21 English athletes hit World Indoors standards
Highlights of UK Indoor Championships
On a weekend when 21 English athletes achieved World Indoor Championships selection standards at the Norwich Union World Trials and UK Championships in Sheffield, Samson Oni took time out from his 40-hour-a-week job, keeping the children of Southwark out of trouble, to high jump the Beijing Olympics qualifying height. Steve Lewis achieved the World Indoor Championships pole vault selection standard for the second successive weekend. Richard Hill sealed an 800m place in Valencia. Richard Buck led Steve Green inside the 400m qualifying time. Jessica Ennis went close to a UK high jump record – dodging on the way a victorious Dwain Chambers, who led three 60m medallists inside the Valencia standard. Yet even the sprints boys were somewhat up-staged by the endurance running girls, nine of whom made mincemeat of the standards.
Success did not come easy to Oni (Belgrave Harriers); as befits his teaching/training schedule, he had to work all the way throughout the competition. He cleared his opening height, 2.06m, at the first attempt; needed to attempts at 2.11m, went over 2.15m first time; needed all three attempts at 2.19m; two attempts at both 2.22m and 2.25m; and then cleared 2.30m at the second attempt to soar to Valencia – and towards Beijing.
His is a triumph that might well reflect favourably on the troubled streets of London. For the quietly spoken Oni works with 600 “hard to reach” children, aged 8 to 16, each week, preparing them to let off steam in the Southwark Community Games. Justifiably proud to be a role model, he says: “I have so many admirers and people who look up to me.”
Not that he kids the children that high jumping is child’s play: “It’s a very hard job, training twice a day and working a 40-hour week. It’s pure dedication, good organisation and a few sacrifices. I love my job and I love being an athlete. When I was growing up, I never had anybody in the vicinity to look up to. My heroes were mostly Americans on the TV. It can be more realistic if they have people they know.
“I have to work. I’m not funded as an athlete, though Belgrave have been helping me out marvellously and John Allen, the physiotherapist, got me out of an injury that affected me from 2001 t0 2005.”
Now it’s a case of ‘onwards and upwards’ for Oni – as it is for Lewis (Newham and Essex Beagles) and Dennison (Sale Harriers Manchester), who moved from their homes in Stoke-on-Trent to be coached at Loughborough University by Steve Rippon. Lewis said on a weekend when he set a new stadium record of 5.61m and Dennison began to nudge at the UK women’s record of 4.44m: “Steve’s done a great job again. I have so much confidence in what he can give to me. I need that rock behind me!”
Continuing the jumpers’ jolly weekend, Phillips Idowu (Belgrave Harriers), the Commonwealth and European Indoor triple jump champion, dyed his hair England red and improved his season’s best to 17.24m, moving up to third in the current world rankings. “It’s going well,” he said. “I’m staying fit, which is the main objective. I’ve not really planned this indoor season, you know. I’ve just been training really well and coming out and jumping. All that matters this year is the Olympic Games ... the gold medal! It’s all going in the right direction.”
A week after adding a centimetre to his UK indoor long jump record, Chris Tomlinson (Newham and Essex Beagles) won a record fifth national indoor title, always just having the edge in a tense battle with Jonathan Moore (Birchfield Harriers), who is showing signs of bouncing back towards the great form he showed as a teenager before suffering a serious knee injury.
Yet for every established star striking gold, there was a new face shining through on a weekend when the media previews suggested only Chambers’ 60m appearance really mattered.
Chris Clarke, who celebrated his 18th birthday less than a fortnight ago, sped to the top of the Power of 10 men’s 200m rankings for this winter by blazing to victory in the final in 20.98 seconds – much to the modest young man’s surprise. “I didn’t even expect to get a medal,” he said. “I wanted a PB ... 21.3 or something like that. So it’s a big surprise.”
Meghan Beesley, another teenager aiming for this summer’s World Junior Championships, caused an equally big surprise by winning the women’s 400m title. “My first senior indoors ... my first title ... I can’t believe it,” she smiled. Now the England Athletics Indoor Combined Events Under 20 Women’s champion will head for a triple test at the England Athletics U20 Indoor Championships at the NIA, Birmingham. She explains: “I’ve entered the 60 hurdles, 200 and 400. I’ll give them all a bash. They’re all nicely spread out. There’s at least an hour between races.”
