2011 outdoor Summer season

I just thought I'd start a thread aggregating information about the summer season, especially from meets that don't have many Brits involved/other noteworthy performances. I'll begin by mentioning James Ellington's sprint double in Metz last night. He won both the 100m and 200m - the latter in 20.52, which is a massive PB for him and makes him top of the UK rankings. Hopefully we'll see increased domestic competition in the sprints following the return of Simeon Williamson and Tyrone Edgar. Williamson ran a windy 10.35 in Bilbao recently, after missing all of last year due to injury. Edgar is also on the comeback trail, posting a windy 10.43 at Cottbus on Saturday.

There is also a meet in Stockholm tonight - this features a few Brits, especially in the middle-distances. Here is a link to the event website:

http://www.friidrottsanmalan.se/fgp/sollentuna/anmalan/default2.aspx

Legal 10:23 for Ellington according to Isabre on another site.

Results from Stockholm are in:

http://88.131.109.176/folksam/sollentuna11/Resultat.php

The standout performance of the evening is arguably Mukhtar Mohammed's - who set a new PB in finishing 2nd the 800m with 1:46.58 (behind Abubaker Kaki). Nick McCormick becomes the first Brit to achieve the B standard for the world qualifiers, clocking 3:37 dead to finish 3rd in the 1500m, behind Ismail Kombich and Ryan Gregson. Andy Turner once again flirted with his PB, running 13.34 to win the 110m Hurdles. Rhys Williams set a marginal SB in the one lap hurdles - 49.59. Good consistency from him but he's still only 4th in the UK rankings.

Also unconfirmed reports on twitter suggest that Laura Whittingham threw 59.95m at a meeting in Finland over the weekend. Spear freaks will remember that Whittingham had a breakthrough performance at the Pihtupadas Javelin festival in Finland last summer, so the home of the javelin is a happy hunting ground for her. Whittingham is coached by Esa Utriainen - athletes from his training group seem to have a habit of peaking late in the season so hopefully she will conform to type.

Richard Strachan went to No 2 in the UK 400m rankings thanks to a PB of 45.70 at Velenje in Slovenia last night. There are now five guys under 46 secs for this summer - the same number for the whole of last year. The BMC meeting at Stretford saw an unusually quick domestic 3000m race:

1. James Wilkinson 7.55.73
2. Ryan McLeod 7.56.81
3. James Walsh 7.57.23
4. Ricky Stevenson 7.57.49
5. Jonny Mellor 7.59.40

The bench mark for good times in this event is 8 mins. What do really top guys do? Farah and Thompson's PBs are 7:34 and 7:43, respectively. Other notable performances included Ed Aston winning the 800m A race in 1:49.65, Charlotte Best was the fastest woman clocking 2:03.22.

There was some sad news today - sprinter Alex Nelson has announced his retirement from competitive athletics at the age of 23. A qualifier for Beijing, Nelson has decided to call it a day due to persistent injuries.

Last night all eyes were Nicola Sanders at the Namur meeting in Belgium. The standout British performance, however, was by sprint hurdler Ben Reynolds who improved his PB by a quarter of a second and smashed the Northern Irish record in the process. He clocked 13.75 over 110m Hurdles to go to No 4 in the UK rankings. What makes this all the more impressive is that rain and wind mitigated against fast times. Sanders won her 400m race but clocked a modest 52.92 in doing so. Jonathan Borlee, the biggest domestic name involved in the meet, won the men's equivalent in 45.98, well down on his season's best of 45.04.

Also, Mervyn Luckwell thew 74.25m for a season's best in Saarijarvi in Finland at the weekend - the same meet involving Laura Whittingham.

Good to see Nicola get the win, even if the time wasn't all that she would hope. I just want her to be able to get a string of races together first before she really targets getting her times down. She's a brilliant athlete, just can't believe the horror run she's had with injuries.

Just a few comments to add about the action in Lausanne last night. Andy Turner's 13.22 in coming 4th in the 110m Hurdles is the fastest time by a Briton since Colin Jackson and Tony Jarrett set UK records and English records and won gold and silver at the world champs in 1993. Tiffany Ofili-Porter's 12.64 time is the fastest by a Briton over 100m Hurdles, legal or not. Dai Greene is the 5th Brit to win a Diamond League event this season (the others being Mo Farah, Greg Rutherford, Jenny Meadows and Philips Idowu). This is pretty good going considering in the middle of the last decade there were several years in a row when we didn't win a single Golden League event. In terms of the DL event standings, Dai Greene is now 2nd behind Van Zyl, Idowu and Meadows lead their events. Winners DL events over the course of a season get $40,000 prize money (£25,000 at current rates). I know there was a lot of talk on the BBC commentary about Greene being in UK record shape - again this was another meet where cool and windy conditions made fast times in certain events unlikely. The winning times in the women's 200, 400 and 1500m - 22.85, 50.23 and 4:05.52 - were below average for this standard of competition. So a freshening breeze didn't help Greene - and it seemed to me that he was unusually ragged over the hurdles rounding the final bend.

