Weekend (May 7 - 8) action

Alright, it's about high time I got this one going since I was pretty busy earlier on, tuning up my students for the exams next week. The main event of a rather long early season weekend, which there has already been a separate special thread for, has been the first leg of the Diamond League series taking place in Doha, Qatar, yesterday as the newly-laid institution moves into its second season of function.

There are many Brits in action overseas either deep in the beautiful Caribbean, Jamaica and Guadeloupe, the States or down in the Mediterranean and Italy this weekend where there are various League matches around on the domestic front. So let's set about catching up with the action!

Let's get things off with European 400m silver medallist Michael Bingham who kicked off his season in low-key fashion to set 46.89 secs for third over 400m at the FSU Twilight in Tallahassee, Florida, yesterday.

The first two places were occupied by Jamaicans Dwayne Barrett and Sanjay Ayre in 46.47 and 46.86 secs respectively.

Despite his extraordinary exploits round the lap on the track, Christian Taylor suffered a low flight of just 16.19m in the triple jump, his main event, although I can't tell whether he picked up some complaint as he passed all his final four attempts.

Going back to the Oregon Twilight in Eugene, Oregon, European U23 bronze medallist Sarah Holt landed a substantial SB of 63.88m to take third in the women's hammer behind Britney Henry (65.64) and Lauree Smith (64.88). That is the second furthest throw by a Brit but still a long way behind few-day-old Sophie Hitchon's UK record of 69.43m this term.

Full results:
http://www.goducks.com/fls/500/track/1011/twilight/index.htm?SPSID=4364&SPID=243&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500

Unfortunately, Katarina Johnson-Thompson's heptathlon campaign in Desenzano has been dealt a huge blow as she didn't register a single height in the high jump.

That a real shame because she got off to a dream start of easily her fastest ever under any conditions 13.76 secs (2.8m/sec) in the 100m hurdles, fifth best out of the first discipline. I don't know whether she intends to carry on and go through with the rest of the competition now.

Dominique Blaize is the highest placed Briton in nighth after two disciplines on 1806pts (14.10 100mh 0.8, 1.69m HJ), Grace Clements in 14th on 1743pts (14.56 100mh 1.8, 1.69 HJ) and Louise Wood a place down on 1740pts (13.34 100mh 3.0, 1.54 HJ).

Ashley Bryant has been unlucky to hit strong headwinds in both the opening disciplines, running 11.26 secs into a -2.1m/sec in the 100m and leaping to a PB of 7.12m into a -1.0msec before putting 12.63m in the shot, but is still lying ahead of his PB schedule. He's currently in sixth of 2291pts after three events.

By contrast, Commonwealth bronze medallist Martin Brockman is languishing well behind his Delhi card with 11.48 (-0.3) in the 100m, 6.91 (-2.6) in the LJ and 13.11m in the shot. He's 13th on 2223pts.

By the way, best and warmest wishes over to Tiffany Offili who's taking a short break from the track action to swing onto the route to the altar tomorrow, on the completion of her degree as well. Enjoying also a new spring to her running career, things could have hardly got better for her I guess!

Here are the line-ups for the Jamaica International in Kingston later on today with Christine Ohuruogu, Andy Turner and Shara Proctor on account of Britain:

http://www.iaaf.org/iwc11/results/eventcode=4726/

Chris O'Hare, among the season's early revelations, has carried on on his fairy patch to convincingly win the 800m in a big PB of 1:49.01 at the Arkansas Twilight in Fayetteville yesterday. His previous best of 1:49.98 was set only three weeks ago in Oklahoma.

Despite that cruel blow dealt in the high jump, Katarina Johnson-Thompson has gathered her mental strength to carry on in the heptathlon posting 10.65m in the shot.

Doninigue Blaize had a best of 12.27m on the day.

Here are the results (sorry I forgot to put them up earlier on):
http://www.iaaf.org/wce11/results/eventCode=4746/index.html

Katarina Johnson-Thompson has rounded out the first day of the heptathlon at Desenzano in a PB of 24.25 secs round the 200m (2.0) so will spend overnight on 2543pts but out of only three disciplines. Hadn't it been for that high jump heartache, she'd been well on the way to a big PB...

Nonetheless she is going to go all the way and mount as best a score as possible given the circumstances, along with hopefully some more PBs en route.

