D-Day weekend action

Well, I think it's about time I got this going since it's going to be very much of a frantic weekend of action all round so we'd better get catching up on things like immediately. There are plenty of Brits competing around Europe and over the States, as well as some interesting domestic competitions. And I guess there couldn't have been a better stimulant to fire them up heading into their competitions than the epic of Mo Farah over 10000m in Oregon last night, along with another classy display of Phillips Idowu in the triple jump in Poland.

Apart from the rest of the Brits competing at the Prefontaine Classic over in Oregon, covered in another thread, Dwain Chambers is racing later today in Belgium possibly aiming at a first sub 10 secs clocking this term; there is a large British team of mainly sprinters competing at Resenburg in Germany; Helen Clitheroe is chasing the Daegu A standard over 10000m at the European Cup in Oslo; and keep an eye on Katarina Johnson-Thompson who gets off a hopefully more fortunate campaign that could top 6000pts in the heptathlon in Bedford.

There is more tomorrow as Dai Greene, Jenny Meadows and Martyn Rooney are among others in action in Rabat.

Here's a link to follow the results from the European Cup 10000m in Oslo featuring European Indoor 3000m champion Helen Clitheroe among the line-up:

http://ec10000m2011.no/results/

Here's a link to follow the results of the International Flanders Athletics Meeting, Oortegem, in Belgium:

http://www.ifam.be/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=108

Here is a link to follow the results of the meeting at Resenburg in Germany with a host of British athletes in action there:

http://www.sparkassen-gala.de/ergebnisse.php

Unfortunately, there appears to blow a constant strong headwind up the home stretch at Rosenburg but the British girls look pretty solid so far. Laura Turner ran 11.54 secs into a -2.9m/sec wind, Beijing finalist Jeanette Kwakye 11.60 secs into a -2.8m/sec and, a most welcome surprise, Asha Phillip set 11.62 secs into a -2.9m/sec in her own heat!

James Ellington has also just run 10.39 into a -1.7m/sec headwind and there are final races later on. Let's hope that wind turns round until then!

James Ellington has won the men's 100m final in 10.40 secs into a -3.1 m/sec heawind so continues to show plenty of promise in the early season but Leon Baptiste withdrawn after a 10.61 secs run into a headwind in the heats.

In the women, Jeanette Kwakey looks as though she is edging into her stride as she won the women's final in a SB of 11.48 secs into a -1.5 wind followed by Laura Turner in 11.57 and Asha Phillip back in fourth in 11.74 secs.

Abi O won the 200m (her race and the overall quickest) in 23.44, into a headwind of 1.8, which is promising, but I thought she might be a bit closer to 23

I can't work out if a team of J'nette-Anyika-Laura-Abi didn't start or didn't finish their 4x100m. I notice this is the second relay the Laura-Abi (3rd-4th) combo has been tested. Suggests the powers that be are starting to keep that formation and/or they know something about Emily Freeman, as 3rd is normally her domain

Kate Dennison won the PV in a SB of 4.50

Leon Baptiste ran 21.46 in the 200m for 3rd - looked to be lacking the speed on the bend

That is an A standard by Kate Dennison who looks like gaining ground fast after a slow start to the season, improving by a good 10cm on her previous outing.

Apart from the women's relay, the British men's relay also look like they didn't eventually turn up. That is really strange.

Hayley Jones was due to compete over 200m at Resenburg but I can't see her anywhere in the results where Leon Baptiste's time was actually 21.26 secs (-0.7m/sec).

Helen Clitheroe 4th in 32.11.29 in EC 10,000m

Was hoping for more, tbh, but first time out at least gives her an idea of where she's at / what she needs to do on the track

Dai Greene has drawn lane eight in the 400m hurdles at the meeting in Dakar tomorrow!! Did they have so many better hurdlers entered for the central lanes? *laugh*

Dwain Chambers ran 10.27 secs into a strong headwind on -2.3m/sec in Belgium, the winds don't look to favour the Brits round Europe today.

Anyone heard anything from Bedford?

Katarina Johnson-Thompson's card over the first day of the heptathlon in Bedford reads 14.00, 1.72, 10.50ish and 24.68 into a headwind. The high jump has let her down a little and was unlucky to run into adverse winds down the home straight but she's still well on track to total something in the 5700pts region.

