News01 Aug 2011


Shakes-Drayton clinches unique double, Meadows wins first outdoor title – UK champs, Day 3

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Perri Shakes Drayton cruises to the UK 400m title (© Getty Images)

Birmingham, UKPerri Shakes-Drayton completed a unique double at the UK Trials and Championships in Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium on Sunday (31) when she added the 400m hurdles crown to the flat 400m title she took on Saturday.


Meanwhile, Martyn Rooney triumphed in a men’s 400m showdown, Jenny Meadows held on gamely to claim her first ever UK outdoor 800m title, and Jessica Ennis produced another two solid performances to complete her busy weekend’s work.


Elsewhere, Mo Farah cantered to a comfortable 5000m win, but Phillips Idowu failed to show up for the men’s Triple Jump.


Shakes-Drayton’s rise continues


Heralding from Bow, east London, a stone’s throw from the 2012 Olympic stadium, Shakes-Drayton is rapidly taking Christine Ohuruogu’s role as the local poster girl of the London Olympics.


The 22-year-old won European under-23 gold back in 2009, picked up European senior bronze in Barcelona last summer, and on Saturday beat Ohuruogo – the reigning Olympic champion – to win the 400m final here.


On Sunday, she returned to the track for her main event and “did the business” as she put it afterwards.


For a moment in the final, Shakes-Drayton looked as if she’d run out of steam. She entered the home straight side-by-side with Eilidh Child but pulled away over the final two barriers to win in 55.52.


That was a touch outside the World Championships qualifying time of 55.40, but Shakes-Drayton wasn’t worried about that – she’s already clocked 54.77 this year.


“I’ve just made history,” she said. “No one’s done that before and now I can say I’ve done it. I said to myself today, ‘I’ve won the 400 but that ain’t my event. The 400 hurdles is my event.’ I wanted to do the business today. Now I’ve done it.”


In fact it’s been a triumphant week for the east end girl who also graduated from university on Friday. “That chapter’s done now,” she said. “I can concentrate on athletics.


“A medal in Daegu would be lovely but the World Champs aren’t easy. Hopefully, I’ll get in the mix, make the final and then you never know what can happen.”


Shakes-Drayton may know she’s on the plane to Daegu, but there was no such luxury for Rooney, who beat a loaded field to win the men’s 400 in 45.44 – “not good enough”, as he said.


Britain’s 400m men have been criticised by UKA head coach Charles van Comenee recently, and Rooney was out to prove a point, although his winning time was still short of the 45.25 qualifying mark.


“It’s still not really good enough,” said Rooney. “It’s still not an A standard. Pretty poor. If you ask any of the top guys, we’re not satisfied, but we’ve just got to sort it out and pull our fingers out. We need to do it better over the next couple of weeks before we go to Daegu.


“I’m frustrated because I think I’m running weak. The way the standard is at the moment it would be nice to be running 44.6, 44.7 every week, then I’d be near the world number ones. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks I’ll get there.”


Going in lane three, the tall Rooney reined it in over the first 200, but poured it on in the final straight as he picked off the faster starters outside him. Behind him, 400m hurdler Dai Greene was third in a personal best of 45.82, with Chris Clarke taking second.


Meadows prevails in 800m showdown


Meadows was expected to battle with Marilyn Okoro as she sought her first national outdoor 800 title, but it was Emma Jackson who challenged her coming off the final bend. Meadows proved too strong and broke the tape in 2:02.28.


It won’t shake up the world order, but for Meadows it was an important part of her Daegu preparations.


“I’m really proud to be British, to become British champion,” she said. “I’ve been competing in this sport since I was seven and now I’m 30 – I’ve won every age group national title and never won the senior outdoor championship, so it was really important for me to win this. It’s a bit a pride – I am the British number one and it’s so nice to get the actual title.


“So much of my time I’m looking at global opposition but you have still got to come and do the job at the national championships. It’s very important for me and for my preparation for the World Championships.”


Ennis concludes busy weekend with Long Jump season’s best


Ennis followed her “satisfactory” performances in the hurdles, High Jump and shot on Saturday with her best long jump of the year today. Ennis leapt 6.44m, enough to finish third behind Shara Proctor’s winning leap of 6.65m, and is clearly edging towards her PB of 6.51m.


“I’ve been working on some things in the long jump and I feel that it’s improving, so I’m glad to have had that jump,” she said. “I’m really pleased. Hopefully I can put a little bit more on it come Daegu.”


She ended her weekend’s work with a decent javelin effort of 42.93m as Goldie Sayers claimed her ninth consecutive title with 60.57m.


Britain’s other world champion, Phillips Idowu, was less in evidence, as he opted out of these championships due to a “heavy week’s training”, leaving Larry Achike to take the title with 16.83m from yesterday’s Long Jump champion Julien Reid.


Farah cruises to 5000m title


Unlike, Idowu, the world’s current number one distance runner did show up, and Mo Farah barely broke sweat to win the men’s 5000m.