Dominique Blaize ran a SB of 24.13 secs (1.6) to move fourth at the turn of the day on 3453pts, just a dozen off third place, with Louise Wood getting a big PB of 23.96 secs in winning the same heat to move up to sixth on 3419pts.

http://www.iaaf.org/wce11/results/eventCode=4746/sex=W/discCode=HEP/combCode=hash/roundCode=4/summary.html#det

Ashley Bryant, on the other hand, remains well on course for a PB in the decathlon as he cleared 1.86m in the high jump and pulled a big PB of 48.77 secs over 400m, lying fifth overnight on 3842pts.

Martin Brockman is down in 13th on 3737pts after a disappointing high jump with just 1.89m and a day close-out of 50.13 secs in the 400m.

http://www.iaaf.org/wce11/results/eventCode=4746/sex=M/discCode=DEC/combCode=hash/roundCode=5/summary.html#det

Former Olympic champion Jeremy Warriner has moved up a gear in his early season racing to claim the men's 400m in awesome fashion in Guadeloupe a little earlier on. He comes to stop the clock at a swift 44.88 secs, his first sub 45 run of the season, in heavy rainy conditions at that! He really sounds very pleased with that latest result as he is looking more and more like the Warriner of old, occupying fourth place in the world rankings now.

Likewise, there's been some explosive early sprinting at the Jamaica Invitational in Kingston as Carmelita Jeter, also looking to be drawing back on top of her game, and local rising star Yohan Blake storm the dashes in what look like world leading times of 10.86 and 9.80 secs from classy fields respectively! I don't know what the winds have been like yet but these performances definitely set the scene for a pulsating season in the sprints.

By the way, relatively new kid on the block Tiki James from Florida has effected a serious upset on the bigger names, such as Delloreen Ennis-London and Vonette Dixon (JAM), in the women's 100m hurdles to win in a PB of 12.88 secs, provided the wind-reading is legal.

All results come from the Twitter as the IAAF's result page isn't returning anything at the moment.

Great news as Andy Turner has claimed maybe his greatest international win of his career in the 110m hurdles in 13.28 secs from the likes of Terrence Trammelle (USA), reigning world champion Ryan Brathwaite (BAR), Dwight Thomas (JAM) and Antwon Hicks (USA). Unfortunately, I don't know the wind-reading again but that's a mere hundredth of a second outside his PB.

Christine Ohuruogu seems to have pulled out of the women's 400m as the girls are out doing practice starts off their blocks a few mins before the race gets underway...

Novlene Williams stuns an uncharacteristically off-colour Sanya Richards-Ross who fades considerably past the first 150m after a blasting start into the race, the Jamaican winning in commanding manner down the home stretch in 50.67 secs - conditions have got to be quite windy up there. Sanya trails home a visibly disappointed fifth in 51.12 secs...

In the meantime, Lashinda Demus won the women's 400m hurdles in 54.85 secs, a huge world-leading mark, in pouring rain in Guadeloupe so she's got to be content with it I guess...

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce rockets off to a lightning start round the bend and builds a massive lead coming off into the home straight that has double Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown chasing shadows, crossing the line way ahead in a big world-leading mark and PB of 22.10 secs.

The latter has got to settle for 22.37 secs well behind in the runner-up spot and her expression at the post-race interview says pretty much of the story. That was a total shocker to the full effect of the word. Fraser-Pryce had never really shown anything near that sort of potency over the longer sprint. By the way, once again, no wind indication given...

Nickel Ashmeed (JAM) comes powerfully through from the outside in the late stages to nail the men's 200m in 19.95 secs!! Now, where did that come from?

lsabre wrote:Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce rockets off to a lightning start round the bend and builds a massive lead coming off into the home straight that has double Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown chasing shadows, crossing the line way ahead in a big world-leading mark and PB of 22.10 secs.

The latter has got to settle for 22.37 secs well behind in the runner-up spot and her expression at the post-race interview says pretty much of the story. That was a total shocker to the full effect of the word. Fraser-Pryce had never really shown anything near that sort of potency over the longer sprint. By the way, once again, no wind indication given...

Wind was 2.4 according to results

Thanks, JJimBoJames, time to pop over to the results and have a look myself as they weren't out last time I looked before heading off to bed. I could understand there was a strong headwind up the back straight watching the 400m races last night so that reading makes sense.

