2022-2023 Indoor Season UK results

[CAML]

That's 3 pb's from his last 3 races for Sam Bennett. At the same meet Sarah Omoregie threw a SP pb of 16.64m as did Kenny Ikeji with 21.59m in the weight throw.

[LoveSprints1]

Great to see both Yeargin and Anning rewrite the UKA indoor All-time 400m list in 4th and 6th respectively.

Races here. Yeargin: https://twitter.com/KentuckyTrack/st...7-GT8mTswRA

Anning: https://twitter.com/RazorbackTF/stat...T8mTswRA

Brilliant news re. Sam Bennett's return after years of injury.

[RunUnlimited]

Talking of British athletes competing for Harvard, Kenneth Ikeji, a hammer thrower from Basildon who has been steadily improving through the year groups, broke his own school record in the weight throw with 21.59m at the same meet which saw the return of Sam Bennett to sprint hurdling.

Still just 20, Ikeji has a hammer PB of 69.01m and will be looking to get beyond 70m once the outdoor season begins.

[CAML]

18 year old thrower Rhys Allen quietly settling into American college life. With SP and DT pb's from 22 of 17.29/56.89 with the junior implements, Rhys has recently thrown 16.31m with the senior shot. The European Juniors are the main focus this year, I'm sure his 6'7"/250lb frame will have caught the eye of the American football coaches.

[RunUnlimited]

Well for the sake of British throwing fans, here's hoping that Rhys Allen *can't* bench press a small bus and/or run the 40 yard dash in under 4.5 seconds... because someone with his size at such a young age will have those American Football coaches and scouts casting an eye his way.

[RunUnlimited]

Josh Zeller continued his 100% winning run with victory at the PNC Lenny Lyles Invitational over in the University Of Louisville, taking the final comfortably in 7.88. In the earlier heats, Zeller, now a senior at Michigan, had broken the facility record of 7.86 set last year, with a 7.83 victory. In truth though, the competition wasn't really that tough as Zeller was easily the top ranked hurdler attending and he didn't really need to get into top gear to win.

There will be tougher tests and opponents in the coming weeks.

[Occasional Hope]

Jaz Sawyers opens her season with 6.50 in Dusseldorf.

6.60 for Jeremiah Azu at the same meeting.

[Ladyloz]

Azu matches the time of his training partner from yesterday. Should be a super competitive event at the British Champs.

Asha Philip false started again. Hope this doesn't become a thing for her like Zharnel Hughes.

[LoveSprints1]

If you watch the race it is impossible to see that she false started. Others moved before her.

[philipo]

Due to the ignorance of my technical experience I seem to be philipo again but it is only my phone. I am marilyn on my computer. Sorry posters.

[CAML]

17 year old Sam Lunt 6.96 for 60m. It looks like there is a British 400m hurdler here with real raw speed. His development continues apace.

[MysteryBrick]

Yeah, that is a serious talent right there, especially as a first year U20!

[Runner88]

Great to see some domestic competition in the multi events. First year U23 Adam Hoole won the Scottish Combined Events title with 5582 to go 4th in the British rankings.

[Occasional Hope]

Jake Wightman out for the indoor season with a foot injury

[RunUnlimited]

Great to see some domestic competition in the multi events. First year U23 Adam Hoole won the Scottish Combined Events title with 5582 to go 4th in the British rankings.

It's taken long enough.

For whatever reason, male multi eventers in GB have never been able to have nearly the same success that the women have managed since Mary Rand and Mary Peters started off the trend of heptathlon excellence internationally, over 50 years ago. The only men to have medalled at either the Olympic Games or World Championships decathlon for GB were the exceptional, one-off talent that was Daley Thompson and the incredibly gutsy, charismatic Dean Macey. And apart from those two also winning Commonwealth golds, the last CWG medallists from these shores stretch back to the 1970's (aside from Ashley Bryant's silver in Glasgow 2014). As a whole, only 6 British men have ever scored over 8000 points for the decathlon, and only *3* have managed over 8300 points.

Meanwhile, in the heptathlon, there has been a stream of medal winners - and not just one offs either. Often there has been a conveyer belt of talent who have added to GB's bulging medal cabinet, with a leading lady contesting for golds and a couple of other very able deputies who are good enough to reach the podium too.

