Ennis and Co. give new track a baptism of fire.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this year’s Loughborough International is that the event took place at all writes LUKE STOTT. With less than 48 hours to go, work was still going on to complete the relaying of the track that now features eight rather than six lanes, as well as a new flood lighting system and a fully landscaped surroundings. On the day of the meet spectator areas were limited as a result of the construction work with the result being every possible viewpoint was taken up by fans eager to take in the unofficial curtain raiser of the British athletics season. Even the weather, which flip flopped all day between driving rain and bursts of sunshine couldn’t blunt the performances of the athletes so many had come to see.

After her spectacular return to heptathlon competition last week, all eyes were on Jessica Ennis who produced her fastest 100m hurdles performance ever to stop the clock at 12.93 (+2.0 m/s). That performance certainly took the spotlight off her earlier efforts in the long jump (6.04m) which will need improving if the Sheffield based athlete is to be amongst the medals in Berlin.

“I’m quite surprised because it didn’t feel that quick what with the weather being a bit grim.” Said Ennis, pleased to be back inside the warmth of the HIPAC and out of the unseasonable weather. “I’m a bit disappointed with my long jump, that needs a bit of work but that was always going to be a struggle. I think in a few more months I’ll be able to jump further.”

Many of the sprint events ran earlier in the day suffered from a failure of the electronic timing which resulted in hand times being taken for the 100m, 300m and 400m races. That didn’t bother Loughborough’s Seyi Smith who fresh from his 10.23 championship best performance over the 100m at the recent BUCS championships took on both short sprints, triumphing in the 100m from Jeffrey Lawal Balogun (both clocking 10.4 hand timed) before the England athlete reversed the result in the 200m, by which time the electronic timing had resumed working, 20.95 to 21.00.

“It’s been a day of execution versus performance” said Smith who is studying for a masters degree, “I want good performances but at the same time I want to execute well. In the 100m I got left in the blocks but I didn’t panic and caught up but its mistakes like those that make you lose races. In the 200m I had better execution but I’d have liked to have gone faster and won. I know what times I’m capable so I’m disappointed in my lack of mental fortitude to execute when I have to and not make mistakes.”

Emerging star Emily Diamond won on her GB Junior debut in the 100m running 11.7 (+1.2m/s) to edge out Kadi-Ann Thomas (11.8) and Annabelle Lewis (11.9). The 200m belonged to another young prodigy; the fifteen-year-old Jodie Thomas who for the second weekend in a row clocked 23.50 (-0.2m/s), a time which completely overshadowed the efforts of Ashlee Nelson and Thomas whose match race went down to the wire: 23.82 to 23.83 in Nelson’s favour (+1.2m/s).

As 150m races seemed in vogue this weekend the event organisers elected to include one for the second year running with Craig Pickering lining up for a bit of over distance work, winning in 15.42 from 15.69 Wade Bennett Jackson performance. Afterwards Pickering said of his experience, “It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be! I do a lot of them in training but not quite to that speed. I tried to keep my form together but it could have been worse. When asked if he’d be measuring his performance against those set in Manchester he commented, “I don’t think you can compare it to what they run in Manchester because they’re running on a straight which can make the times up to half a second quicker.”

The rarely run 300m distances provided a close fought contest between Richard Strachan and Nigel Levine and with both athletes clocking 33.4 it was Strachan who emerged victorious on the photo finish. In the women’s equivalent there was a win for Victoria Barr (37.4) from the versatile Joey Duck (38.1). Richard Buck dominated the 400m, cruising round in 46.4 followed by Jordan McGrath (47.0) who sadly ended the day with a hamstring injury sustained in the relay. But for every injury there is a comeback, just ask Chris Clarke whose 47.6 clocking in an invitational race proved he is over the hamstring injury he suffered at the European Trials in February. Vicky Griffiths stepped down from her usual 800m in order to contest the women’s 400m as part of the England team and didn’t disappoint, recording a personal best of 53.8 ahead of guest Kelly Massey’s 54.0.

In the 800m there were race wins for Damien Moss (1:49.76) and Claire Gibson of Scotland (2:02.95) and a European U23 qualifier for England’s Tara Bird who ran 2:03.71. The 1500m performance of the day surely belonged to the fourteen year old Jessica Judd who ran 4:26.96 to win her invitational race beating a host of athletes many years her senior. In the match races Jonathan Taylor was close to his best with his winning time of 3:45.21 for the British Universities team and Catherine Riley who ran 4:18.00 just holding off Rose-Anne Galligan (4:18.42). Laura Kenney took a decisive victory over Olympic forth placer Lisa Dobriskey as she stepped up a distance to 3000m. Kenney crossed the line in 9:04.43 some six seconds ahead of Dobriskey who recorded 9:10.96. The men’s race produced an even more lopsided result as Andy Vernon doubled the winning advantage from the women’s race to win in 7:57.06 with Jonathan Mellor second in 8:09.53. The 3000m Steeplechase yielded comfortable wins for Scotland’s Conor Mcnulty (9:05.75) and Englands Tina Brown (10:16.70).

