'Long' weekend action

Alright, it's about time we hit the road on a long weekend of track a field action as the various meets across the Atlantic have already got underway. There is going to be plenty of British interest as well mainly centred on the Sun Angel Classic in Arizona where Dwain Chambers, Christian Malcolm and Marlon Devonish are racing on an outdoor season debut in the dash. Apart from the three top sprinters, keep an eye on young Ross Millington in the men's 1500m as he looks set for a big breakthrough this season.

Amy Harris, former European U20 medallist, was fifth in the long jump a little earlier on at the Texas Relays, Austin, in an outdoor season starter of a windy 6.32m (3.2m/sec), having also a legal 6.30m (1.5m/sec) in her fourth attempt. Pretty consistent with all her four valid jumps coming within 11cm, fouling two, and showing over a very disappointing outing at the indoor NCAAs recently.

Perri Shakes-Drayton has run a second PB over 800m in quick succession in as many races at her start of the season as she set a new figure of 2:08.3 in a mixed race at the Lee Valley a little earlier on. Her previous best of 2:08.6 was set exactly a week ago today at Hornchurch. So far the signs look very good for the summer!

On the other hand, I don't think Laura Turner will be very pleased with a 59.39 secs in a rarest outing over 400m in the States. But I can get how much lactic acid burns when not so used to it over such a distance! I don't know how she executed her race and whether she got off a bit too fast though!

Laura Turner did get off a little too fast into her 400m race, according to her coach (Linford Christie) as she's told me, so apparently hit a 'wall' into the second half of the race. But that's now back into the 'closet' for this season and it's all about 100 and 200s for her from now on.

Micheal Cox, 21, has enjoyed a big breakthrough as he destroyed his PB with a 70.40m throw in the javelin at the Bedfordshire Open in Bedford earlier today.

That was not only his first ever sight of the 70m but also the upper half of 60m as he improved by a massive near 7m in a single day, taking off 63.44m set only last month! His is coached by Chris Watts.

I'll have more on this later on as there was a flurry of PBs behind, among whom was U20 Stuart Taylor-Outridge with 64.90m (previous 64.36) - also coached by Chris.

Natalie Pearson gathered another couple of sprint wins at the Dyke Invitational, Durham (USA), but arguably not in times she'd have hoped for, the meet taking place in windy conditions. Her times were 11.80 (1.5m/sec) and 24.14 secs (2.6m/sec).

Brett Morse has thrown an excellent early season 63.71m, a substantial PB, to win the men's discus at the Raffer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational in California. underlining his aspirations in sight of the summer season.

The Nigel Beval-coached athlete held a previous best of 63.35m from last August while he set an indoor UK indoor best of 60.99m in Sweden last month to get off his throwing to a sound start.

His new mark also doubles as the 8th furthest mark ever by a Brit in the event, a new UK U23 record and a B qualifying standard for the Worlds in Daegu. For good measure, he's still an U23 which means that he could stage a serious bid for top honours at the respective European championships in summer.

His series were 61.96, foul, 60.44, 63.11, 63.71, foul to show sound endurance through his throws.

Among other Brits on show at the Drake Stadium of UCLA in California were 400m girl Kim Wall who finished 5th in the women's 200m in 24.43 secs (2.2m/sec) a long way behind sprint heavyweight Carmelita Jeter, who won in 23.09 secs in her season opener.

But Tyrone Edgar had to endure a nightmare opener of 22.13 secs for last in the first heat of the men's 200m, having also competed for the same 4x100m team as Jeter earlier on - I just hope there wasn't any injury or something suffered there...

A quartet comprising Allyson Felix, Dawn Harper, Nicole Leach and Carole Rodriguez as BK Radical Ryders 'A' set a fast 3:33.25 in the women's 4x400m relay.

Results
http://www.rtspt.com/events/ucla/4711/

Tiffany Offili has made a strong start to her outdoor season, showing that she's quickly over her shoulder injury as well, as she came runner-up in a windy 12.71 secs (4.9m/sec) over 100mh narrowly behind winner Kristi Castlin, 12.68, in the Texas Relays in Austin.

In a wind-swept men's mile race, Chris Gowell and Tim Bayley placed solid 5th and 6th, just behind Leonel Manzano in fourth, in 4:14.86 and 4:15.02 respectively. Fred Samoei was the winner in 4:13.86.

There were plenty of impressive, but unfortunately highly wind-assisted, performances through the board as you can see in the results:
http://www.texassports.com/livestats/tex-relays/

Here's Tiffany Offili's race in the 100mh:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238227-2011-Texas-Relays/video/483471-W-100-F01-Invite

The men's mile:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238227-2011-Texas-Relays/video/483501-M-mile-F01-Jerry-Thompson-Mile-2011-Texas-Relays

Andy Turner, however, who was to run a 4x400m leg opted out late as a precaution.

Ross Millington got off his season in promising manner to a big PB of 3:42.9 over 1500m at the Sun Angel Classic in Arizona, I don't know the precise time yet, to eclipse his previous marker of 3:44.37 from last year.

Ross Millington's new PB over 1500m was more precisely 3:42.91 for runner-up behind Justin Tyner's 3:42.51. Rory Fraser finished 5th in 3:44.12, a new PB so he seems to be picking up after a long spell wobbling, as did Keith Gerrard well behind in 3:47.52.

Dwain Chambers was second in the 100m in 10.51 into a headwind of -1.2m/sec so he is apparently under heavy workload still. Marlon Devonish and Christian Malcolm did not eventually turn up although they did travel to Arizona from LA.