That just hasn't been the case with the UK's decathletes. Of course, we all know how Thompson dominated the decathlon world from 1980-86, but his was a lone furrow. When he retired, there was no immediate back up in sight, aside from Alex Kruger occasionally appearing in a World Champs or a Commonwealth Games (when not injured) during the 1990's, though he was never seriously competitive in them.
There was effectively no serious British representation in the decathlon on the global stage until Dean Macey burst onto the scene so spectacularly in Seville 1999 (though he had won a World Junior silver medal in 1996). Then after Macey's injury-blighted, yet always entertaining career had ended in 2008, there has been another yawning gap in terms of talent coming through.
Daniel Awde basically pushed his body into oblivion trying to achieve the London 2012 Olympic qualifying mark, and once he did that (8102 PB), he basically never did the decathlon again. (He DNF'd in London, then switched to the 400m flat in the remaining 3 years of his athletics career).
Ashley Bryant, following his Commonwealth silver in 2014, and narrowly missing out on a European U23 medal the year before (despite scoring 8000+ points), basically did the same as Awde in trying to attain the Q standard for the 2017 World Championships in London, which he did with a PB of 8163 in Gotzis. Unlike Awde, Bryant did manage complete the decathlon in front of home support, finishing a respectable 11th, scoring 8049 points... but he too wouldn't complete another decathlon after that effort, and he hasn't competed since 2020.

Then there is Tim Duckworth. Very talented, good in the jumps and sprints, weaker in the throws, and pretty dire in the 1500m, but in 2018 he genuinely looked like the best decathlete Britain had seen since Macey, after he won the NCAA title with 8336 points, putting Duckworth 3rd on the UK all time list, then later in the summer coming a creditable 5th place at the Berlin European Championships... at the age of 22. But since then, he hasn't scored over 8000 points again and last year he only competed in the long jump, hasn't finished a full decathlon since 2021.

Could we be finally seeing an actual crop of talent young male multi eventers finally coming together at roughly the same time and potentially pushing at least one of them above the miasma of mediocrity that has been the UK's decathlon scene for too long now?
In the U20's there's the seriously talented Sammy Ball, who was set for a top 5 finish at last year's World U20s at age 17, before injury forced him to pull out, coming through.
Adam Hoole, as already mentioned, Jack Turner, Ollie Thorner and a new name that I only found out about today, Phillip Kastner. All U23s steadily improving.
And even the likes of Sam Talbot, oft-injured as a junior talent, now starting to show what he is capable of in his early 20's.

[trevorp]

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. It was pretty comprehensive - if not slightly depressing - and provided food for thought. I hope we get to see Ashley Bryant in a championship again: he might not be a world-beater but has always struck me as a good honest competitor. Duckworth really is an enigma, isn't he? Many thanks again.

[RunUnlimited]

Imani Lansiquot opens here 2023 season with a 7.23 victory in the 60m heats at the Newham & Essex Beagles 60m Indoor Open Sprint series, just 0.02 off her indoor PB. U23 Eve Wright, still just 20, was 2nd in 7.45, also a couple of hundredths down on her own indoor PB, as was fellow U23 Alannah Fashanu, who finished 3rd in 7.47 (7.45 PB).

(BTW, I think that Alannah Fashanu is possibly one to watch.

She came late into athletics, with her Po10 page stating that her first recorded athletics result was in 2018 as an U17, stopping the clock in a 100m race in 12.96. Just 2 years later though, she would win an English Schools 100m title (11.84 PB, 2021) and by 2022, had further lowered her 100m best to 11.62 (while having a heavily wind assisted 11.23 performance too). This followed a winter where she took her 60m best down from 7.87 to 7.47.

However, it's Fashanu's improvements over the 200m that catch the eye most. In 2021, her PB over the longer sprint was 24.82. Just a year later however, she would hack over 1.5 seconds off that time to record new figures of 23.32, placing her 19th in the UK in 2022 on times and into 32nd on the UK all time list for the U23 age group. In just her second year of actually running 200m races! That level of rapid improvement is to be noted for sure.)

In the men's heats, Alex Haydock-Wilson, clearly doing some speed work, came 3rd in 6.96, his 3rd fastest 60m time ever. Daniel Offiah won the heat in 6.76, the 26 year old, who has a 100m PB of 10.36 from last year, equalling his 60m PB in his first appearance of the year.

[Christy93]

Lansiquot improves to an outright PB of 7.17 in the final. Good signs for a sprinter who has all too often left herself way too much to do out of the blocks. Well done!

[Occasional Hope]

A great improvement.

[RunUnlimited]

In the women's 60m final in Newham, Imani Lansiquot won in a new personal best of 7.17, moving into =7th on the UK all time list! Behind her, it was a repeat of the earlier heat as Eve Wright and Alannah Fashanu finished in 2nd and 3rd place. And both athletes were rewarded with new PBs, shaving 0.01 off their previous marks, 7.42 and 7.46 respectively. 2nd year U20 Saskia King, was also rewarded with a new lifetime best of 7.65, a 0.09 improvement.

The men's final saw Daniel Offiah repeat his PB-equalling run in the heat, winning in 6.76. Meanwhile in 4th place, AHW ran 6.88, just outside his indoor PB of 6.87.