9.79

Just back from an enjoyable nightout and thought of catching up on going-ons around during the weekend before crashing into my bed! *laugh*

Well, going back a little to the Dai Greene drawing lane eight issue at the meeting in Rabat tomorrow, the explanation is that he is racing over the flat 400m and is facing off with Martyn Rooney in an intriguing separate British run-off within the race. As a matter of fact, the banter between the two is already building up nicely on Twitter!

Over to the European Cup over 10000m in Oslo, I guess Helen Clitheroe should be rather disappointed with her debut over the distance on the track in 32:11.29 for fourth, mounting the top of the UK lists.

Sarah Moreira (POR) was the winner in 31:39.11 (SB) ahead of France's Christelle Daunay (31:44.84) and El Kaliai Youssef made the double for the Portoguese in netting the men's title in 28:20.03 in an overall event that didn't quite spark.

Results:
http://ec10000m2011.no/results/

At the International Flanders Athletics Meeting at Oordegem, Belgium, Dwain Chambers coasted to an easy victory in the men's 100m in 10.27 secs against a -2.3m/sec headwind, his sixth win on the spin, as mentioned earlier on.

Eilish McColgan, coached by her mother Eliz (the former World 10000m champion), made a very useful debut over 3000m steeplechase in 9:58.13 for third to go second in the UK lists this season. Last week she ran a huge PB of 15:53.87 finishing like a train over 5000m at the Sportcity so is on a momentum right now and looks poised for a lot more.

I've seen her in a few races this season and I feel that once she polishes up her hurdling, particularly her water jumps, she's going to rise as a force in the event. Watch out for her, I feel she stands a good chance of getting the B standard for Daegu on her way and maybe even more!

Gemma Nicol, another Scot, won the women's 400m in 54.03 secs and Helen Pryer came just fourth in 23.78 secs (-0.9m/sec) in the 200m, while Ed Aston got sixth in the 800m in 1:49.67 (SB) in a race dominated by great Yuriy Borzakowski (RUS) in 1:46.57.

Promising U20 Scot Guy Learmonth had a very disappointing season debut in 1:52.10 towards the deep end of the field, as may have been fellow U20 Scot Sarah Kelly in fifth in 2:08.75 as she is working her way out of a prolonged slump of form since the indoor season.

Results:
http://www.servnetsport.be/2011/ifam/schedule.html

Overnight standings at the England Athletics Senior & U20 Combined Events in Bradford where Katarina Johnson-Thompson is looking well on the way to clinching the European U20 qualifier with a score around 5700pts, despite a below par high jump and running into headwinds in the sprints.

Senior Men
1 Daniel Gardiner (Leeds City AC) 4,089
2 Dan Awde (Woodford Green) 3,959
3 Ashley Bryant (WSE&H) 3,925
4 John Lane (City of Sheffield AC) 3,912
5 Maxim Hall (Kent AC) 3,646
6 Ben Hazell (Basingstoke) 3,638
7 Ricardo Beckford (City of Sheffield AC) 3,623

Under 20 Men
1 Joseph Hutchinson (Team Bath AC) 3,679
2 Liam Ramsey (City of Sheffield AC) 3,663
3 Curtis Matthews (Barry) 3,631
4 Joshua Barard (City of Stoke AC) 3,436
5 Jahmal Germain (Newham) 3,421
6 Charlie Roe (Chichester Runners) 3,404

Senior Women
1 Lydia Chamberlin (Lincoln Wellington) 3,230
2 Jessica Taylor (Sale H Manchester) 2,357
3 Gemma Weetman (Oswestry Olympiads) 2,313
4 Jo Rowland (Crawley AC/Brunel Univ) 2,306
5 Karla Drew (City of Sheffield) 2,290
6 Stephanie Kleynhans (Macclesfield H) 2,243
7 Amy Marchant (Leeds City AC) 2,174

Under 20 Women
1 Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Liverpool H) 3,346
2 Katy Marchant (Leeds City AC) 2,972
3 Georgina Westwood (Reading AC) 2,953
4 Emma Buckett (Basingstoke) 2,847
5 Brogan Crowley (Sale H Manchester) 2,781
6 Elise Lovell (Hastings AC) 2,746
7 Imogen Green (Birchfield H) 2,683

Under 18 Women
1 Jazmin Sawyers (City of Stoke) 3,158

Full results:

Senior men http://www.athletics-uk.net/england/2011/results/senior_ce/Senior_Men%27s_Decathlon.pdf

U20 men http://www.athletics-uk.net/england/2011/results/senior_ce/U20_Men%27s_Decathlon.pdf

Senior Women http://www.athletics-uk.net/england/2011/results/senior_ce/Senior_Women%27s_Heptathlon.pdf

U20 women http://www.athletics-uk.net/england/2011/results/senior_ce/U20_Women%27s_Heptathlon.pdf

By the way, I've just noticed that Linford Christie-coached Margaret Adeoye, has become the fourth British girl to snatch the B standard for Daegu as she ran a massive PB of 23.30 secs (1.7m/sec) at Leigh.

