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**RunUnlimited** · 28-06-21, 14:55

Got to dust this thread off a little after the weekend action....

Women's LJ was as competitive and high class as was expected between our three top athletes, with Jaz Sawyers doing what she does best - pulling out a big jump just when she needed it, producing her two longest jumps in rounds 5 and 6. (BTW, her 6.75 m final jump looked more like 6.85 m from the camera angle shown).

Abigail Irozuru was very consistent all day and despite not managing to jump the Olympic standard on the day, she is assured of heading to Tokyo having achieved it in 2019.

Lorraine Ugen had a couple of big fouls that looked close to 7 meters, but showed enough form and jumping consistency to finish in 3rd and be also on her way to Tokyo.

The pleasant surprise for some yesterday though was Lucy Hadaway coming in 4th place. She managed three jumps of 6.40 m+ including her 2nd best ever jump of 6.47 m, and her marginal 3rd round foul looked at least 6.70 m. What seemed to impress those watching the YouTube stream most was Hadaway's jumping form and technique, which looked very well honed and smooth (no, not silky smooth Colin...

). It pointed to a long jumper with plenty of potential and at 21, a lot of time to improve further. Certainly she is developing well since her junior days when she represented Great Britain at the 2018 World Juniors.

Men's LJ..... No comment.

Men's Triple Jump.... No comment.... Other than it was good to see Ben Williams competing again and that teenage hopeful Daniel Falode was also back on the runway for the first time this season.

Women's Triple Jump. Disappointing for Naomi Ogbeta. Having jumped so well this year and threatened to get the Olympic standard most of this season, she had pretty much her worst competition of the year at exactly the wrong time. Only managing a single 14-metre jump and not getting close to the standard thereafter surely wasn't in the plan when coming to Manchester. It was doubly disappointing when you consider the triple jump contest occurred during Saturday, with the best weather conditions over the three days, and yet Ogbeta couldn't take advantage of them at all.

**RunUnlimited** · 28-06-21, 23:18

Right, here's my belated assessment of the vertical jumps:

Men's High Jump: Glad for Gale that he's on his way to Tokyo, though hopefully in the month between now and the Olympics he'll start to show 2.30 m and above form again. A 2.24 m clearance isn't likely to get Gale out of the qualifying round at the Games, let alone trying to win a medal in the final. He was looking more like his old self back in late May with a 2.27 m leap in Bedford, but since then he hasn't competed and his appearance at the British Championships was only his 2nd competition all season.

Last year, in the brief winter season before the pandemic shut down most of the 2020 outdoor season, Gale became the youngest GB high jumper to clear a height of 2.33 m or higher since Steve Smith set the British outdoor record as a teenager in 1992. It was his third competition clearing 2.30 or higher in the space of a week, and Gale looked like a strong contender for the gold medal at the World Indoors in Nanjing, China, before the Covid-19 outbreak caused the cancellation of the championships.
Whether he can get back into that kind of outstanding jumping form is yet to be seen.

As for the rest of those competing in Manchester, there wasn't much to commend...
William Grimsey, the 25-year-old who set a new PB of 2.25 m at the Loughborough International in late May, a performance that likely earned him, a week later, his first international vest for Great Britain at the European Team Championships, where he jumped with distinction and earned Britain valuable team points. However, since then he had failed to clear 2.20 m and Grimsey didn't start at the British Championships due to injury.

Joel Khan, still only 22, Khan has talent, and jumped for GB at the European Indoors in March following setting an indoor PB of 2.23 m at the British Indoors Championships. And on Saturday, Khan actually improved upon his outdoor personal best with a 2.21 m clearance that earned him the runner-up spot behind Gale. Can't really fault him here, and he has scope to improve from here.

Dave Smith. Came third but only cleared 2.17 m, well down on his PB of 2.26 m, and he hasn't looked close to that sort of jumping form all season. Poor.

Sam Brereton. 18 years old and a real prospect. Has the standard for the *World* Juniors, let alone the European Juniors, and at the British Championships he equalled his 2.17 m PB to finish in fourth place. He didn't compete at the English U20/U23 champs in Bedford a week previously, but surely he'll be selected for the U20 team headed to Tallinn on 15th July. Did well.

