UK Outdoors April 2022

[RunUnlimited]

Also some more good news on the UK hammer front via Ian Hodge... 2018 World U20 champion Jake Norris, who won't turn 23 until June, threw 70.20m and achieved the England Commonwealth Games standard in doing so yesterday. Can he now push on from here and go further? In the same year he won the U20 World title with a British junior record of 80.65m, Norris set his current PB with the senior weigh implement of 73.24m, so hopefully later this summer he can finally improve upon that benchmark.

[Ursus]

That’s great news on Purchase. Means that Hitchon now only holds the best 31 performances by a Brit, down from her previous 46.

Would be disappointing though if we don’t have at least one more member of the 70m club by the season’s end.

[RunUnlimited]

I'm going to stick me neck out say that there will be at *least* two more who go beyond 70 meters by year's end, if not three. Head, Mayho and Phillips would be my guesses.

[Occasional Hope]

Joseph Brier has run 46.30 in his season opener over in the US, putting him 3rd in the UK this year behind AHW and Ed Faulds, and another prospective relay leg?

[RunUnlimited]

Occasional Hope Absolutely he is. He's from the same age group that produced AHW, British U20 400m hurdle record holder Alastair Chalmers and Alex Knibbs. In fact, he won a World U20 bronze medal with them in 4x400m relay and he's been a constant on every age group 4x4 GB squad, from the U20s, U23s and the seniors, winning medals in all of them.

Brier has not been quite fast enough to represent GB as an individual athlete, but he's the kind of steady, gradually improving runner you need with a group like this.

[Occasional Hope]

And 46.35 for u23 Ethan Brown as well, just 0.01 outside his pb.

[Occasional Hope]

I see that Amanda Obijiaku, who was our top junior this time last year but didn't go to the Euro u20s, has transferred allegiance to Italy.

[Occasional Hope]

Apparently her sister Michella made the same move a few years ago.

[trickstat]

I've found some indoor 400s from Maya Bruney from this year. The fastest was 53.17 which would have meant her just missing the GB relay squad.

[RunUnlimited]

trickstat Just saw those results now. That's Bruney's best run over 400m, indoors or out, since 2018. And all of her indoor 400m times were under 54 seconds too.

[RunUnlimited]

A couple of reports from the ever-reliable Ian Hodge on his Twitter page....

Nia Wedderburn-Goodison, 17, opened up her season with an 11.62 in the 100m, only a little ways off her 11.56 PB from last year. All the more impressive when paired with the fact she ran into a -1.5m/s headwind!
That time means she's already achieved the qualifying standard for the Euro U18's in Jerusalem starting July 4th, though considering the potential she has already shown, I wouldn't be surprised if her main aim were the World U20 Championships in Cali a month later, and she's just 2/100ths outside that standard already!

The other news is that Reece Prescod made his outdoor seasonal debut over the rarely run 300m distance in Lee Valley, crossing the line in 33.42, which would put him 16th on the UK's all time list. Whether this is a herald of good things for Prescod is hard to say, but it is good to see him out there this early in the spring.

[Occasional Hope]

I'd hate it to disappear though.

[trickstat]

U17 should remain a default category because that is what is used for 99% of domestic competition. However, it could do with an overhaul so that it is much easier to identify athletes who are U18s whilst no longer U17s and to produce an U18 ranking.

[RunUnlimited]

trickstat Occasional Hope Sorry if me words implied that I wanted the U17 category gotten rid of and replaced by an U18s one. I should have been clearer in stating that they should retain that U17 set of results and add the U18s as well. And updating the site overall of course.

[Occasional Hope]

I wonder if Reece has the 400 at the back of his mind.

[MysteryBrick]

That would be *unbelievably* surprising! I would suspect it is more about running a very good 200m this year.

[Occasional Hope]

Hope so, he has a lot to prove after his overindulgence in cakes over lockdown.

[Occasional Hope]

Who's coaching him now? It still says Mike Holloway on Po10 and that only lasted about 5 minutes.

