Birmingham Day 4 - (Friday August 5th)

[MysteryBrick]

What a competition from Metzger! All 4 legal jumps would have been a PB, and even though she was only 2cm off silver she shouldn't be disappointed - this was a bronze WON, not a silver missed. Hopefully she can push on from this and believe she is a 14.50m jumper, as she clearly has it in her.

[Christy93]

To recap - England won medals in both field events and the steeplechase this evening, as well as having the fastest qualifiers for men and womens 400s and the mens 200. A poster called for them to step up and nobody can say they didn't this evening. Well done all!

[marra]

Chemutai is seemingly not very good at judging her effort. Same thing as happened in Eugene - went off too quickly and died there.

Fantastic for Bird, after Pratt had seized control of the British bragging rights in Eugene. If they both decide to go, they each have realistic medal shots in Munich - ranked 3rd and 5th on time this year.

A solid evening for England all round.

[MysteryBrick]

All 3 sub 9:20 runs EVER by British female steeplechasers have happened in the last 3 weeks...

[LuckySpikes]

Excellent English performances tonight. It makes a change from the usual couple of good/excellent performances mixed in with a hamstring tear, maybe a DNS and a few "I just didn't have it in my legs tonight" post-raceinterviews! Well done especially to Scott Lincoln, Naomi Metzger & Lizzie Bird for their hard-won medals.

That Steeplechase was a bit crazy. Aimee will be disappointed but she doesn't have long to wait for another crack at both a medal and domestic revenge.

[ozjohn]

Great nights athletics after a bit of a lull last night. And next two days packed with finals, some even before lunchtime. Can't wait!

[drobbie]

pratt runs like shes towing a caravan

[LuckySpikes]

Yes, Aimee is a real shuffler for sure!

[Ursus]

What a competition from Metzger! All 4 legal jumps would have been a PB, and even though she was only 2cm off silver she shouldn't be disappointed - this was a bronze WON, not a silver missed. Hopefully she can push on from this and believe she is a 14.50m jumper, as she clearly has it in her.

Agreed.

Except when she reflects she might be disappointed how the emotions kicked in before that final jump. She was obviously thrilled which was fantastic to see, but the form she was in the silver was up for grabs and she didn’t seem to give herself the chance on that last jump. Doesn’t really detract from the night of her sporting life, but in the cold light of day it might be a lesson learned.

[alfie]

Fair point : I did think that too. But to be honest it would be very hard for her not to have become highly emotional as she was cemented into the medal spot ...not much time to compose herself. Experience though : next time ...

[MysteryBrick]

I get where you're coming from, but what's the lesson? 'When you're unbelievably pumped at a home championship and have just PBed effectively 4 times, don't take your eye off the ball when winning your first senior medal on the last jump where yet another PB would get a silver'.

[alfie]

No gold - well apart from the para event ; and full credit to Maguire and Sidbury for that : but nobody could complain about that session from a flag waving point of view... Lincoln , Bird and Metzger : hats off to them all 👏 Like the way Bird said that she wished she had gone for it a bit earlier and pushed for the gold : ambition burns ; good for her.

And not much wrong with Pratt and Kendall either ... Plus some excellent qualifiers for later finals. Good session all round. Roll on Saturday...

[marilyn1]

Chemutai is seemingly not very good at judging her effort. Same thing as happened in Eugene - went off too quickly and died there.

Fantastic for Bird, after Pratt had seized control of the British bragging rights in Eugene. If they both decide to go, they each have realistic medal shots in Munich - ranked 3rd and 5th on time this year.

A solid evening for England all round.

Our women steeplers have put the men to shame, excellent stuff and maybe one of them will get down to 9.11 or so next year

[marilyn1]

Excellent English performances tonight. It makes a change from the usual couple of good/excellent performances mixed in with a hamstring tear, maybe a DNS and a few "I just didn't have it in my legs tonight" post-raceinterviews! Well done especially to Scott Lincoln, Naomi Metzger & Lizzie Bird for their hard-won medals.

That Steeplechase was a bit crazy. Aimee will be disappointed but she doesn't have long to wait for another crack at both a medal and domestic revenge.

The euros offers good medal chances but they will be tired from efforts so far. If not Krause this year wonder if Gega might offer stiff oppo to our women.

[DerbyCountyinNZ]

Just back from Park Run. Great to see Jacko throw a bog PB and give Tom a fright. Would have been interesting if Jacko had got over 22 and overtaken Tom, just a little bit of extra pressure. First 1-2 for NZ in athletics since Snell and Davies in the mile in 1962.

[marilyn1]

Ignore the time - that was a very good semifinal from MHS against a decent field.

They mostly looked knackered due to races today already very cool conditions and a slightly troubling wind.

[paul]

Yet another wonderful day of athletics. Yet another glorious victory for the Birmingham venue and the Birmingham crowds.
The DEC was a fantastic scrap. The points scores were not stratospheric, but the crowd bellowing - for example when lowly (but in the zone) Kendall PBed the JT - must have been life affirming for all involved, and elevated it to a truly great comp.

It is excellent that Bird and Pratt have alternated the breakthroughs all the way up to world class. It makes a huge difference when there are two breaking through like this.
I strongly suspect that Bird is right and she could have won that one. But the Kenyan teen Chepkoech's tactics turned out to be a stroke of genius - somewhat akin to Cram's first big win back in the day.

[jjimbojames]

Aimee Pratt has been on social media - says she’s on her period and that was the cause behind her drop in form…but takes the positive that it won’t be a factor at Euros, at least