Now, that's yet another turn-up in the women's sprint within a short space and it will be interesting to see how far she can go but for the time being she'll be definitely most pleased to have drawn into the shake-up.

Louise Bloor was second in that race in also a PB of 23.67 secs from 23.91 last summer, Scot Stacey Downie third in a PB of 23.80 secs (previous 23.95 this season) and 400m girl Vicky Barr forth in a SB of 23.81 secs. The latter just crept inside 54 secs in her specialty by a mere hundredth (53.99).

In the 100m, U20 Mica Moore set a huge PB of 11.80 secs (1.9m/sec) followed by 17-year-old Melissa Hanson in 11.83 secs, also a big PB.

As concerns former European U23 champion Hayley Jones, she finally stayed behind and didn't travel to Germany and instead raced at Hendon to set a SB of 23.70 secs (1.8m/sec).

Also at Oordegem, Belgium, Kelly Massey ran a big PB of 52.65 secs for her first ever trip into the sub 53 secs province, with a previous best figure of 53.11 secs from 2007 that she tied last summer, where Kim Wall set a SB of 53.52 secs.

Great run by Kelly - her indoors suggested she should do something good. We need to start getting more girls in the 51.5-52.5 range

Over to the men at Hendon, Adam Gemili came to formally confirm his breakthrough in the U20 ranks through a huge PB of 10.45 secs (0.9m/sec) in the 100m.

Tremayne Gilling, by contrast, still looks out of sorts to set 10.64 secs way behind him, coupled with a windy 10.45 (2.6m/sec) in another heat where Richard Kilty, with a recent windy 20.65 secs, was fastest over the longer sprint in 21.09 secs (2.4m/sec)

U23 hurdler Niall Flannery displayed again his promising early form to edge the flat distance in 47.71 secs from also U20 Sebastian Rodger in 47.88, a mere 0.01 outside his PB, and prodigy Alex Boyce who came on the brink of 48 secs through a substantial PB of 48.03. World U20 4x400m medallist Dan Putnam was fourth in 48.24 secs..

Conrad Williams was runner-up in 46.33 secs behind Bahamian Michael Mathieu, who set 45.61 secs (SB), over 400m at the international meeting of Papaflessia in Kalamata, Greece, while Gianni Frankis was pipped on the line through a mere 0.01 for victory by former European U23 champion Kostas Douvalidis.

The hightlight of the meeting was arguably Russian Aleksandr Menkov's European-leading mark of 8.28m (1.9m/sec) from home favourite Louis Chatoumas, who set 8.29m (-0.8m/sec). Georgios Tsakonas (GRE) also sneaked over 8m to a SB of 8.03m.

What was a total shock, however, was former Olympic 400m hurdles champion Fani Halkia's 57.71 secs over the... flat distance (!!) on her return from suspension on doping offences.

Results:
http://www.afdk.gr/papaflessia2/en/?p=54#more-54

Back to Leigh, at the UK Women's League Premier division, country runner-up Sarah Holt reached a useful 64.75m in the hammer to comfortably get the better of Susan McKelvie, 60.93, and former UK No1 Zoe Derham who languished at 60.88m behind.

World U20 silver medallist Laura Samuel leapt to a windy 13.45m (3.1m/sec), with also a legal 12.97, in the triple jump while heptathlete Dominique Blaize got an outdoor PB of 6.33m (1.9m/sec) in the long jump.

In the pole vault, U20 Katie Byers beat Sally Peake on countback at 4m and Ese Okoro edged out former 56 secs girl Tracey Duncan in 59.87 secs over the 400m hurdles.