There have been some handy performances at the Island Games this week, which were staged on the Isle of Wight. An international competition for small islands, this multi-sport event pits the likes of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man against exotic outposts like the Cayman Islands, Menorca and Gotland. James Foreman made the most of home advantage to win the 400m Hurdles and set a new PB of 50.41. Over the 400m flat, Tom Druce of Guernsey emerged victorious, also with a new PB of 46.71.

A few Brits competed at the Albertville meeting in France last night (presumably the venue for the 1992 Winter Olympics). The biggest name competing was Marilyn Okoro who won the 800m, again well outside 2 mins however - her time 2:02.36. Experienced sprinter Mark Findlay finished 2nd in the 100m with a SB of 10.55.

Hot news - Holly Bleasdale 4.65m UK record in Mannheim.

Reports are coming in from the BAL meeting in Yeovil - Tom Parsons won the High Jump with 2.28. This is an event that's been quiet so far this year - time for Bernard, Oni, Grabarz and Mason to step it up? (Bernard will be competing at the Znamensky Memorial meet near Moscow tomorrow). Dan Pembroke is over 70m again - he's thrown 71.92m in the first round in the Javelin. Tom Druce is reported as clocking 45.7 for the 400m - if this is correct he's taken a whole second off of his PB. Chris Clarke made a low key comeback in the B race, winning in 47.31. Ryan Scott won the 100m in 10.53. Other big names competing include Andy Baddeley, who won a closely fought 800m in 1:50, and I'm assuming Nick Nieland (only his surname mentioned), who's just thrown around 70m.

trickstat wrote:Hot news - Holly Bleasdale 4.65m UK record in Mannheim.

Since improved to 4.70!!!

That's sensational news about Holly! She's competing at the Bauhaus meeting in Mannheim (clearly drawing inspiration from the ground-breaking inter-war furniture left lying about in the call room). A selection of Brits are also competing in Cork, Rouen and Torun (in Poland) today - more on this later . . .

Results coming through from various meetings today - in Mannheim Lawrence Clarke set a new PB in coming 2nd in the senior 110m Hurdles - 13.59. This puts him 2nd in the UK rankings behind Andy Turner. Andy Pozzi also set a new best - in the junior version of the event with 13.44. Pozzi has recently made a habit of beating Jack Meredith, who came 3rd with 13.48, a season's best for him. At the BAL meeting in Barnet, Abdul Buhari continued the revival in men's Discus throwing. He propelled the disc out to a new best of 63.58m. Meanwhile in Sweden Brett Morse threw 62.30m today. Felix Hatton threw the javelin 72.26m in the BAL meeting at Yeovil.

Here's an update on various happenings around Europe yesterday - Hannah England started her outdoor season in Cork with a win, clocking 4:10 in the 1500m. JJ Jegede leapt a windy 7.82m in the Long Jump, while Amy Woodman recorded an outdoor PB of 6.40m in the women's equivalent.

Something sinister must've happened on the road to Rouen, as there were some below par performances - Teddy Tamgho only jumping 16.83 to take the triple jump. Tiffany Ofili-Porter won the 100m Hurdles with 12.89. This was an opportunity for Rob Tobin to send a message out to the rest of our 400m boys but he could only manage 46.40. Marlon Devonish finished 3rd in the 100m with 10.42 behind Trinidadian Keston Bledman - who's clearly been named after the small Kent village which has a history of cricket ball manufacture.

In Belgium Joe Thomas ran a SB of 1:46.96 in the 800m, not sure in which meet, may have been the one in Oordegem. Chris Tomlinson will always have happy memories of competing in obscure meets in Germany, and he continued to perform well yesterday, posting a windy 8.20m in Bad Langansalza to finish 2nd behind Christian Reif.

