2022 World Indoor Championships - Athlete Scorecard

[MysteryBrick]

How did people do? As always, trying to be objective here - grading from 1-10.

Men
60m
Adam Thomas - if someone had told me he'd be 5th in the World Indoors I'd have said you were barmy. Hell, he'd have said that too. Ran a fantastic semifinal and 3 super solid races (2nd, 3rd and 4th fastest ever), and only doesn't get a 10 because equalling his SB in the final would have got him 4th. 10.18 last year, can he get down to 10.0x regularly and take relay first leg off He Who Must Not Be Named? 9
Andy Robertson - an eternally solid indoor athlete, but absolutely missed a trick here given 6.62 (a time he'd run in every other final this year) would have made the final. At 31, you wonder how much career is left? 5

400m
Alex Haydock-Wilson - I really rate this guy. Robbed of an individual spot after crossing the finishing line at the UK Champs first, his 2nd leg in the final was awesome and he seems like a relay animal (split 44.4 at the Manchester International in August last year). I think he might have a very big 2022. 8
Sam Reardon - still a junior, and a great great talent. He'll have learnt a lot from this, as he tried to do a lot in the wrong places in the final when slightly sharper tactics could have got GB into about 2nd going into the anchor leg. Could end up doing some silly things in the summer over both 400m and 800m. 8
Ben Higgins - slightly disappointing for me, especially in the context of how well he had been running, but not really quick enough over 200m to run first leg in an International Indoor 4x400m. Still a big breakthrough for him and should improve hugely over the 400 hurdles in the summer. 6
Selectors - you bring 5 athletes and then 1 gets injured before the competition, so *obviously* you bring a replacement just in case something else happens and you end up having to run a non-specialist. Oh no, wait, you don't. Well done you... 0

800m
Elliot Giles - very unlucky to be ruled out, when he had been looking so good. Hopefully this isn't a portent of further injury troubles... No Score
Guy Learmonth - people faulting him for his relay legs need their heads examining - he's stepped into the team and done the best he can (47.58 split in the final) to ensure GB had a team, I can't fault him one bit for that. Meanwhile, his 800m heat had Kibet and Hoppel, along with brutal qualifying criteria, and he ran it basically as well as he could have, being beaten narrowly by two better athletes (I actually thought he ran it tactically very well). 7
Charlie Grice - I thought he was incredibly lucky to be there and he proceeded to basically do nothing in his heat. Not sure what his plans are, but I think giving the 5000m a go would be worth a shot, as he's not going to make any outdoor 1500m teams with the sheer depth of talent coming through. 2

1500m
Neil Gourley - won his heat convincingly in the end, after slightly dubious tactics, and then in the final just couldn't quite hang with a relentless pace. Given the guys in front of him (and Rozmys one behind him) have all run 3:32 or better outdoors, got to bode well for the summer in a cutthroat event for GB. 7
George Mills - must have been illness that hit him (after dropping out of the UK Champs final), because he is way better than a 3:47... 3

3000m
Marc Scott - what can one say? 12:57 indoors said he should be elite, and this proves he is. Within touching distance of Barega and Girma, who got Gold and Silver in Tokyo, and beat some very very good athletes convincingly for a welcome Bronze. 10
Jamaine Coleman - 8:12 is a very good time for an U20 at a BMC Grand Prix, but not for a senior athlete in the heats of the World Championships... Hopefully this was a blip, as he has been improving well and could well run 8:20-ish over the Chase in the summer. 2

60m hurdles
David King - not the Brit one would have expected to make the final, and in a very old school manner (maybe they should have played cards for it?), but an excellent job to get there and 6th in the World is way above par. 8
Andrew Pozzi - slightly chaotic indoor season for him and disappointing not to make the final. Given the appearance of Holloway, I think he may have won his first and only major Gold, but hopefully he can stay fit and prove me wrong, as the talent is absolutely still there and he's not yet 30. 5

Shot Putt
Scott Lincoln - massively off the boil after a hugely promising opener, and he will be disappointed as 20m should now be his minimum for every competition. 3

[Occasional Hope]

That all sounds about right for the men.

[MysteryBrick]

Women
60m
Daryll Neita - she was fuming at herself for missing the final, as she should, as she could have been dragged to a British record in that cracking race. Still, 7.11i bodes really well for her 100m as she comes through so strongly in the back end of the race, so I expect quite a few 10.9s this summer. 5
Cheyanne Evans-Gray - Can't ask for much more than a PB when it counts. 7.19 is very very good, and her 11.67 100m PB is surely up for some serious rewriting (for context, the other two women in =8th on the British 60m all-time list have both run 11.23...) 8

400m
Jessie Knight - a very stressful championships! Did really well to bounce back from her heat with a sub-52 clocking from lane 1 in the semi, and then a 50.x split in the final was top top class. She has all the tools to run a 53-mid in the summer, which could lead to a couple of podiums in the Euros and Commonwealths. 8
Ama Pipi - a little disappointing the individual (although again, Lane 1) and her relay run was solid if not spectacular. I'm not sure if she's kicking on from a good 2021 or not, as she has the speed to run a very good 400m, yet seems erratic. 6
Mary John - brought for experience and clearly super-talented, but seemed a little overawed. Definitely needs to work on her raw speed - can't get away with a 24.1 200m PB when other women are going through halfway in a 400m in 23.6. 5
Hannah Williams - I don't get the logic of not putting one of your strongest runners on first leg in an Indoor 4x400m when positioning matters so much. 53.85 on leg 1 in the final kinda meant that nothing any of the other girls did mattered, alas. 3