[CAML]

DAS opened her season with a 54.76 over 400 at Lee Valley on Sunday. I wonder what she went through 200 in. Her pb is 53.49 in 2014.

[RunUnlimited]

Some interesting developments over in California yesterday. Elise Thorner, who turned 21 last month, has rocketed up into the UK's top 10 for 3000m SC with a 9:40.98 run to win the event. She also goes to 3rd on the U23 all time list too, behind Elish McColgan and Aimee Pratt.

She's just outside the GB qualifying time for the European Championships and England's qualification standard for the Commonwealth Games.

And this also adds to the growing depth in this discipline too, with Olympic finalist Elizabeth Bird and Olympian Aimee Pratt coming off strong season's last year.

[philipo]

Where was the 10.07 achieved?

[MysteryBrick]

Atlantic, Georgia. He was just behind Ameer Webb.

[RunUnlimited]

A UK athlete result missed was Amelia Strickler in her 2nd outdoor appearance since competing at the European Throwing Cup last month, throwing 17.40m La Jolla, California to come 2nd in the event there.

[MysteryBrick]

Remember Thomas Staines? Ran some very good 600s and 800s as an U23 a few years ago and then seemed to go massively off the boil? Well, he's just run 1:45.28 in California, after a 1:46 opener a couple of weeks ago. British men's 800m running, eh...

[MysteryBrick]

Oh, and even more mad - just behind him was Reece Sharman-Newell, someone I confess to never having heard of, but who has now run 1:45.56, having had a PB of 1:51 before this year. It appears they are training partners in Colorado, and whatever they are doing it is working!

[philipo]

Remember Thomas Staines? Ran some very good 600s and 800s as an U23 a few years ago and then seemed to go massively off the boil? Well, he's just run 1:45.28 in California, after a 1:46 opener a couple of weeks ago. British men's 800m running, eh...

Good to see, with a 2 month wait till we get to observe him at the trials.

[CAML]

Ella Rush scores 5491, improving from 5370, coming 7th. Take out the javelin and she would have come 2nd. Big day for our top female hammer throwers at the Mt Sac relays today.

[LuckySpikes]

At the same meeting in Azusa as Thomas Staines, Katy-Ann McDonald won a deep 800 (nine sub-2:03) in 2:00.98, improving her PB by 0.7s.

Ireland's Brian Fay also won the 5000 in 13:16.52 PB. He now goes ahead of John Treacy and Eamonn Coghlan on the all-time list which just seems wrong to me!!

[RunUnlimited]

Ella Rush scores 5491, improving from 5370, coming 7th. Take out the javelin and she would have come 2nd. Big day for our top female hammer throwers at the Mt Sac relays today.

Great news for Rush! With that 5491 points score PB, she has gained the qualifying standard for the World U20's!

Setting an overall PB when having a relatively poor 2nd day by her standards, is a good indicator of her potential. In good conditions for long jumping, with favourable following wind throughout, Rush could only register one jump of 5.98m (+1.9m/s). Though it ended up being the second longest effort out of all those competing, it's still fairly well down on the outright PB of 6.34m she set at the UK Indoor Champs in March (It is however, an outdoor PB for her).

She then followed that up with a 25.29m javelin throw for a paltry 388 points and dead last of all the throwers. Having registered fouls in her two previous efforts, it appeared to have been a case of damage limitation to at least get a point score on the board. This is clearly her weakest event by far and will need a lot of work, though it must be noted that her current PB of 32.49m set last year aged 17, is ahead of where JEH was at the same age. Ennis-Hill threw over 30m at 19 and by the end of her career had a 47+ PB, so there is plenty of scope for Rush's improvement in the coming years.

Her final event on the night was the 800m and she took over 2 seconds out of her previous PB with new figures of 2:16.08, so yet again it looks like we have another multieventer with a strong-ish 800m in her locker.

Given a better second day performance, Rush could have scored over 5600 point easy, if not higher still. She is a talent for sure and with where she already is as a heptathlete, the future is looking pretty bright for her.