and downs of his marathon training for the BBC Sport website.He will be raising money through the Steve Redgrave Trust which supports the Association of Children's Hospices, the Children With Leukaemia charity, and the Trust's own project which aims to provide inner-city schools with rowing equipment. |
Johnson uncertain about Euro bid |
Jade Johnson is undecided about whether to contest next month's European Indoor Championships in Madrid despite winning the AAAs long jump title on Saturday. |
The 24-year-old delivered a personal best of 6.50m to win the European trials but had to wait until her final jump after four failures. "I don't want to go if I am not going to get a medal," said Johnson. "I will have to see how I am jumping in the next competition and I'll have to have a conversation with my coach." Johnson, who finished seventh in last year's Olympic Games, has not competed indoors since 2000. And the Commonwealth and European silver medallist believes her lack of experience in the early part of the season has knocked her confidence. "It's the stress," said Johnson. "I am not used to feeling this, this early. I am just used to training. "But if I'm doing this kind of thing, then I will have to see how it goes." Johnson next competes in the high-class Birmingham Grand Prix on 18 February. |
Pavey focuses on indoor success |
Jo Pavey will miss January's View From Great Edinburgh International Cross Country to focus on preparing for the European Indoor Championships in March. |
The 31-year-old was third behind Hayley Yelling and Justyna Bak in last week's European Cross Country Championships but she prefers to race on the track. "It was great winning bronze but I'm wary of injuries and must concentrate on the indoor season," she said. "Because of previous injuries I don't even run up hills in training." Pavey, who came fifth in the 5,000m at the Athens Olympics, helped the British cross country team win the team silver medal in Heringsdorf last week. She is likely to start her 3,000m season with a race in either Boston or Stuttgart at the end of January. |
Gardener wins double in Glasgow |
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