2022-2023 Indoor Season UK results

[RunUnlimited]

Ian Hodge reports a 7.68 for Tade Ojora over 60 hurdles. He calls it a PB but looking at PO10 he's never actually run indoors before so it would have been a pb whatever

Promising though; and interestingly only .01 outside what Josh Zeller did last year.

An excellent start to Ojora's 2023 college campaign. That see him move up to 9th on the UK U23 all time list for 60m hurdles, just behind Zeller as you mentioned. Could it be Ojora and Zeller who end up being the two top hurdlers on the ultra competitive US collegiate circuit this year?

(Also as a quick correction, Ojora has run 60m hurdles before, but this was his first time doing so since 2019, his first season at USC as a 19 year old.)

[RunUnlimited]

A late, late 2022 result that I've just seen on the European Athletics website is that of Sarah Omeregie's new outright shot put PB of 16.45m she achieved on the 3rd of December, right at the start of the 2022/2023 indoor collegiate calendar. Since she was still an U23 at the time (she turns 23 this April), that performance lifted her up to 5th on the UK all time list for U23s indoors.

[RunUnlimited]

An excellent start to Ojora's 2023 college campaign. That see him move up to 9th on the UK U23 all time list for 60m hurdles, just behind Zeller as you mentioned. Could it be Ojora and Zeller who end up being the two top hurdlers on the ultra competitive US collegiate circuit this year?

(Also as a quick correction, Ojora has run 60m hurdles before, but this was his first time doing so since 2019, his first season at USC as a 19 year old.)

Also at the same meeting where Ojora opened his campaign, shot putter Nana Gyedu, still 20 years old, began her 2nd season as a Washington State University athlete and student with a near-PB of 15.29m. It was just 5cm shy of her lifetime best (15.34m) set outdoors last year, and is a new indoor PB by over 60cm. An impressive start from Gyedu.

[Occasional Hope]

Ian Hodge reports u20 Joy Eze opened her season with 7.37, barely outside her PB.

I see Cindy Sember ran 7.49 flat the other day in the US, and Amber Anning started her season with 23.47 over 200.

[Runner88]

Megan Corker 8.42 over 60H is a great start to the season. Interesting to see how she goes this year and if she can push Mia McIntosh

[RunUnlimited]

Indeed, that is a fab start for Corker. Moves up into the top 20 on the UK U20 all time list for the 60m hurdles with that performance. She was also an U18 last year along with McIntosh, but unlike the European U18 100m hurdles champion, Megan choose to jump directly from the U17 barriers in 2021, right up to the senior ones in 2022.

She's still a couple of tenths down on McIntosh's 8.22i from last year, but this opening appearance bodes well for her in the coming months.

[Occasional Hope]

Good improvement from u23 PVer Reuben Nairne. PB yesterday of 5.32 (acc to Ian H) after 5.20 in December. Before that his best was 5.05, which he cleared three times in 2021.

[RunUnlimited]

The ever reliable Ian Hodge reported earlier today that at the Northern Athletics Indoor Championships in Sheffield, Sophie Walton, 6th in the 200m final at last year's World U20s, opened her season with a CBP of 23.86 over the same distance. She won by nearly a second, though the other U20s in the field that finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th, all set PBs in the process. Walton's time in itself was a new PB indoors over the 200m, and is the 8th fastest she's run over the distance indoors or out, so a fine start to her season already.

The other significant result from the same meeting came from another talented youngster - Sam Lunt. Undefeated last year domestically as an U17 over 400m hurdles (including a unique quadruple of titles; School Games Champion, English Athletics U17/U15 Champion, SIAB Schools International and finally, English Schools champion), Lunt has started 2023 in impressive fashion too. On Saturday he'd managed to improve his lifetime best over the flat 400m by 2/10ths, winning the final in 48.23, but then on Sunday in the 200m he ran 21.88 in the heats and then 21.86 in the final. This knocked over a second off his previous 200 PB indoors, and was also his first time running sub 22 seconds for the distance indoors or outdoors.

[MysteryBrick]

That is hugely promising from Lunt. Having that speed (47-mid outdoors) already suggests he has a low 50 in him, and may even become our first sub-50 U20 ever.

[CAML]

Indoor pb for Josh Zeller over 200m, 22.07. Same for Lewis Byng, 17.78m. Mia McIntosh, two 60mh runs, 8.46 and 8.53.

[Stew-Coach]

I'll keep the 400m theme to my posts going hahaha

Lee Thompson showing some "decent" 400m form winning the northern comfortably in late 47, but returned the next day to win the 200 (5th race of the weekend) in 21.1 PB

Showing some excellent speed early on, 5 weeks out from Champs and a welcome return to some form for the lad!

[Occasional Hope]

PV PB of 4.85 for u23 decathlete Ollie Thorner.