Chris Baker. The less said about him, the better. His 2.36 m wonder jump indoors back in 2016 is looking more and more like a complete outlier, when compared with the rest of his portfolio since then. Very poor.

Rory Dwyer. Never jumped over 2.20 in his career. Not likely to do so for the rest of it.

Dominic Ogbechie. A multi-talented teenage athlete, and European U18 high jump champion in 2018, Ogbechie's had some troubles with injuries in 2019 and 2020, but is now back showing some of the talent that had him jump a 2.22 m national indoor U17 as a 16-year-old. He's off to Tallinn for sure after his performance in Bedford the previous weekend at the U20/U23 championships, and he equalled that height here in Manchester, before three good attempts at 2.17 m.

Overall, not a great standard, though wind conditions did play a factor.

Women's High Jump: Well done to Morgan Lake as she books her ticket to Tokyo, but she'll need to improve a lot in the next month if she has any hope of climbing the podium. 1.93 m won't cut it and so far this outdoor season, she hasn't looked like going higher than that yet.

The rest of the competitors couldn't get beyond 1.86 m, and in Emily Borthwick's case, that's a massive disappointment. Leading up to this weekend, she had out-jumped Lake on almost all those competitions and out of the two, looked the most likely to achieve the 1.96 m Olympic standard... And yet in the most important contest of her career yet, she seemed to freeze and had her worst high jump of the season at the wrong time, much like Naomi Ogbeta in the triple jump.

**Occasional Hope** · 28-06-21, 23:29

I like Tom Gale and have hopes for him in the future but I don't think he's back to his best yet after last year's operation, and he'll need to be to have any hope of a medal in Tokyo. Paris 2024 is the one he should be working towards.

Morgan Lake looks a bit lacklustre this year; I hope she'll make the final in Tokyo but she can be so inconsistent I'm not 100% confident she will. There are several women over 2m at the moment, so she would have to have a really good day and a number of others a bad one to get a medal.

Very disappointed Emily Borthwick didn't do better this weekend, she was looking so promising leading up to the trials, and I think has now run out of time.

**LoveSprints1** · 29-06-21, 10:37

Originally posted by Occasional Hope

I like Tom Gale and have hopes for him in the future but I don't think he's back to his best yet after last year's operation, and he'll need to be to have any hope of a medal in Tokyo. Paris 2024 is the one he should be working towards.

Morgan Lake looks a bit lacklustre this year; I hope she'll make the final in Tokyo but she can be so inconsistent I'm not 100% confident she will. There are several women over 2m at the moment, so she would have to have a really good day and a number of others a bad one to get a medal.

Very disappointed Emily Borthwick didn't do better this weekend, she was looking so promising leading up to the trials, and I think has now run out of time.

Emily is just in the Olympic quota ranked 31st out of a possible 32 so could receive an invite, but would GB accept it?

**RunUnlimited** · 29-06-21, 10:44

Originally posted by LoveSprints1

Emily is just in the Olympic quota ranked 31st out of a possible 32 so could receive an invite, but would GB accept it?

Emily would have helped her case immensely if she'd performed to her recent high standards at the British Championships. Even if she didn't end up getting the 1.96 m she needed, being more competitive would have shown the selectors her potential in the high jump.

Instead, she froze on the big stage, and that's likely to not leave a good impression on the selectors.

**carterhatch** · 26-08-22, 11:46

The standard of men’s jumps in the UK are below what many of us have become accustomed to these past decades… discuss.

I have always regarded ‘international class’ for these events as 8m [TJ] 2.30m [HJ], 17m[TJ] though the last time all three were achieved by British men in the same season is worth some research. It may well be 2012 with stalwarts Rutherford and Grabarz ensuring for most of the last decade we had at least representation at such a level with others making occasional contributions.

This season’s long jump might be described as ‘what if’; were it not for the ever so marginal post-event DQ given to Fincham-Dukes, we may have been offered some optimism for this event, or, distracted from the cold, hard reality. Yet from now until he jumps over 8m outdoors, let alone anywhere close to his Austin outlier, we are made to wonder. Although Banigo has also jumped 8m this season, when it mattered in Munich he couldn’t repeat this feat. Both may well produce the goods in the future, with Paris the obvious aim, but with the likes of Duckworth seemingly dabbling in and out, I might not be as optimistic as some.