Here are the start-lists and Live results from the International Meeting Mohammed VI in Rabat, Morocco:

http://www.mohammedviathleticsmeeting.com/edition2011/index.aspx

Note that apart from the already mentioned Dai Greene and Martyn Rooney (400m), Jenny Meadows (800m) and Brett Morse (Discus) there are Luke Gunn and James Wilkinson lining up in the 3000m steeplechase gunning for some fast early times hopefully in the B Daegu standard region.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson has set a new PB and European U20 qualifier of 5571pts in the heptathlon in Bedford, improving her previous best by a good 90pts, but that was still some way down on her target score. Her new lifetime total takes her up four places into fourth in the all-time U20 rankings in the event surpassing, take a real good look at some of these names, Jade Surman, Yinka Idowu, Sally Gunnell and Denise Lewis! Hopefully, it's going to be third time lucky for her and I'm personally very confident she can top 6000pts this season!

Controversial Bulgarian Vania Stambolova has won the 400m hurdles in a PB of 53.68 secs in Rabat earlier on to go fourth in the global rankings to underline her threat on the top names of the event.

I don't know what happened to Jenny Meadows, though, who finished just fifth in 2:01.89 in the 800m against not the strongest of fields as home star Halima Lachlaf won clearly in 2:00.55.

European silver medallist Yvonne Hak (HOL) was even further down the order in eighth in 2:03.11.

Asafa Powell looks like he may have sustained some injury as he jogged home in just 36.13 secs in that men's 100m, won by home record holder Aziz Ouadi in 10.27 ahead of European Indoor champion Francis Obikwelu (POR) in 10.31 secs.

Not a particularly good day at the office for the Brits in Rabat altogether as aside from Jenny Meadows's fifth in the women's 800m Martyn Rooney and Dai Greene finished third and fourth in 46.19 and 46.29 secs over the flat 400m respectively.

European hurdle champion Greene could at least have the consolation of setting a new PB although he had targeted something in the 45.7 region of thereabouts coming to the race.

Brett Morse suffered three fouls, half his attempts that is, to end up fourth on a second-round 61.32m in the men's discus, backed up by a fifth round 60.83m.

Luke Gunn came outside the B standard for Daegu in a UK-leading time and SB of 8:38.18 to finish last but two in the 3000m steeplechase where U23 James Wilkinson had more grounds to be content with a new PB of 8:45.40, first time under 8:50 in his career to resume where he left off in 2009.

The men's 1000m was top of the bill as home star Amine Laalou helf off European 800m champion Marcin Lewandowski (POL) in a fast 2:15.31 to the latter's 2:15.76 while Blanca Vlasic claimed the high jump with a meet record of 1.97m.

Results:
http://www.mohammedviathleticsmeeting.com/edition2011/index.aspx

Jenny Meadows is racing over 800m shortly again at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo so I speculate she wasn't operating in full sail today. After all, you have to manage your resources well and can't afford to compete in top gear every time out if you like to reach fresh and peak in late August.

Let's go over to the English Athletics Senior/U20 Combined Events in Bedford and catch up on the final results.

As already mentioned earlier on, Katarina Johnson-Thompson set a new PB of 5571pts to move fourth all-time in the UK U20 heptathlon rankings, leapfrogging legends Denise Lewis and Sally Gunnell on the respective list.

The World Youth champion, however, won't be too happy with a best of 6.07m (nwi) in the long jump but she will be definitely more content with her 35.50m in the javelin, rounding things off in a 2:23.74 over 800m.

Altogether, Katarina performed once again well within herself in sense that she didn't set any PB or even neared one across seven disciplines, something that illustrates that there is a great deal of scope to improve on her score. Personally, I'm most confident she can go over 6000pts and even clinch a place on the senior British team to Daegu.

But she definitely needs to pull her performance together next time out in a heptathlon as she cannot afford to drop so many points on the way, especially in higher level competitions looming on the horizon.

A special mention to 17-year-old Jasmine Sawyers who bettered her recent PB by 22pts to a total of 5029 to secure her place at the World Youth Championships this summer. Her card reads 14.09 (PB), 1.67, 10.42 (PB), 25.78, 5.90, 22.91, 2:28.71 (PB).

On the men's side, Beijing Olympian Daniel Awde, not 23 until the 22nd of the month, showed that he's finally drawn back on track as he improved his three-year-old PB substantially to 7869pts, involving an impressive individual PB of 46.71 secs over 400m at the end of the first day.