Got some more results from the BAL meeting at Barnet. Niall Brooks won the 1500m in 3:48.96 - satisfying season's opener for him. In the Hammer Alex Smith stepped up a gear, hurling it out to a new SB of 71.67, hopefully we'll see him in the 73-74m range by the end of the year. I must say it's really great to see Anthony Whiteman back on track, now veteran and one-time 3:32 runner, he clocked 1:50 in the 800m. Scott Rider putted the shot 17.69m at Barnet, in stark contrast to Greg Beard who hit 17.70m at Kingston. Elsewhere Daniel Awde is the process of putting a good decathlon together in Brassanone, Italy. Yesterday he posted PBs of 46.70 in the 400m, and 7.34m in the Long Jump. Already today he's posted a PB of 14.56 in the 110m Hurdles and has a score of 5031 pts after six events. Ashley Bryant and Martin Brockman are also competing there.

Some news from twitter, Meghan Beesley 52.79 400m PB and Nathan Woodward 48.7s U23 record, not official but it is coming from Meghan's account.

Also Jade Nicholls threw her 2nd furthest throw ever to set a new SB of 58.17m, not sure whereabouts.

Also some good times in the mens 400M, Lennon-Ford and Buck both under 46s.

PBs also of 20.46 for Harry Aikines-Ayreety over 200m and 45.56 for Luke Lennon-Ford in the 400m.

A certain Anglo-Greek athletics enthusiast has tweeted that:

Andy Pozzi has set a new UK 20 110m Hurdles record - 13.29 (presumably in Mannheim)
Jodie Williams has set a SB of 23.05 in the 200m (definitely in Mannheim)
Nathan Woodward has run 48.7 in the 400m Hurdles to set a new UK U23 record.

I imagine if he's in a good mood he might let out a *chuckle* . . . even if he doesn't post here any more.

There's an IAAF World Challenge meet in Moscow going on at the moment - more news on this as it filters through.

Montell douglas says on twitter that Jeanette Kwakye and Laura Turner ran 11.15 & 11.30 at the same meet as Harry AA! Not sure about the wind yet though.

Thanks for the updates people

Headline results from Moscow - Borzakovsky is back with a bang, winning the 800m in 1:43.99. Sergey Makarov won a high quality Javelin competition with 86.14m - five guys threw over 80m. Martyn Bernard began his outdoor season with an okayish 2.20m in the high jump, which was won by Andrey Silnov with 2.32m. Daniel Awde was denied a 8,000 points score in the Decathlon due to an indifferent throwing performance on the second day in Italy. Nevertheless he still achieved a PB - 7889. I'm sure he's rueing 40.44m and 43.65m in the Discus and Javelin, respectively. The competition was won by Swiss Simon Walter in 7973, Ashley Bryant also set a PB with 7747 to finish 3rd.

Full results here: http://www.fidal.it/2011/COD3094/Gara941.htm

Some results from the Chaud-des-Fonds meet have been released into the twittersphere. This has been a controversial meeting in the past because CdF is 1000m above sea level and Brits have done well there (I'm sure people wouldn't moan if Swiss, French, German and Italian athletes posted great results there instead).

Unofficial results from this meet so far:

Luke Lennon-Ford - 45.56 - PB 400m
Richard Buck - 46.00 - PB 400m
Harry A-A - 20.46 PB 200m
Leon Baptiste - 20.51 SB 200m
Richard Kilty - 20.53 SB 200m
Jeanette Kwayke - 11.15 SB 100m
Laura Turner - 11.30 SB 100m
Ashleigh Nelson - 11.38 SB 100m
Gianni Frankis - 13.57 equal PB 110m Hurdles

Full results here: http://www.sep-olympic.ch/resisprint11/results.pdf

Loving Kwakye's 11.15 for the 100m - super time, and bodes well. Could she take Montell Douglas's british record ( hope she does...)...

Good stuff too from Harry A-A iin the 100m and 200m ( looks like a windy 100m, 10.13s; that 20.46 is good too, but we desperately need our sprinters approaching 20sec barrier for the 200m [- although of course 20.46s is solid for Brit at this stage of the season -] we're way off the pace and have been for way too long, sadly )....

Solid PB from Lennon-Ford Luke - 45.56 not bad at all...

Reims, the small town North East of Paris made famous by Monet's paintings of the cathedral, hosted a meet last night. Kate Dennison reacted positively to losing her UK record by vaulting a SB - 4.55m. Christian Malcolm posted a satisfactory 20.54, finish 5th in the 200m, a rare outing over 200m for Michael Bingham was slightly less impressive, he clocked 21.05. MLF was also well off the pace in the 100m, clocking 10.53 in a race dominated by Caribbean sprinters. This was won by Daniel Bailey in 10.05, Keston Bledman continued his run of form, running 10.09 for 3rd.