[RunUnlimited]

On the 13th, there was a welcome return to action for former 400m European U18 silver medallist (2018), European U20 400m 5th placer (2019) and European U23 4 x 400m relay silver (2021, as the youngest member of the squad at 20) Ethan Brown. He ran 47.93 at the Arkansas Invitational when coming 3rd for his university, TCU. It was his first appearance anywhere since going out in the heats of the UK Athletics championships last June following a frustrating, injury-affected, season. (I also think the death of his coach Lloyd Cowan has had it's influence too)

The 21 year old will look to put the last 2 years behind him and start showing the promise and talent he had as an 18/19 year old.

[carterhatch]

Also, interesting to note from America that Kristal Awuah ran an indoor 300 [Birmingham, Alabama 13 Jan] I wonder what the thinking is behind that...

[RunUnlimited]

@carterhatch

It is an interesting development.. According to her PoT page, Awuah had never done a 300m before (though I'm sure she's done some in training sessions) that one in Alabama 5 days ago.

Perhaps she is starting to take the 200m more seriously this year and is focusing on improving her stamina and speed endurance? It couldn't be that Awuah is thinking of stepping up for an occasional tilt at a 400m?

[MysteryBrick]

Ethan Brown is an excellent talent (46.16 and a 45.2 relay split last year) who has had a supremely frustrating last few years. I hope he manages to put it behind him (and yes RunUnlimited, I remember seeing him working with Lloyd at the Southwark Park track quite a few times, and they were definitely close). He could absolutely be an asset on the 4x400m team, providing depth and competition in the heats at a minimum.

Regarding Awuah, I really can't see her doing much over 400m, her form is so staccato and power-based it seems unlikely to transfer (as evidenced by 11.1-11.3 100m times translating to 23.0+ over 200m). It's been irksome seeing her stall, I remember feeling that GB had an Asha Philip replacement ready-made when she ran 11.16 in 2018 and then came 4th in the Euro Indoor 60m in 2019...

[Christy93]

7.09 for Dina in Jablonec, superb opener.

[RunUnlimited]

An excellent start for Dina's 2023 season, just .01 off equalling her 60m PB.

[Runner88]

Anyone know if she’s targeting the Euro indoors?

[Occasional Hope]

Most encouraging.

[RunUnlimited]

Josh Zeller starts his 2023 season with a near-PB run in the 60m hurdles for Michigan in 7.69 seconds.

[RunUnlimited]

Sam Reardon, 5th at last year's World U20 Championship 800m final and a European U20 gold medallist in the 4x400m relay in 2021, opens 2023 with a solid win in 47.30. That's his 3rd fastest 400m time indoors and now in his first year as an U23, Reardon will be aiming for a spot on the senior 4x400m squad at the upcoming European Indoor Championships.

[RunUnlimited]

And now for a trio of impressive times over the 300m distance by British women yesterday, all reported on by the ever-reliable Ian Hodge's Twitter page.

We start with the youngest of the 3, Rebecca Grieve. Last year, she was part of the gold medal winning GB medley relay squad at the European U18 Championships in Jerusalem and is among a crop of very talented 400m U20 and U18 runners to have emerged from these shores in the last 18 months or so. Yesterday, the Pitreavie athlete, now in the USA studying and running for New Mexico University, stopped the clock in 38.81. Unfortunately, Po10 doesn't show any performances from Scottish U20s over indoor 300m (mainly because of the pretty dumb cut off point of 38.19 they've placed there), but according to Ian Hodge, this is likely a new Scottish U20 indoor record. For a 17 year old athlete, that is a very impressive start to her year.
It currently is 3rd in the world for U20s this early in 2023, but considering the top two times were set in December by athletes who are now in the U23 age category, then for now at least, Grieve is technically leading the world on times! (I don't expect that to last long, but it is nice to see nonetheless!)

Next up is fellow Scot Nicole Yeargin, who of course is far more experienced than the previous entry. The 25 year old at the Hawkeye Pro Classic, held in Iowa City, just a few hours after Grieve's potentially record breaking run, would herself smash Lee McConnell's nearly 18 year old NR. Her time of 36.89 not only sliced more than 7/10ths off the old record, it's also the first time that any British athlete has run sub 37 seconds for 300m during an actual 300m race. (Nicola Sanders outstanding 36.0 which tops the all-time list on Po10 was achieved during her magically gold medal winning 400m indoor NR at the 2007 European Indoor Champs in Birmingham)
This type of running indicates that Yeargin is in fine form early doors in 2023 and there is the potential for her to be around the low to mid 50 seconds if she can translate this outdoors... let alone what she could do at the Euro Indoors in March.

And following on from Yeargin, Jodie Williams, who despite a host of injury problems in 2022 that prevented her from reaching the sub-50 second from shown at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, still managed a 4th (200m) and bronze (4x400m) at the EC and a bronze (400m) at the CWG (which would have been joined by a 4x400m relay gold but for that baton exchange mishap and subsequent DQ). A few minutes after the Scottish athlete's great run, Williams would herself break the English 300m indoor all time best (during a 300m race), stopping the clock in a swift 37.24.