Eden Francis (Leicester Coritanian), who is still 19, won the women’s shot title with an indoor personal best – though her mother and coach Glenys Morton, as critical as she is proud of her protégée, reckoned she threw “shockingly”. Which is another way of saying there’s more to come when the reigning England Athletics Under 20 champion gets it right!
Still worried that the sport doesn’t have a bright future?
The new 800m men’s champion, Richard Hill (Notts AC) is 21 and looking forward to some “World Championships experience” in Valencia. Ditto the new 400m men’s champion Richard Buck (City of York AC), who seriously considered missing this indoor season after three successive races on the boards went wrong. “Then I thought I must kill the jinx, not be afraid of it,” he said after striking gold 12 months after crossing the line first but suffering disqualification when his long-striding style carried him out of his lane.
The new 1500m women’s champion Jemma Simpson (Newquay and Par AC) triumphed on her 23rd birthday, with all three medallists hitting the Valencia standard of 4:16.00. “Fantastic,” smiled Simpson. “I wasn’t sure how the race was going to be run because I’ve never run a 1500 indoors before. I have been doing more 1500 work during this winter to improve my strength. This is just a stepping stone for the 800 at the Olympics, hopefully.” It must be added that the race broke the heart of Celia Brown (Rugby and Northampton AC), who achieved the standard while running for England Athletics in Vienna nearly a fortnight ago but went out in this weekend’s heats, still feeling the after-effects of a bout of ‘flu.
Not that experienced stars were totally out-shone...
While all three 1500m medallists clocked times to attract attention from the GB selectors, the first four finishers in the women’s 3000m beat the Valencia standard, led by Helen Clitheroe (Preston Harriers), who moves into the UK all-time indoors top 10 at the age of 34.
Joice Maduaka (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) won her first national indoor 200m title at the same age – and knocked eight-hundredths off her 200m indoor lifetime best in moving to 10th on the British all-time list.
Commonwealth heptathlon champion Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers) won the women’s long jump with a leap of 6.41m as she prepares for the World Indoors pentathlon.
Commonwealth heptathlon bronze medallist Jessica Ennis (City of Sheffield), who will return to her Olympic training schedule rather than go to Valencia, won the high jump with a personal best of 1.92m – then had her attempts to raise the UK record to 1.96m interrupted by Chambers’ 60m celebrations.
“I thought he was going to mow me down,” said Ennis with a smile after the 60m final was run between her first and second attempts at 1.96m. “It was no bother. I’m getting closer and closer to ’96.”
Chambers said after his heavily-publicised return to the track: “This is the most important gold medal I have ever won. It’ll be a long time before I take it off. I’ve let my legs do the talking. I would love to go to Valencia.”
In the following results (with World Indoors selection standards in brackets and those who achieved them in bold), the athletes are English unless stated.
Men
60m (6.65): 1 Dwain Chambers (Belgrave Harriers) 6.56; 2 Simeon Williamson (Highgate Harriers) 6.61; 3 Rikki Fifton (Victoria Park Harriers and Tower Hamlets AC) 6.65; ...5 Craig Pickering (Marshall Milton Keynes AC) 6.70.
200m (none): 1 Chris Clarke (Marshall Milton Keynes AC) 20.98; 2 Jeffrey Lawal Balogun (Kent AC) 21.53.
400m (47.10): 1 Richard Buck (City of York AC) 46.53; 2 Steve Green (Newham and Essex Beagles) 46.93; 3 Richard Strachan (Leeds City) 47.99.
800m (1:48.50): 1 Richard Hill (Notts AC) 1:48.26; 2 Damien Moss (Rugby and Northampton AC) 1:48.64; 3 Sam Ellis (City of Sheffield AC) 1:48.87.
1500m (3:43.00): James McIlroy (Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounsow AC, Northern Ireland) 3:44.90; 2 Michael East (Newham and Essex Beagles) 3:45.05; 3 James Brewer (Cheltenham Harriers) 3:45.27.
3000m (7:54.00): 1 Nick McCormick (Morpeth Harriers) 8:16.73; 2 Adam Bowden (Harrow AC) 8:19.97; 3 Chris Warburton (Notts AC) 8:20.40.