Max Eaves vaulted 5.40m in Vienna last night - a good performance as it's reported his poles were lost in transit and he had to use someone else's.

I'm sure many members of the forum will be cheered to hear that Becky Lyne is making a return to competitive athletics. Becky was (and may be again) not only a phenomenally talented athlete but an intelligent and socially aware person too. This interview here outlines her story in recent years and is a nice antidote to the utter drivel on the UKA website contained in their athlete blogs which seem to be a braincell free zone.

http://www.englandathletics.org/news.asp?itemid=6796&itemTitle=Becky+Lyne+talks+about+her+road+to+recovery&section=102&sectionTitle=News+-+Yorkshire+%26+Humberside

I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing Becky all the best for the rest of this season

Very good 110m hurdles. Good win for Robles over Oliver.

Thought Turner got a great start, in the lane next to Oliver, but that he seemed to either crumble very quickly under pressure from Oliver ( possibly overawed by Oliver ); or that he might have actually felt impeded a little by Oliver, who seemed to pushing out towards Turner's lane...( you can't get much bigger than Oliver, without needing two lanes to run in )...nevertheless, and all that said, all good experience for Turner. You need grit in the hurdles to compete at the highest level. A lot more from Turner to come, I believe...

I think he clipped the 2nd or 3rd hurdle and he stumbled slightly and didn't recover from that point on really. Like you say though, all good experience for him.

You are right, he did clip the hurdle - but felt he came under pressure very early on from Oliver, and wasn't able to keep it together ( hence clipping the hurdle, and looking rather scrappy after that LOL - he's usually a lot better over the hurdles than that )...

But this race was a great opportunity for him to, more than anything, just know what it feels like to be put under pressure by such an athlete, especially after he himself had performed so well recently ( with the that PB run ). I actually believe that he has a low 13.1s in him - but that he will need to have more races up against the best before he's able to get the best out of himself...

Superb eve for British long jumping - 8.27m from Rutherford, and the British record for Tomlinson of 8.35m.

Not sure many would've - could've - predicted that

Becky Lyne is an interesting one for me.

She was running absolutely amazing just before the same time that Christine O got into a little bit of trouble for her 3 missed tests.

It was interesting to note that Lyne was sitting on 2 missed tests at that point.

I don't think she'll ever run close to her PBs again.

Just spotted this comment on a BBC article about this eve's long jump, and the two Brits' performances;

"Greg Rutherford - who saw Tomlinson break his British long jump record - simply had no reply to his fellow countryman and could only record 8.27m."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/14089278.stm

Why so dismissive about Rutherford's performance?! 8.27m is a credible perforamnce; to get that in after seeing Tomlinson go 8.35, I thought it was a worthwhile and commendable effort. Some people don't know what they're talking about...

Izzymiyagh1 wrote:Just spotted this comment on a BBC article about this eve's long jump, and the two Brits' performances;

"Greg Rutherford - who saw Tomlinson break his British long jump record - simply had no reply to his fellow countryman and could only record 8.27m."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/14089278.stm

Why so dismissive about Rutherford's performance?! 8.27m is a credible perforamnce; to get that in after seeing Tomlinson go 8.35, I thought it was a worthwhile and commendable effort. Some people don't know what they're talking about...

Agreed. Shows how stupid they can be.

Wonder if the BBC are as stupid when reporting
other sports.

People who follow every sport whine when the BBC are not completely accurate or fair with their reporting.

The bottom line is that the BBC is not the place to get news and results if you're a 'hardcore' follower of any sport. They simply don't have time and resources to provide the service that a dedicated athletics/other sport website can provide.

More results from yesterday - Andrew Steele ran 45.93 for a season's best in the B 400m race in Madrid - the A race was won by Kevin Borlee who looked good in clocking 44.74. The headline performance from the BMC Solihull meeting was Joe Thomas's SB - 1:46.77 - to win the 800m A race. The organisers of this meet particularly wanted to give the opportunity to lots of 5,000m runners to run in fields of a decent standard so there were four races at this distance. Many were rewarded with good times - the A race was won by James Walsh in 13:46.25. Johnny Mellor also dipped under 14mins with 13:54.96. Walsh's time is the 2nd best by a British athlete at home so far this season (Moumin Gala is now being counted as a Brit), though I'm sure it won't stay that way for long.