Darren StClair just completed his 800m race in 2:01.30 so he definitely let up, don't know whether he suffered some fall during the race, and U23 Matthew Graham came third in the 3000m steeplechase in a SB of 9:09.36.

Results:
http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/c-track/stats/2010-2011/satcfull.html

hello isabre old friend, fifton/malcolm/devonish/chambers all there, 2nd in 4x100m 39.93.

Thanks Iamian, I was on my way out and missed that - nice to see you over here!

As I've heard, Christian Malcolm picked up a slight injury just before that 100m race in Arizona so pulled out late.

Well, it's turned out as I feared in terms of the course shape, compounded by the very warm temperatures, for Dan Robinson who finished well outside the UKA-laid standars for Daegu in 2h19:11 for fourth in the Brighton marathon earlier today.

And could have been even worse given the apparent shock women's winner Alyson Dixon must have suffered at the news that her B qualifying standard of 2h34:51 does not count as the course has not been ratified by IAAF!!

How come they didn't notify athletes chasing world standards of that really escapes my mind! Now both have got to recover as fast as they can, and a marathon usually requires at least two-three weeks, to run a last-ditch second race over the distance in May...

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/news/3190/

A quick look round other performances from British athletes, both domestically and across the Atlantic:

First of all over to Hull where James Campbell, coached by Mick Hill, moved up a notch into the early season to a big SB and UK-leading distance of 77.27m in the javelin, improving from 72.83m set in late February. If you'd like to draw some rough early estimate as to where he could reach this season, last year he closed out April at 73.60m. Matt Hunt was second with a precise hit at 66m (SB).

At the same venue, there was another early UK-topper coming from Alex Smith, the Commonwealth silver medallist, in the hammer at 70.46m. That also formed the first mark over 70m set by a Brit this term.

James Beckford was second at a SB of 67.47m and the younger Smith, Peter, came third with 62.64m.

In the women's competition, U20 Abbi Carter reached out close to her PB, set earlier this year, with 57.12m. She's still eligible for the age group next year by the way.

Ashley Wren, 17, jumped a good early season 7.35m in the long jump but it hasn't been accompanied with a wind-reading yet.

At the FSU Seminole Invitational in Tallahassee, David Forrester followed up on his breakthrough run of 13:47.60 over 5000m a couple of weeks ago with a convincing runner-up place over his specialty in 3:45.53, a SB. A commanding winner of the race was young Irishman Ciaran O'Lionaird in 3:41.02.

Also at the same meet, Hannah Brooks made the most of a mixed race to record a second PB on the spin in a week, this time a huge new mark of 9:17.70 over 3000m.

Among the best performances of the meet was US's Maurice Mitchell's 10.28 secs into a -1.4m/sec headwind to win the men's 100m and Dorian Scott's (JAM) 20.12m in the shot.

At the Miami Invitational, Kris Gauson and Ross Clarke made a British one-two in the men's 1500m in 3:46.41 (SB) and 3:46.73 (PB) respectively, with Darren Gauson sixth in 3:51.15. Kriss was also fourth in the 800m in 1:53.46.

Kirsty Legg won the women's 800m in a slow 2:11.97.

Going back to the Rafer Jonshon/Jackie Joyner-Kersee meet, Meghan Beesley made her season debut in a 54.74 trip round the flat 400m while a heavy-legged Marilyn Okoro languished well behind in the women's 1500m in 4:37.05.

James Alaka also ran 10.53 and 21.18 into considerable headwinds of -1.4 and -1.0m/sec respectively in Oregon, both SBs.

Scottish girl Myra Perkins sneaked over Abbi Carter in the UK U20 hammer lists through a season opener of 57.87m at Grangemouth.

Well, given the spate of injury woes among top British sprinters, I sense that the loss of Gerald Phiri for Britain could hurt a little particularly seeing him burst to a breakthrough 10.06 secs (1.3m/sec) in Austin and the top of the global rankings in the 100m!

Of course, let's not fail superb Charlie Purdue who has built further on her impressive run of form to capture a comprehensive victory over the Dublin 10km in 32:42, followed home by Gemma Steel in 33:09. Mick Woods' charge looks on fire and I can't wait to see what she's going to produce on the track come summer. Among excellent scalps collected by Purdue was that of veteran now Ethiopian Berhane Adere and Hungarian Aniko Kalovics.

Louise Small came 10th while former European 5000m champion Jesus Espana (ESP) come out a convincing winner in the men's race in 29:26.

http://www.iaaf.org/LRR11/news/newsid=59728.html

European 400m indoor finalist Richard Strachan has picked up from where he left off during the indoor season as he got off to a solid outdoor opener of 21.12 secs over 200m at the Mesa Classic in Arizona, an oudoor PB and his third fastest ever in any environment. By the look of things, he should be under 21 secs within a matter of weeks and I'm eager to see what sort of times that could translate into his 400m.

Yasmine Regis also opened up with a UK-early-leading 13.36m (1.1m/sec) in the triple jump at the Texas Relays in Austin, leaping also to a wind-assisted 13.43m (4.6m/sec), while U23 Sam Evans and David Bishop clocked season starters of 1:50.72 and 1:51.25 respectively in the 800m at the Sun Angel Classic.

Decent start for U23 Bonne Buwembo with 67.13m in the javelin at the Lee Valley on Saturday, just 0.12m outside his best last season and it's still the first half of April.