800m
Keely Hodgkinson - see Giles... Wilson closed a 1:59 race in 29.5 to win the final. Hodgkinson closed her 1:57.2 in 28.9... It would have been a total slaughter. Hopefully this is just a one-off. No Score.
Jenny Selman - very ballsy run in the heat, but going for a gap that wasn't there with 80 to go cost her the crucial 0.01 that was the difference between a q and a nothing, alas. Massive respect to her for keeping pushing later in her career, and hopefully 1:59 in the summer and a Commonwealth place is the reward. 7

1500m
Erin Wallace - quite an ordinary run in her heat, although the pace was quite hot. 5

3000m
Amy Eloise-Markovc - her final run probably wasn't a million miles off the European Championship winning run from last year in terms of quality, but the global standard is just so much higher. Should run a good 5000m in the next few months. 6

60m hurdles
Megan Marrs - quite disappointing to run slower than Mills, but 8.19 is basically par from her, it's just that Britain doesn't really produce hurdlers who aren't multieventers... 4

High Jump
Emily Borthwick - 1.84 is quite pants, but her form had slightly fallen off a cliff after an excellent February. Time to regroup. 2

Long Jump
Lorraine Ugen - baffling that Britain's second longest ever jumper is unsponsored. Great performance when it mattered, and due to the the nature of the event and her obvious talent she will always have a chance. However, I wish someone would sort out her weird 2 1/2 hitch kick which just seems to only ever cause her to lose distance!!!!! 9
Jazmin Sawyers - never nice to lose someone to injury, but unlike Hodgkinson and Giles she was never really a medal threat. No Score

Shot Putt
Sophie McKinna - 8th, when she came in 9th on SB and 11th on PB, and it was also her second-best ever throw. She's absolutely on the World Level now, 19m+ and picking up a couple of medals at European/Commonwealth level have to be the targets. 7
Amelia Strickler - beat her SB ranking, but sub-17m isn't something she'll have been happy with. However, great to see 2 British women in a throwing event, and both on absolute merit!
4

Pentathlon
Holly Mills - what a beast. 2 PBs, 3 solid performances, 4th in the World, 4600+. Epic. She's now World Class indoors, her javelin progression will decide when she becomes World Class outdoors, and she clearly has the right mindset to succeed. The GB heptathlon train just keeps on rolling... 9
Katarina Johnson-Thompson - how do you rate this? Obviously, but her standards she was fairly meh apart from the Shot, although she'd have needed to have been on tip-top form to beat Vidts, but the fact she competed at all off short training and after a serious injury is a positive anyway. Hopefully the comeback trail continues, as I would love to see her defend her title in Eugene. 5

[RunUnlimited]

On that 4x400m relay squad issue, surely they could have called up somebody like Seamus Derbyshire or maybe Jamal Rhoden-Stevens to fill in for the injured runners? The latter even has some prior 4x400 relay experience, since Rhoden-Stevens ran a 46.5 leg for GB at the World Relays in 2019. Since then, he's broken both 10.30* and 21.00 seconds for 100 and 200m, whilst also running a 45.89 400m late in the 2021 season. (*He also ran a windy 10.17 at the same meet where he broke 10.3 for the first time).

Though I will add the caveat that Rhoden-Stevens hasn't registered a result since Feb 6th too.

[Ladyloz]

I thought Mary John ran pretty well in the final so 5 a little harsh. She is a young developing athlete after all. I suspect that outdoors this year she will focus on Junior events with the depth we have.

Hannah Williams struggled on leg 1 in the heats, so I'm not sure why they put her there again. I'd have swapped her and Pipi around in the final. Not sure how much it would have improved things overall but surely worth a try.

[RunUnlimited]

I thought Mary John ran pretty well in the final so 5 a little harsh. She is a young developing athlete after all. I suspect that outdoors this year she will focus on Junior events with the depth we have.

Hannah Williams struggled on leg 1 in the heats, so I'm not sure why they put her there again. I'd have swapped her and Pipi around in the final. Not sure how much it would have improved things overall but surely worth a try.

Yeah, Mary John will be one to look out for at the World U20's later this year. Can she break the 52 second barrier? Because I think she is on course to doing that already. And I agree that she ran pretty well in the relay, especially when she was the youngest competitor in the entire field.

As for Hannah Williams... I could understand her being chosen on the opening leg during the heats, because she had run so well from the blocks at the UK indoors just a few weeks earlier. But after that sluggish performance in the heats, management should have swapped the order around a little so that GB were in with a chance from the get go come the final.

[Loop-guru]

Also Yema Mary John is only at the start of her second full season in the event. Her indoor time seems to indicate a low 52.? outdoors but she is certain to progress further as long as she stays injury free.

[MysteryBrick]

I'll accept a 5 as harsh there, she is still an U20 and 53.0 indoors is very good, she definitely has serious talent.

[Occasional Hope]

I think Daryll is one of those athletes who is always better at 100 than 60, so I might give her a 6.

[CAML]

Jeanette Kwakye gets an 8. She's a natural broadcaster, has put the journalistic hard yards in, and is more credible than Gaby Logan. It would have been a 9 but for the prolonged time she spent on Neita's statement when it was clear Denise, Kilty and particularly Dina were very uncomfortable talking about it, and she was going to get nothing out of them except it was a 'tricky' situation.

[Occasional Hope]

I thought she was excellent.

[MysteryBrick]

Yeah, she was excellent - has the credibility of her athletics career to fall back on so doesn't feel the need to overcomplicated like Logan. I particularly enjoyed her 'me too when Dina was talking about SAFP putting 2m on you at the start.

[philipo]

Jeanette Kwakye thoroughly deserves her accolades here and so much more appropriate than the overrated Logan