By the way, David Hughes was saying that he literally hurdled on a sort of pond in his lane to get a picture of conditions in Guadeloupe yesterday!

The men's 100m was also windy as I see (2.2) so Yohan Blake's 9.80 doesn't go to the top of the global lists.

JJimBoJames, can you give me some results link as mine doesn't return a thing at the moment?

lsabre wrote:The men's 100m was also windy as I see (2.2) so Yohan Blake's 9.80 doesn't go to the top of the global lists.

JJimBoJames, can you give me some results link as mine doesn't return a thing at the moment?

No problem: http://results.trackandfieldja.com/2011/jainvite/

Thanks!!

The wind was 1.8m/sec in the men's 110m hurdles meaning that Andy Turner moves up second in the world and improves his European lead by a good deal through that 13.28 secs last night.

Terrence Trammelle was second in 13.39 and Dwight Thomas third in 13.41.

By contrast to the men's 100m, the wind in the women's dash was a legal 1.9m/sec so Carmelita Jeter knocks off a chuck to a huge new global-topping mark of 10.86 secs

Kelly-Ann Baptiste (TRI) became the second woman to duck under 11 secs in 10.94 secs this season so she looks like building on a sound campaign last summer.

Tiki James's winning 12.88 secs in the women's hurdles was windy (2.6) eventually.

Unfortunately, no result is coming out in the women's long jump where Shara Proctor was involved along with some other good names like top world indoor marker Janay DeLoach, former world champion Tianna Madison and heptathlete Hyleas Fountain.

Rather unnoticed seems to have slipped Kenia Sinclair's 1:58.41 in the women's 800m to sweep to the top of the world rankings. Runner-up Phoebe Wright (USA) goes third therein sneaking under 2 mins in 1:59.98.

Women's 100m (Carmelita Jeter 10.86):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bu7er691Yg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Men's 100m (Yohan Blake 9.80w):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfM1xWHH-DI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

I have the impression that Mike Rodgers got a poor start there but came through strong in the late stages.

By the way, that was a rather shocking showing from Asafa Powell in the men's 200 especially when he's desperately looking to redeem himself on the global stage.

I think I'll need to set up separate threads for the British and International scene weekends from now on as the Jamaican International has already taken up so much space within the overall topic.

Back to the British multi-eventers in Italy and Ashley Bryant got off to a fine start of a PB of 14.35 secs in the 110m hurdles (1.9m/sec) on the second day, therefore he remains firmly on track to a considerable PB in the decathlon. He's lying fourth overall at 4772pts after six disciplines.

By contrast, Martin Brockman has slipped further behind on a 15.49 secs (1.1) in the hurdles.

Scott Overall seems to buck the trend after a lengthy below par spell as he came third in the half marathon in Indianapolis in 63:21, a big personal best and third fastest in the UK this season closely behind Andrew Lemoncello's 63 mins sharp in New York. Good work from him!

Ashley Bryant gets 39.67m in the discus so edges further ahead on his PB schedule in the decathlon in Desenzano.

On the second day of the FSU Twilight in Tallahassee, Florida, steeplechaser Barbara Parker won the women's 1500m in a later than usual season opener of 4:19.78 on a lone run out in front, shaping a nearly eight-second gap on the runner-up.

For good measure, she had preceded that in a big PB of 2:07.18 to make a double over the 800m.

Amy Harris won the women's long jump with her very first attempt at 6.31m (0.9m/sec), a marginal outdoor SB, and looked very consistent too as she also registered further marks of 6.27 (1.3) and 6.24 (1.8 ) late in the competition.

Ngonidzashe Makusha, who ran a startling 9.97 secs in the 100m a few weeks ago, returned to his more familiar long jump and flew out to a windy but still long enough 8.35m (2.6m/sec).

Dominique Blaize looks back on trail to revise her heptathlon PB as she leapt to a 6.51m (3.6m/sec) in the long jump, furthest among the competitors. While it can't be considered as a PB in the discipline, it's considered legal within the heptathlon rules as a 4.0m/sec is the allowable limit therein.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson keeps showing great mettle as she landed at her furthest ever under any conditions 6.37m (5.3m/sec) that ought to improve her position now.

Katarina narrowly missed out on her PB in the javelin by a mere 0.28m with a best of 37.60m on the day so there begs the question of what could have been if she had simply recorded some token height in the high jump.

