Manchester International: preview
After a successful championship season so far, the final weekend of the England Athletics programme gets under way with the return of the Manchester International.
England will face Scotland, Wales and a team representing the National Athletics League, which this year is formed of athletes from winners Thames Valley Harriers.
Meanwhile, a plethora of guests are entered as athletes chase late-season marks. World and Olympic relay bronze medallist Bianca Williams (Linford Christie, Thames Valley) will step down to 100m for NAL, just a couple of weeks after reaching the Paris 2024 200m semi-finals. In that race, England has European under-20 champion Joy Eze (Gateshead). Staying with the sprints, T47 Emmanuel Oyinbo-Coker (Nat Senior, Newham & Essex Beagles), who is world-ranked 14th with 10.98, will compete in the ambulant 100m for England.
2004 F44 Paralympic discus champion Dan Greaves (Zane Duquemin, Charnwood) will hone his preparations for his seventh Games. Just before leaving for Paris 2024, he will be in the discus circle in search of perhaps beating his season’s best of 61.08m, which is his best since 2018. Competing against the England representative will be the guesting Chukwuemeka Osammor (James Taylor, Sheffield & Dearne), the UK number three and a competitor at last year’s European Athletics Under-23 Championships. Competing for England in the same circle at the same time will be the women, with UK senior silver medallist Zara Obamakinwa, who will likely have NAL’s Sophie Mace (Gary Herrington, Thames Valley) as her closest competitor.
The men’s hammer has two of the top five in the UK this year in the shape of England’s Craig Murch (Matt Spicer, Birchfield Harriers) and NAL’s Jack Paget (John Pearson, Thames Valley Harriers).
A week after improving his PB to 48.94, Efe Okoro (Tony Hadley, Birchfield Harriers) will head a quality 400m hurdles line-up. He will compete as a guest against England champion Tyri Donovan (Marina Armstrong, Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow), who has had a great season, improving his PB by well over a second to 49.23. Jake Minshull (Coventry), who has run 50.47, will also guest.
Meanwhile, Columba Blango (Chris Zah, Shaftesbury Barnet), who won Paralympic bronze over 400m in 2021, will highlight that event. England senior champion Natasha Harrison (Alex O’Gorman; Stockport), who reached the European Athletics U18 Championships 400m final in 2018, will be wanting to do likewise for the home nation in her event.
After his improvement to 5.60m last month, UK pole vault number one Owen Heard (Kate Dennison, Harrow) will face, among others, 5.25m vaulter Jack Phipps (Nick Phipps, Birchfield Harriers), who will wear the England vest. Holly Bradshaw (Blackburn, Scott Simpson) will be competing in the pole vault one last time on home soil - she's been invited to compete againt the men! There should be a good crowd to support her and celebrate her career and contribution to our sport.
The long jump has two of the UK’s best four this year in the form of the guesting Samuel Khogali (Lukasz Zawila, Woodford Green Essex Ladies) and England’s Alex Farquharson (Aston Moore, Birchfield Harriers)
The 100m hurdles could be a close contest between England’s Alicia Barrett (Lewis Samuel, Sheffield & Dearne), NAL’s Jenna Blundell (David Norton, Yate) and guest Hong Kong athlete Lui Lai Yiu, whose season’s bests range from 13.15 to 13.27.
At the other end of the running distance spectrum, following his 7:42.43 last month, Charles Wheeler (James Bennett, MK Distance Project) will hope to pick up top points of England in the 3000m.
Useful information
Photos by Mark Shearman