Aside from Ennis’ endeavours there was a host of impressive hurdle results in both the sprint and the one lap forms. Lawrence Clarke recorded a windy 13.66 (+2.5m/s) in the junior 110m hurdles only to return later with a 14.02 clocking over the senior heights in a race won by William Sharman in 13.72 (+0.5). In the longer races Eilidh Child produced a massive personal best of 56.27 to win by two seconds from the rest of the field. The men’s section produced another fine race between two Welshmen. The first was the in form David Greene who won the race in 50.23 but making up huge strides in the closing moments was Rhys Williams (50.49) the 2006 European bronze medallist who has endured a two year injury nightmare that has included four stress fractures and a bone growth being surgically removed from his foot. Williams however said he’s just glad to be back racing, “It’s a long season and today is just the start of it. I’m back running and that’s what I want to do.” Said the Malcolm Arnold coached athlete. “There are a lot of positives I can take from today. In any season it takes a few races to get up to speed and the weather was bad today but it’s going to take me a while to get up to speed because I haven’t raced in years.”

The sparkling performances continued across the stadium in the field events with Mervyn Luckwell, the only javelin thrower in possession of the World Championships ‘A’ standard took on a high class domestic field and although the 80m barrier remained intact on this occasion Luckwell threw 79.75 to win as newly crowed BUCS record holder Chris Hughff recorded 74.38 and the rapidly improving Scot James Campbell took third place with a 73.28m effort. In the women’s equivalent Loughborough’s Goldie Sayers first round throw of 59.77 was more than enough to secure yet another maximum for her university. In the Women’s hammer Olympian Zoe Derham secured the win with a 67.73m throw that was just enough to see off Irelands Eileen O’Keefe (67.10m) whilst GB Junior Sophie Hitchon produced an excellent personal best of 62.96 to improve her own age group record for fourth place. In the men’s section Matthew Richards of Wales took the honours with a best of 67.51m. Loughborough has long been able to rely on a heavy point scoring from its shot putters and this year was no exception as Rebecca Peake (15.91m) and Keiran Kelly (18.72m) comfortably outdistanced the opposition. However England returned the favour in the Discus as Abdul Buhari (58.02m) and Emma Carpenter (50.90m) prevailed. The men’s pole vault provided an excellent stage for Luke Cutts to extend his personal best out to 5.55m and Emma Lyons made it another England double with win on count back from Sally Scott after both athletes had cleared 3.95m. In the high jump it was a different story however as it was Loughborough’s turn to dominate. After spending an evening in the company of the legendary Dick Fosbury Robbie Grabarz (2.15m) and Steph Pywell (1.82m) flopped their way 4cm above the rest of the field. John Carr of Scotland took the triple jump with a 15.61m leap as Nadia Williams secured yet another impressive result with 13.33 in the women’s equivalent. Finally the Long Jump events belonged to Leigh Smith who sailed out to 7.33m and Phyllis Agbo who landed in the sand 6.41m from the take off board.

Amongst those watching the action were UKA head coach Charles Van Commenee and Kevin Tyler, the head of coaching and development and Tyler was particularly impressed with what meets such as this bring to the sport. “I think any time that an athlete gets a chance to represent their country in a structured team environment is a positive thing.” Said the Canadian. “There are a lot of things that change when you compete for your national team so it’s good to be able to familiarise yourself in an event that isn’t quite as stressful as a large scale championships.” He continued: “It’s also a good opportunity to get some really good competition in early in the season because it’s May and a lot of people are just coming out after the indoors so to be able to come here to a world class facility and compete in front of a large number of spectators with the right amount of pressure is just great.”

After England dominated the relays, (a monopoly was avoided thanks to the British Universities women’s 4x100m team) the final result of the match was a win for England with 187.5 points followed by last years champions Loughborough (151) and GB Juniors in third (129.5). British Universities (122) took forth place ahead of Scotland (114) with Wales (73) bringing up the rear.

This article was first published by ATHLETICS WEEKLY and is reproduced with their permission. For more visit www.athletics-weekly.com