She's still rooted to the bottom of the table on 4129pts with only the 800m to spare but totaled out of only five disciplines. On a brighter note, though, she's confirmed herself that she's got a good heptathlon in her and it's a matter of more fortunate circumstances to roll it out.

Blaize had sort of a nightmare of a javelin with just 26.64m and sees her chances of a PB slip away given she's not among the best of the girls in the 800m.

Grace Clements was the best of the British girls in the javelin with 42.65m.

http://www.iaaf.org/wce11/results/eventCode=4746/sex=W/discCode=HEP/combCode=hash/roundCode=6/summary.html#det

Up in Glasgow, at the Scottish U20/Senior Loughborough Trials, distance legend Eliz McColgan seems to be making the most of Mother's Day as her daughter Eilish ran a big PB of 9:19.91 for a runaway win in the women's 3000m. Her previous best held at 9:31.36 from last year.

Andy Frost(y) creeped over 70m by a mere cm to move second in the British hammer charts as season surprise Chris Bennett, an U23, bettered his recent PB of 67.26 to a new mark of 67.64m.

Susan McKelvie improved to 61.55m but remains still fourth in the respective rankings of the women's equivalent.

Dave Martin set a PB of 47.80 in winning the 400m, former European U23 finalist Graeme Oudney took the 800m in 1:52.56 and Matt Gillespie edged out Chris McKay in the 5000m in 14:12.65 to 14:14.25 (PB).

Ashley Bryant vaults over 4.45m to tighten his grip on a new PB in the decathlon, adding 746pts to his total for 6176pts with two events to spare.

David Hughes was sixth in a season opener of 51.64 secs in a race won by Xavier Culson (PUR) in 48.73 (SB, 4th in the world) from two-time Olympic champion Angelo Taylor (USA), who set an opener of 49.77 for a distant second, in rainy conditions in the men's 400m hurdles.

The Brit's cause was not helped by an inside lane draw as he was admittedly running on a sort of a pool in his lane while executing a new stride pattern for a first time in competition through the hurdles.

Angelita Broadbelt-Blake was fifth in 13.47 secs and Beijing finalist Sarah Claxton seventh in a season starter of 13.75 secs (0.7m/sec) as Olympic champion Dawn Harper won convincingly in a premiere of 12.74 secs, fifth fastest in the world.

Apart from Warriner and Demus, others to catch the eye were Jamaican Lee Dexter in the 100m in 10.15, with Francis Obikwelu well behind in 5th in 10.30, and Cuban Dayron Robles who won the 110m hurdles in 13.35 secs from Tyrone Akins (USA, 13.47) on a tailwind of 0.7m/sec.

Results:
http://bases.athle.com/asp.net/liste.aspx?frmbase=resultats&frmmode=1&frmespace=33&frmcompetition=088079

Katarina Johnson-Thompson concludes her depleted heptathlon with another solid showing of 2:22.48 for 790pts over 800m, totalling 4919pts out of six disciplines. With something around 1.81m in the high jump, where she holds a PB of 1.83m from the indoor season, she would have gone over 5900pts today...

Such a shame, but she now knows it's within her grasp and she just needs to wait until her next multi-outing to turn it into shape. I dare say that a score over 6000pts looks within her range this season!

Good race in the women's 1500m in Glasgow as Claire Gibson won in a considerable PB of 4:15.11, a solid season debut, from U23 Josephing Moultrie who also edged inside her own best in 4:18.58 (previous 4:18.82 last season).

Well, Ashley Bryant's big new PB is an accomplished fact as he contributed a 66.85m in the javelin and a top-up of 4:55.83 in the 1500m to total 7586pts, an improvement of 392pts on his previous marker from last year for an overall 6th in the competition.

Ben Gregory was not far off his own winding up at 7311pts considerably due to a late brace of throwing PBs in the discus (38.82) and the javelin (55.60) while Ben Hazell followed on at 7233pts.

A very poor pole vault of 4.05m summed up a couple of bad days at the office for Commowealth bronze medallist Martin Brockman who packed up and didn't contest the last two disciplines.

Decathlon Final standings:
http://www.iaaf.org/wce11/results/eventCode=4746/sex=M/discCode=DEC/combCode=hash/roundCode=10/summary.html#det

Dominique Blaize ended up on 5566pts where Grace Clements fared reasonably better to 5644pts.