Full BMC results here: http://www.justiming-live.co.uk/bmc2011/WPdoc.txt

Just to add to the headline news from that extraordinary Jumps and Throws fest, Jade Nicholls and Eden Francis both threw PBs and reached the Discus B standard for the World Champs. They threw 60.76m and 59.72m, respectively. Also in that epic men's comp Chris Scott threw another PB - 63m, and to think we had no throwers over 60m in 2009. The men's shot was won by Scott Rider with 18.20m, not far behind was Greg Beard on the comeback trail who set another season's best - 17.81m.

Super run from Farah

Great finish and great handling of the pressure and situation.

His previous British Record 10k run has built up our hopes ( certainly mine! LOL ), and every time he runs, I'm looking to see how he handles the pressure of the weight of expectation ( his and everyone else's ), in each test as he arrives to it - his holding up real good!

Great stuff!

There were four British wins today - technically that is a Diamond League record of sorts. Maybe the fact that Greene, Parker and Farah fell short will make people value the records set so far this season, we are getting spoilt with six new marks already.

Farah was never going after the British record tonight. The pacemaker was instructed to go out in 63s, which he more or less did.

Great run though, showing he can outkick Merga in a reasonably tactical 5k is certainly showing us that he's the man to beat at both 5000 and 10000 at Daegu.

Its funny for a while I thought Farah was labouring a bit last night. Then he had a big of a smile at 600 meters and a few looks and you just knew he knew he was going to win. Just hope he can hold this form till the worlds. London is still a long way away and who knows who will have come out of Ethipia or Kenya by then, but he is looking like an excellent shout for a gold at Daegu right now.
And basically by rights we should be praying for rain for the mens triple jump final next year and Idowu should walk it. But as Im goingto be there I'd probably prefer it to be a beautiful balmy evening.......tricky one.

I don't know whether anyone has noticed, but for the first time in years, we've got two female U23 100m hurdlers running under 13.30 - Serita Solomon 13.27 and Ashley Helsby 13.28 Unfortunately both their times were clocked to late for Euro U23 selection.

Let's hope the rivalry, similarity in ages and hurdling ability will push them both even further.

There was so much going on over the weekend some pretty good performances have yet to be reported widely. Starting off with the Jumps & Throws Fest at Hendon - in addition to the crazy distances thrown in the A pool, which included an SB and PB for Angus McInvoy and David Coleman (57.05m and 56.50m), there was a PB in the B pool for Simon Cooke - 56.03m. Just think about that for a minute - 56m in a B pool of a domestic meet - two years ago no Brit threw over 60m all year. Javelin performance of the weekend came from Lee Doran who set a new PB and cemented his place at No 2 in the rankings with 77.54m. It's great to see him hitting new marks and throwing over 75m repeatedly. Sophie Hitchon threw her 2nd furthest ever - 68.95m in a high quality hammer competition. Gareth Winter is a new name in shot putting, coached by a very familar face - Lorraine Shaw. He putted 17.39m to win the U20 competition - Winter seems to be following the fashionable ethos of athlete first, thrower second - his 100m PB is 12 second flat. On the jumps side, Samson Oni stood out with an SB of 2.27m to win the high jump.

Elsewhere in Europe, Will Sharman ran 13.56 to go to 2nd in the UK rankings over 110m Hurdles in Chambery, France. An even bigger name returning from injury is Nicola Sanders who clocked 52.46 in Brussels - by no means earth shattering but this is her fastest time in two years. Alex Smith has reasserted himself as the UK's top male hammer thrower, he now heads the rankings thanks to a SB of 72.90m in Eindhoven. This is only 5cm off his best from the Commonwealth games, hopefully he'll hit 73/4m before the season is out.

Steve Lewis equalled his Season's Best in the Pole Vault last night in Karlsruhe, vaulting 5.62m. It's encouraging to see him back vaulting in the 5.60s, after setting a PB of 5.75m two years ago he seemed to go backwards after remodelling his technique. He's now achieved the B qualifying standard for the Worlds several times, and took a shot at the A standard - 5.72m - but missed out on this occasion. Lisa Dobriskey is reported to have run a Season's Best 4:05.23 over 1500m in a mixed race at the BMC Stretford meet last night. If this is true, it's a A qualifier - this comes with a disclaimer as it's only been reported on the eightlane website so far, which is notorious for bogus performance reports.