60m hurdles (7.70): 1 Allan Scott (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, Scotland) 7.61; 2 David Hughes (Trafford AC) 7.71; 3 Richard Alleyne (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 7.71.
High jump (2.30): 1 Samson Oni (Belgrave Harriers) 2.30 (stadium record); 2 Tom Parsons (Birchfield Harriers) 2.19; 3 Martin Lloyd (Bexley AC) 2.19.
Pole vault (5.70): 1 Steve Lewis (Newham and Essex Beagles) 5.61 (stadium record); 2 Scott Simpson (Birchfield Harriers) 5.31; 3 Mark Christie (Sale Harriers Manchester) 5.16.
Long jump (8.10): 1 Chris Tomlinson (Newham and Essex Beagles) 7.80; 2 Jonathan Moore (Birchfield Harriers) 7.71; 3 JJ Jegede (Newham and Essex Beagles) 7.63.
Triple jump (17.00): 1 Phillips Idowu (Belgrave Harriers) 17.24; 2 Nathan Douglas (Oxford City AC) 16.72; 3 Tosin Oke (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 16.26.
Shot (20.05): 1 Garrett Johnson (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, USA) 20.66 (CBP, stadium record); 2 Emeka Udechuku (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 18.06; 3 Scott Rider (Birchfield Harriers) 18.03.
Women
60m (7.30): 1 Laura Turner (Harrow AC) 7.32; 2 Anyika Onuroa (Liverpool Harriers) 7.33. Semi-final: 1 Jeanette Kwakye (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 7.22.
200m (none): 1 Joice Maduaka (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 23.43; 2 Kadi-Ann Thomas (Marshall Milton Keynes AC) 23.73; 3 Ellena Ruddock (Rugby and Northampton AC) 24.19.
400m (53.00): 1 Meghan Beesley (Tamworth AC) 54.88; 2 Laura Langowski (Coventry Godiva Harriers) 55.46; 3 Sian Scott (Team Southampton) 55.74.
800m (2:04.00): 1 Jenny Meadows (Wigan and District AC) 2:01.97; 2 Marilyn Okoro (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) 2:02.56; 3 Claire Nichols (Woking AC) 2:08.20.
1500m (4:16.00): 1 Jemma Simpson (Newquay and Par AC) 4:13.99; 2 Susan Scott (City of Glasgow AC, Scotland) 4:14.84; 3 Katrina Wootton (Bedford and County AC) 4:16.00; 4 Charlotte Best (Crawley AC) 4:16.61.
3000m (9:05.00): 1 Helen Clitheroe (Preston Harriers) 8:56.13; 2 Lisa Dobriskey (Ashford AC) 8:56.49; 3 Tina Brown (Coventry Godiva Harriers) 9:03.92; 4 Jo Ankier (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) 9:04.06.
60m hurdles (8.10): 1 Sarah Claxton (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 8.09; 2 Sara McGreavy (Sale Harriers Manchester) 8.18; 3 Jessica Ennis (City of Sheffield AC) 8.20.
High jump (1.92): 1 Jessica Ennis (City of Sheffield AC) 1.92; 2 Stephanie Pywell (Sale Harriers Manchester) 1.85; 3 Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers) 1.79.
Pole vault (4.40): 1 Kate Dennison (Sale Harriers Manchester) 4.25; 2 Louise Butterworth (Birchfield Harriers) 4.15; 3 Zoe Brown (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, Northern Ireland) 4.15.
Long jump (6.65): 1 Kelly Sotherton (Birchfield Harriers) 6.41; 2 Kelly Proper (Ireland) 6.31; 3 Gillian Cooke (City of Edinburgh) 6.22; 4 Amy Harris (Birchfield Harriers) 6.20.
Triple jump (14.05): 1 Nadia Williams (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) 13.39; 2 Stephanie Aneto (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 13.01; 3 Noni Mordi (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) 12.95.
Shot (17.50): 1 Eden Francis (Leicester Coritanian) 16.11; 2 Rebecca Peake (Sale Harriers Manchester) 15.67; 3 Joanne Duncan (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) 15.56.
You can find all of the Trials results at http://www.ukathletics.net/results/20080209_sheffield/
Report by Trevor Frecknall
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