UK Outdoors May 2022

[RunUnlimited]

Might as well start a new topic thread as we're so close to the end of April now.


Here's the place to report on and discuss the results and performances from UK athletes in the month of May.

[Ursus]

65.49 opener from Okoye.

[Occasional Hope]

Not a bad start, a Euro qualifier and half a metre off worlds.

[RunUnlimited]

We've just barely entered into May and Great Britain already have 2 women who have achieved the World U20 standard for the heptathlon (5400) - 17 year old UK indoor champion Ella Rush managed the feat a fortnight ago, and now 19 year old Abigail Pawlett has done the same, recording a score of 5535 over in Yeovil today, just shy of her 5593 she set in 2021's European U20s.

[LuckySpikes]

At the London 10,000 road race, Eilish McColgan was just 2s outside Paula's European 10km record but 16s inside Mum's Scottish record. In his first race for 9 months Sir Mo was beaten by Ellis Cross!

1 McColgan 30:23
2 Piasecki 31:28
3 Harrison 31:44

1 Ellis Cross 28:40
2 Farah 28:44
3 Mo Aadan 28:48

[trickstat]

1:43 is quite a small gap in winning times between the men and women.

[LuckySpikes]

Yeah, the blokes were dawdling a bit until about 7km.

[RunUnlimited]

Ian Hodge with some reportage from the BUCS Outdoor Championships in Chelmsford, where Holly Bradshaw opened her outdoor season with a 4.50m CBP in pole vault, Jeremiah Azu set a 200m PB of 21.00 (+0.2m/s) and Charlie Dobson lead off the winning Loughborough 4x400m team in around 45.2 as they set a championship best of 3:05.18.

[Occasional Hope]

Morgan Lake has opened her season with 1.93.

16.49 for Ben Williams and 13.92 Naomi Metzger.

[RunUnlimited]

A good opener.... But can she build on this though, that is the question.

(And, personally, I still think she would be world class in the heptathlon if she gave it another go.)

[Occasional Hope]

I think the problem was that global hep fields are relatively small, and Morgan reached the stage a few years ago at which she could reliably get qualification for the HJ but not the heptathlon. Not entirely surprising she went for the bird in the hand, even if the bird in the bush might have had greater potential down the line,

[RunUnlimited]

@Occassional Hope

Even so, just having a look at her various PBs through her career, I still find it somewhat astonishing that she gave up on the hep altogether.

She threw the *senior* shot put nearly 15m as a *17* year old back in 2014 (what we couldn't give for some of the up and coming multi event talent being able to do that currently!). She has a 41m jav PB, and even pretty decent LJ PB of 6.32m. She wasn't the greatest 200m or 800m runner, but neither is Nafi Thiam and we know how *her* career has gone.

Meanwhile, it's been 3 years since she high jumped 1.97m, and since then her form has fluctuated alarmingly between potential 2m+ territory to struggling to breach 1.85m and often underperforming at major championships.

Still, she doesn't turn 25 until next week, and opening her season with 1.93m is a pretty good start regardless. Hopefully she can keep it up all the way through 2022.

[Occasional Hope]

7773 for Lewis Church. A PB which is always good, but still a way off world class. I hope Tim Duckworth can get back where he used to be, but he’s only done LJ so far this year.

[MysteryBrick]

It's actually very impressive he's scored 7700+ with a 100m PB of 11.43 and never having broken 50 for the 400m. He's very solid without being outstanding anywhere else - his best event is probably actually the 1500m. He only scored 2399 from the 3 sprints (100m, 400m, 110h) - a solid international decathlete going 10.8, 48.5, 14.3 scores 300 points more there... if he wants to hit 8000 that has to be his area of improvement.

[Christy93]

Just caught up with the BUCS highlights - Have to agree with Iwan Thomas, keep Charlie Dobson fit and he will smash the British record. He looks tailor-made for 400m running - That stride, so smooth it could be described as languid, is a sight to behold flowing down the back-straight.

[CAML]

Dobson can make the final in Eugene at 200 or 400, but getting a medal in the 200 will be so hard. The 400 is more open, I think he has a real chance of a medal and I take it when Iwan Thomas says he can smash the British Record, he means go sub 44. It would be good to see him run a 300 as well.

[Ursus]

Unless I’ve missed something stellar from Dobson I’m going to be at risk of channeling my inner Philipo.

Dobson’s a good talent for sure but he’s never been to a senior champs and his legal PBs are outside 20 and 45. They may be ripe for revision but he needs to stay fit and put together a more substantial body of work before we start talking NRs and global finals.

It’s nice to have a talent to be excited about and I’d love to think he could become that good, but my blood pressure’s still under control right now.

[Occasional Hope]

I feel Eugene is a bit too soon for solo medal talk. But a big talent for sure.

[trickstat]

Worth bearing in mind that his international racing so far amounts to a couple of meets in the US this year and the World Juniors, the Mannheim U20 meet and one indoor 200 in Vienna in 2018.

Of course his potential does seem great, but if potential was everything, Mark Lewis-Francis would hold the UK 100m record and Reece Prescod would be clear UK number 1 at 100 & 200.

[Christy93]

I don't really see him as a stellar 200 runner; A very good one, yes, but not world medallist material. He is quite clearly a 400m runner (to me at least), and pointing out his PB in that event is a bit pointless given he has only raced two competive 400s in his career, both of them season openers.

There are many unknowns, and I remain cautious due to his injury history as you do, but If I am right that he is a 400 runner then he is blessed with the kind of 100/200 speed that is reserved only for the very best quarter milers - The kind of speed no British 400m runners of the past possessed.

[CAML]

Thomas got quite animated talking about Dobson and the more I see of him, I can see why. His technique is faultless. Staying fit is key, I believe after his last injury he embarked on a specific programme to address this. He's had 3 races to date, 20.19, 19.99w and a 45.2 lead off relay leg. Potential was last year, these races show the calibre of athlete today. Let's see what his next 3 races produce.

[Ladyloz]

It will be interesting to see what Dobson's plans are in terms of 200/400 at major champs this year.

In terms of medals, much more realistic to talk about potential in terms of Munich rather than Eugene I think.

[Occasional Hope]

65.49 opener for Lawrence Okoye.

[Ursus]

Verbatim what I said in post 2. Except you’re courteous enough to use his first name.

Very similar start to last season which was pretty consistent and solid with one notable exception. Let’s hope he can build on that and produce some wow throws.

[Occasional Hope]

And I even commented on it, LOL.

[RunUnlimited]

At the BUCS Outdoor Championships over the Bank Holiday weekend, some good performances from two of our up and coming heptathletes... In the long jump, Jodie Smith, 20, managed a PB and championship best of 6.38m (+0.7m/s) to win, just 4cm ahead of 22 year old Jade O'Dowda who also set a PB. They then competed in the 100m hurdles and yet again Smith was the winner, edging out O'Dowda on the line with a substantial new PB of 13.53, taking nearly 3/10ths of her previous best, while O'Dowda's 13.56 was not far off her recent improvement in the USA 2 weeks ago.

They'll both be looking to put these kinds of performances together in a heptathlon to try and gain the England qualifying standard for the Commonwealth Games (5850), a points total that Smith and O'Dowda have both surpassed in their careers.

[treadwater1]

A few other results that stood out- Jess Judd continued her good recent for with a CR of 4:10 and Ben Higgins ran a new PB of 46.57 in temperate conditions