Even if the report on Dobriskey is true would that count as a qualifier being in a mixed race?

My understanding is that results from mixed races count for qualifying purposes but not for record purposes. I'm not 100% sure on this though, hopefully someone more learned will either confirm or correct this.

Result on Power of 10 confirm Lisa Dobriskey's 4:05.23. However, my interpretation of what it says about mixed races on the IAAF website suggests that they are not acceptable for qualifying purposes in races under 5000m.

Marilyn Okoro won the women's 800m in a SB of 2:00.60, a B standard for Daegu, at last night's BMC Gold Standard Races in Watford.

Does anyone know what happened to William Sharman? I saw him compete a few weeks ago, and he was a shadow of the competitor he was. He used to be challenging for the UK number 1 spot. Did he get injured?

Just curious, as he was very promising.

Will Sharman competed at the Chambery meet at the weekend and clocked a Season's Best 13.56 - not amazing but he's coming back from injury and his times are coming down. I think he was put in the Lausanne meeting a bit too early in his comeback and he was really shown up. I guess the main target this year is Daegu and that's still seven weeks away, plenty of time for him to get back into 13.3 form or better.

Two meetings of note yesterday - the EA Champs at Bedford, which continue today and Heusden in meeting in Belgium. Kicking off with Heusden, the headline performance was by Helen Clitheroe who'll have mixed feelings, having set a PB in the 5000m, but missed out on the B qualifying standard by four seconds, she posted 15:29.37. Apparently conditions weren't great, I assume they were hit by the same weather front that crossed the UK during the day. Nothing to write home about in the other performances, but results are accessible here:

http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=47865

Sprinters produced the best performances at Bedford, with the 100m finals yielding some good times, the titles were won by Harry Aikines-Ayreety and Laura Turner in 10.09 and 11.23, respectively. I'm assuming it was a gusting, swirling wind as the men's race had a +3.5 reading, and the women's was +0.1. Zane Duquemin set yet another PB in the shot, putting 17.57m to finish a mere cm behind Greg Beard in the final. Mervyn Luckwell threw an SB of 75.35m in the javelin, while Neil Crossley made it over 70m for the first time ever with 71.28m. There are now five UK men over 75m in the javelin, and 13 over 70m this season.

Full results from day one are available here:

http://ht.ly/5G3WJ

There's been a lot of talk about the lack of 10,000m races in the UK and thankfully people are trying to rectify this. The Herts/Beds 10,000m champs happened on Thursday at Sandy, results have recently been released on Eightlane, here's the top finishers:

1 Aaron Scott Notts AC 30 mins 14.5 secs SM
2 Darren Deed Bedford & County 30 mins 14.7 secs SM
3 John Gilbert Kent AC 30 mins 22.8 secs SM
4 Matt Janes Bedford & County 31 mins 19.8 secs SM
5 James Lawler Bedford & County 31 mins 22.2 secs SM
6 Kev Mason Brighton & Hove 32 mins 42.3 secs SM
7 James Chettle CU Hare & Hounds 33 mins 23.3 secs SM
8 Rob Palmer Luton AC 33 mins 37.9 secs V40
9 Luke Turnbull Bedford & County 33 mins 56.3 secs V40
10 Eric Philips Serpentine 34 mins 22.6 secs SM
11 Ben Corfield Leighton Buzzard 36 mins 20.4 secs SM

A North of England 10,000m champs will take place at Leigh on July 30th. Good luck to everybody involved in organising and participating in this.

With the DL meeting in Monaco tonight it was easy to miss that there was another major meet in Barcelona. There were several good performances by Brits too. The standout being a PB for Hannah England in the 1500m - 4:01.89, she now heads the UK rankings and has the A qualifying standard. She came 3rd in a race won by Russian Ekaterina Gorbunova in 4:01.02. The women's 400m race was significant for British athletics fans, seeing the return to top level competition of Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders. Having run times of around 53 secs in low key meets, both improved here tonight, Ohuruogu winning in 51.49, Sanders finished 6th with 51.94. In between Lee McConnell posted 51.70 for 3rd. Chris Tomlinson backed up his record breaking form in the Long Jump with 8.20m for 2nd place behind Yahya Berrabah of Morocco (8.37m). Andy Turner continued his good run of form too, winning the 110m Hurdles against a good quality field, clocking 13.33 to beat the likes of Joel Brown and Dayron Robles. Although it's not on the official results sheet, it's been widely reported that Kate Dennison set a PB in the Pole Vault - 4.61m.