That total saw him move 10th past Anthony Brannen in the UK all-time lists of the event and he should be soon overtaking at least half of those ahead on the evidence of his performance during the weekend.

His card reads 10.85 (PB), 6.96, 12.47, 1.83, 46.71 (PB), 14.36, 43.90 (PB), 4.63, 55.85 (PB), 4:27.38.

U23 Ashley Bryant amassed his second PB out of as many decathlons this season with 7638pts, moving up on his 7586pts last month in Italy. His own card looks like 11.13, 7.15 (PB), 12.85, 1.89 (PB), 48.61 (PB), 14.89, 39.89, 4.53, 62.31, 4:45.57.

Pretty windy conditions at the BAL Premiership match in Cardiff where Commonwealth bronze medallist Max Eaves rose over a big outdoor SB of 5.40m in the pole vault to see off European U23 silver medallist Luke Cutts who couldn't go higher than 5.20m on the day, tied with U23 Andrew Marsh.

Chris Scott turned the tables on Abdul Buhari this time round in the discus with 57.18m to 56.89m while Scott Rider edged over 18m again to 18.05m and Lee Doran landed a new PB of 75.69m in the javelin to erase his previous mark of 75.12 from two years ago. Matt Hunt was second with 72.53m in this one.

Andy Frost looks to sort of re-establish himself at the top of the men's hammer as he edged out Commowealth silver medallist Alex Smith with 68.89m to the latter's 68.21m. But there are fine differences between the top three-four in the event so it turns on who is the best on the day in any given competition.

Ben Sumner got a useful win over Richard Davenport in the 400m hurdles in 51.45 to 51.78 secs on the track where strong tailwinds saw Ryan Scott run a marginally illegal 10.35 (2.1m/sec) and 20.90 secs (4.7m/sec) in the dashes.

In the 400m, Graham Hedman prevailed in 47.33 secs from Scot Kris Robertson (47.61) and Jordan McGrath (48.12) where Matt Hudson and Daniel Davies tied in a windy 13.84 secs (3.7m/sec) in the 110m hurdles, Nick Gayle coming third in 13.94.

Last, Rob Grabarz took the high jump at 2.15m and Dan Bramble went out to a windy 7.77m in the long jump (5.0m/sec).

Dale Garland just fended off David Martin in the 400m hurdles at the BAL Div III in Glasgow, setting 52.16 to the runner-up's 52.18 secs in a tight contest.

On the infield, Felix Hatton shifted up a notch to land just below 70m in the javelin, setting a SB of 69.77m while David Smith cleared 2.15m in the high jump.

Nice to see 1:45 800m man Richard Hill running 47.90 secs just behind U23 Sam Peters's PB of 47.83 secs in the men's 400m at the BAL Div II match at Exeter as well.

UK champion Jade Nicholls showed good consistency, as ever, to hit 56.69m at the Women's League Div 1 in Swansea yesterday where U20 Freya Jones landed the javelin at 48.48m, fresh from a 52.82m PB.

Also U20 Lucy James ran a big PB of 54.26 secs over 400m that draws her in the running for a place on the British team to the age group European champs this summer, an interesting name to keep an eye on.

In the triple jump, Nadia Williams drew a windy 13.21m (2.5m/sec) and new girl of the 60s club Sam Hynes was slightly below at 59.16m in the hammer.

Most interestingly, Andy Pozzi looks to have taken command over Jack Meredith at the moment in the fascinating battle for supremacy at the top of a very talented U20 scene in the sprint hurdles. He beat him again and twice at that in Copenhagen, Denmark, although times weren't particularly fast due to strong headwinds, with fastest of 14.30 (-2.1m/sec) and 14.39 respectively. What a turn of situation so far when Meredith looked invincible until the start of the indoor season.

Forgot to mention that Carl Myerscough has gained a third B Daegu standard in winning the discus with 63.23m at the Jim Bush Southern Cal Championships in Walnut in California to hot up the battle for qualification for Daegu as he has offset Brett Morse's edge in that aspect.

UK 800m Indoor champion Joe Thomas did not enjoy the best of outings at Resenburg on Saturday as he got spiked and picked up a sore calf during the men's 800m to trail well behind in eighth in 1:48.81. Fortunately, it's not anything serious.

Also, U23 Jamie Bowie got a substantial PB of 46.78, first time inside 47 secs, in the 400m at Oordegem, Belgium, on Saturday.