The High Jump is a concern. Many have spoken about the potential of Tom Gale, but his injury record is longer than his palmarès and heaping pressure on just one individual rarely helps an event to flourish. Not since 2017 has a British male jumped over 2.30 outdoors. I know some may list the ‘potential’ of others coming through, but for every one of those, there is an Ogbechie. A precocious talent indeed, a natural at high jump and long jump but not excelling at either, should he not be trying triple jump, but according to his Po10, he has never registered one attempt at this event in competition! That seems a very much wasted opportunity.

Which segues nicely into the last of the jumps in question. I understand triple jump is not an easy event to master, but we have been blessed with a rich heritage which makes it all the more frustrating. I understand that these matters can be cyclical, that ‘we can’t be good at every event’, and that perhaps had Ben Williams been injury free in recent years, he would have been a regular 17m plus jumper. But the lack of any pro active efforts by UK Athletics in recent times to tackle the shortcomings in all three jumps is something I hope the new CEO and his team address.

I again offer a potential solution …

I watched a lot of gymnastics these past weeks, particularly the men, with one of my pet projects in mind [Jump to Success]. Everything I saw confirmed to me that there would be a British male gymnast who could convert to triple jump and reach beyond 17m by Paris. The core strength of all the competitors was off the scale, the ability to put together complex moves, under pressure of performing and being judged, was way beyond anything required by triple jump and the discipline to hit a key mark was clearly evident, and the ability to cope with the forces of triple jump through the body, is something these gymnasts are more than accustomed to…

It just takes some effort on the part of UK Athletics to work with the British Gymnastics governing body, to indentify some individuals willing to give it a try, and with the strength in depth of the British [gym] team there must be many on the fringes who could be persuaded.

Alors, I needed to share...

**CAML** · 26-08-22, 15:11

Ben Williams should leave his knees to medical science. I am amazed that after 15 years and countless operations he's had one of his best seasons. He's a heavy jumper as well, not exactly skipping through the phases like JE. Don't see any logic with the Ogbechie suggestion. Injuries, early developer, not interested or a combination of the three, to move to perhaps the most brutal event in the sport doesn't add up for me

**carterhatch** · 03-05-23, 16:38

Here is a stat for Men’s Triple Jump in the UK … the only entry into the all time list from the 2020s {Po10 refers] is at a very lowly number 36! What does that mean? Well it suggests that no one has achieved a PB, in the 2020s, for a distance that puts them into the top 10, nor top 20, nor even the top 30 all time until Efe Uwaifo at just 16.20 [I salute you] creeps into the Top 40!

I hope this most miserable of metrics, and something no other event could surely match, is banished this season …

**MysteryBrick** · 03-05-23, 16:44

British Men's TJ is absolutely in the dumps. Not many signs of green shoots either.

**RunUnlimited** · 03-05-23, 21:26

Originally posted by carterhatch

Here is a stat for Men’s Triple Jump in the UK … the only entry into the all time list from the 2020s {Po10 refers] is at a very lowly number 36! What does that mean? Well it suggests that no one has achieved a PB, in the 2020s, for a distance that puts them into the top 10, nor top 20, nor even the top 30 all time until Efe Uwaifo at just 16.20 [I salute you] creeps into the Top 40!

I hope this most miserable of metrics, and something no other event could surely match, is banished this season …

As MysteryBrick says, since the retirement of Phillips Idowu, men's triple jump has been at a historically low ebb. Not since the 1970's have there been such lack of jumping distance in Great Britain. It's like there is a physical and mental barrier preventing any current or up and coming triple jumpers from verging beyond 16 meters, and the few that have done have either only done so a couple of times, or they are currently plagued by injury. When you're having to rely on Ben Williams to pull out 17 meter jumps, then you know you're in trouble! (No disrespect to Williams, he did so well to come through so many injury setbacks after a highly promising junior career to finally get over 17 meters and then some back in 2019, but his body is so prone to breaking down that he is just one jump away from another long period on the sidelines).