Heptathlon Final Standings:
http://www.iaaf.org/wce11/results/eventCode=4746/sex=W/discCode=HEP/combCode=hash/roundCode=7/summary.html#det

Also in Glasgow, nice tussle between my mate Tom Holligan and Ryan Oswald in the sprints.

HORRIBLE conditions up there as the picture Allan Hamilton took showed everyone on facebook. He grabbed 2nd in the LJ with 7.02m behind John Carr who jumped 7.51m.

Oswald won the 100m from Holligan in 11.00 to 11.07 while in the 200m the roles were reversed with both dipping under 22 seconds and Tom just getting the nod with 21.96 to 21.97. Amazing start for Tom who is still only 17!

Lorraine Ugen has opened up her season in very promising manner as she leapt to a last-gasp 6.46m (0.4m/sec) for a big PB in the long jump, erasing her previous best of 6.35m set twice last summer.

It didn't look any rosy, though, for the best length of the competition as she struggled to apply herself and only came to life late in a fifth effort of 6.20m (-0.3m/sec) to stage a frantic finale. But all is well that ends well.

Harry Aikines-Ayreety was back to action for the first time since aggravating his hamstring injury in the heats of the European Indoor champs but looked hardly any affected to run the fastest time by a Brit over 100m in 10.28 secs (0.8m/sec), preceded by a 10.34 (-0.4m/sec) heat.

Second behind him was also season-debutant Craig Pickering who went fourth in the UK lists with 10.39 secs.

Nathan Woodward and Niall Flannery got the top two spots in the men's 400m hurdles in a season opener of 50.34 secs, moving equal third with Rick Yates in the UK lists, and 50.68 secs respectively.

Andy Blow ran a term debut of 51.75 secs further behind.

In the women's equivalent, Laureen Bouchard raced for the first time over the hurdles this season in 59.74 secs for third while Nadine Okyere got off well to 53.15 secs in the flat 400m, with Hayley Jones returning to action in 55.22 secs.

Joey Duck also ran 12.01 secs in the 100m (0.0).

Results:
http://www.fidal.it/2011/COD2704/Index.htm

By the way, let me tell you that Shara Proctor won the long jump at the Jamaica Invitational with 6.65m last night, so things look very promising by the shape of her early season form. She's got now two wins out of as many outings so far.

lsabre,

Is that the Long Jumper Andrew Howe who broke our own Andrew Steele's meeting record in the 400m in Italy?

Yes, that's the former European long jump champion and I've got to say that's quite impressive, as well as unusual, stuff from him over 400m to clock 45.70 secs. That was a meeting record by the way!

I wonder whether it is a new practice gradually incorporated into the horizontal jumper's training regime at top level, taking into account the exploits of American triple jumper Christian Taylor over the distance, or he is simply shifting his focus over 200m having been a world U20 champion in 20.28 secs in 2004, suffering hard fortunes in recent seasons through injuries.

I guess time will tell and it won't take long to find out about the American Italian.

Richard Davenport was the sole Briton competing at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Kawasaki, Japan, and fared decently well in third place over 400m hurdles in 50.34 secs, some way behind his recent PB of 49.97 secs in the States.

Brendan Cole (AUS) gained a firm hold of the race in 49.60 secs but what matters more at the moment is that the young Brit is back on a steady injury-free trail after a long struggle for years to come out of the ashes.

Lolo Jones returned to winning ways in the 100m hurdles in convincing manner as she set 12.92 secs (-0.3m/sec) to comfortably defeat compatriot Yvette Lewis, who ran outside 13 secs in 13.07.

A slight surprise could be Aussie Mitchel Watt's narrow defeat to Tyrone Smith (BER) by a mere 0.02m setting 8.07 to 8.09m respectively.

Results:
http://www.iaaf.org/results/eventcode=4723/IWCtextresults.html

Good to see Richard Hill back in action running a handtimed 48.3 secs in the B race at the Midland League Division One in Bristol.

Jordan McGrath was the winner of the A race in 48.4 secs while Zoe Derham opened up with 61.81m to go fourth in the British lists in the hammer.

Well, it seems that we're going to have to get used to calling Tiffany Offili as Tiffany Porter from now on as she seems to have adopted the surname of her husband Jeff, having got married a few hours ago. As I can see she appears with that name on FB now.