It was a 20-year-old Scot, Matthew Gillespie, who led early on, taking some 20 metres out of the British record holder at one stage, but Farah soon passed him with Andy Birnham alongside before accelerating away with 300m before cantering home in a comfortable jog.


Farah’s last kilometre was timed at 2:29, and he stopped the clock in 14:00.72, more than a minute and seven seconds slower than the British record he set in Monaco nine days ago.


“It’s really nice to come out here and perform in from the home crowd,” he said. “I thought if I’m going to be at home in the country then why not come out and compete here. Jess is here Dai is here, so it wouldn’t be fair to not turn up for the fans, even though I could have done without the race.


“Things are going really well for me. I think the main aim now is just not to get carried away, to keep doing what I’m doing and go out there and enjoy it.


“I’m definitely going to concentrate on one event and put all my eggs in one basket and that is the 10k.”


If Farah is the rising star of British athletics, for Christian Malcolm it was a case of turning back the clock as the 32-year-old beat men 12 years younger to win the men’s 200m title.


After finishing fourth in the 100m on Saturday, the two-times Olympic finalist used all his experience to come from behind in the home straight before taking the line in 20.85.


Anyika Onuora overtook the tiring Adi Oyepitan to add the women’s 200 title to the 100 silver she took yesterday. Onuora won in 23.26, just inside UKA’s Daegu B standard.


In the absence of Andy Turner, who ran in the 100m yesterday, Lawrence Clarke won the men’s 110m Hurdles. The former European junior champion sliced a hundredth from his PB in the semi-finals, running 13.58, before matching that in the final as he dipped ahead of Gianni Frankis on the line.


Clarke was the British athletics writers’ young athlete of the year a few years ago, and he was just one of a number of up and coming athletes to shine over the weekend.


Shane usets Baddeley in 1500m


James Shane was another. The 21-year-old took silver at the recent European under 23s and today he comprehensively outran a field of more experienced athletes to win his first senior 1500m title.


Shane left the defending champion, Andy Baddeley, trailing in his wake as he romped home over the final lap in 3:36.22, hacking nearly three seconds from his PB. Baddeley drifted home second in 3:39.44.


“Throughout my whole career I’ve always said that I want to be quicker than the likes of Steve Cram when he was 24 because that’s when it counts,” said the clearly ambitious Shane afterwards. “Hopefully I’ll continue to improve and maybe in the future people can be compared to me.”


There was defeat for another defending champion in men’s 800m when Michael Rimmer was beaten by Andrew Osagie who outkicked him to win in 1:46.84.


Elsehwere on the track, Luke Gunn front ran to victory in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase final, crossing the line with half the length of the straight to spare in 8:40.16, while Lennie Waite won the women’s event in 10:03.18.


Julia Bleasdale adopted similar tactics to take the women’s 5000m in a big PB of 15:49.02 – not bad considering it was the habitual cross country runner’s first track race since 2005. Liz McColgan’s daughter, Eilish, was second with her best ever of 15:52.69.


Tom Bosworth got the day off to a positive start when he broke the British record to win the men’s 5000m Race Walk. The 21-year-old finished in 19:29.87, erasing more than five seconds from the record set in 1989 as he took the title by a minute and a half.


Commonwealth 20km champion Jo Jackson again dominated the women’s race, winning her sixth title in 21:42.32, more than three minutes ahead of second-placed Heather Lewis.


The pick of the field events was the men’s High Jump where three men cleared 2.28m. Tom Parsons was the best of them, as he enjoyed a clean series before three close failures at the Daegu qualification height of 2.31m.


Martyn Bernard and Robbie Grabarz were second and third respectively on countback.


Holly Bleasdale cemented her growing reputation with an effortless victory in the Pole Vault. The 19-year-old British record holder took two jumps to win, one at 4.40m, one at 4.56m, before three gallant efforts at improving her national record to 4.71m.


“It was really good conditions, so it was a shame I couldn’t take advantage of that and jumping 4.71m,” said the European under 23 champion after securing her World championships berth.


“I thought 4.70m was going to be the highest I jumped this season, but from my very last jump today I know I’ve got more in me. A few tweaks in training and we can go from there really.”


It was a rather tougher introduction to senior competition for Lawrence Okoye, another 19-year-old British record holder. Okoye broke the Discus Throw record three weeks ago with 67.63m and went to claim the European under 23 title in Ostrava.


Although ranked fifth in the world, he could only finish fifth here with a best of 58.67m behind Abdul Buhari’s winning effort of 63.32m. With four British men holding the Daegu qualification standard, Okoye will have to refind his form to win the selectors’ verdict.


“I’m very disappointed as I had a poor competition today but it happens in a career and sometimes you have to take a few steps back to move forward,” he said. “I’ve got another chance to throw well at Crystal Palace next week and show my worth.”


Carl Myerscough was second in the discus before returning to chalk up his ninth shot put title with a winning effort of 18.57m.


Matthew Brown for the IAAF


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