Promising juniors like Aiden Quinn, Jude Bright-Davies, Bera Ajala and Daniel Falode have not progressed as hoped, with none of them having jumped beyond 16.18m in their careers so far and not really looking like they will ever do so currently.

Falode is still only 20 and has a lot of time to build up into a class triple jumper, but for a guy who set the UK age-17 record indoors and who finished a creditable 5th in the European U20s in 2021, his particularly career stalling is pretty depressing to behold. Hopefully his time in the NCAA will be ultimately helpful for his career.

**carterhatch** · 30-05-23, 14:05

While I was looking at UK 'All Time' lists I noticed something about wLJ that doesn't leap [excuse the pun] out from other top 20s, and that is quite an even distribution of entries across each decade from the 1960s - 2020s.

It has been a very long time since I needed to use my [degree-level] statistics but it is quite an elegant distribution [ 60s 1, 70s 2, 80s 4, 90s 3, 00s 3, 10s 5, 20s 2 ], I suspect that most other events are not as evenly distributed...

It is only the fairly recent retirement of Sarah Proctor that prevents the top 4 all time being currently active. ..

**carterhatch** · 26-06-23, 08:07

Occasional Hope has very helpfully compiled a list of those athletes who have qualification standards or rankings places [see thread British Championships 8th-9th July 2023 #12] two weeks out from the ‘trials’ across all events [great work].

I have extracted the Men’s Jump section [I hope, OH, you don’t mind] to draw attention to what most forum users already know… However, if UK Athletics need to be reminded this is not an exercise in copy’n’paste but highlights the ‘dire’ state of men’s jumps in the UK.

If this were any other organisation, in any other walk-of-life , presiding over such a 'metric' there would at least be a ‘review’ into this unwelcome scenario and an action plan created to try and address the situation… So I ask UK Athletics, are you bothered? If so, what are you doing about it?

HJ
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

PV
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

LJ
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

TJ
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

**Ursus** · 26-06-23, 08:41

Originally posted by carterhatch

Occasional Hope has very helpfully compiled a list of those who have qualification standards or rankings places [see thread British Championships 8th-9th July 2023 #12] two weeks out from the ‘trials’ across all events [great work].

I have extracted the Men’s Jump section [I hope, OH, you don’t mind] to draw attention to what most forum users already know… However, if UK Athletics need to be reminded this is not an exercise in cut’n’paste but highlights the ‘dire’ state of men’s jumps in the UK.

If this were any other organisation, in any other walk-of-life , presiding over such a 'metric' there would at least be a ‘review’ into this unwelcome scenario and an action plan created to try and address the situation… So I ask UK Athletics, are you bothered? If so, what are you doing about it?

HJ
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

PV
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

LJ
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

TJ
Standard: none
Currently in a rankings position: none

Too busy fixing the throws. :-)

It’s not like we haven’t had any history at all in the jumps.

HJ: Olympic silvers for Smith, Grabarz and Mason. All, along with Dalton Grant had PBs above the current WL. Smith’s =WJR remains.

LJ: Rutherford’s record speaks for itself, Lynn Davies before him. Even Tomlinson’s PB would have him ranked 5th this year.

TJ: Edwards and Idowu, nuff said, but we’ve had 4 others over 17.30 which is still very respectable.

OK, PV is the exception that breaks the rule. I got quite excited when Hague went over 5.60 as a 17 year old in 2015, since when, nothing.

**Occasional Hope** · 26-06-23, 10:24

It’s really depressing,isn’t it?

A few years ago Tom Gale was looking very promising but seems to have been injured for years.

Perhaps some of our non-elite sprinters should have a go at LJ or TJ training. Lots of them have never tried anything but sprinting.

**CAML** · 26-06-23, 10:42

I'd be surprised if we see Tom Gale again at an elite level. On his Instagram some time ago it showed him high jumping off a one leg approach, hopping up to the bar and then trying to clear it. I found it hard to watch, because it looked incredibly stressful on his joints, asking for trouble and not very smart.

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