The countdown to the London 2012 Olympic Games has begun for many of Great Britain’s chief selection hopes with the commencement of the indoor season several weeks ago. Next month’s World Indoor Championships in Istanbul provide an early opportunity for the athletes to test their mettle under the spotlights of a global domain that will demand much more of them come August. Although, rivalries on home soil must come to a head first, with the Indoor UK Trials and Championships taking place in Sheffield today and tomorrow.
The women’s 60m looks the most exciting event of the weekend with eight of the nation’s top-10 ranked athletes entered to compete. After an almost anonymous three-year spell between 2007 and 2010, Newham & Essex Beagles’ Asha Philip returned to elite action last year with a series of times which barely skimmed her pool of undoubted potential. A scintillating 7.24sec clocking at Lee Valley last month makes her the fastest Briton this year and all but confirms a timely return to favour for the former trampolinist. Jeanette Kwakye and Laura Turner are the only other women to have broken 7.30sec this year. Kwakye ran 7.26sec at an International Match in Glasgow for her only result this winter, whilst Turner has raced seven times in a four week period to sharpen up for Sheffield.
Andy Pozzi, Lawrence Clarke and Gianni Frankis clash in the men’s 60m hurdles after the withdrawal of Andy Turner. The youngest of the three at 19, Pozzi leads the rankings with a 7.62sec performance at the Birmingham Games last Sunday, indicating he may be en route to a peak performance in tomorrow’s heats. The Stratford-upon-Avon athlete should also have the mental edge over Frankis at least, who he beat at the Vienna Indoor Classic last Tuesday. Indeed, Frankis must also overcome any psychological doubts about his beating Clarke too, after suffering defeat in Mondeville, France last weekend by 0.17sec.
An exciting contest is also expected to develop in the first field event of the weekend, the women’s high jump. Jessica Ennis, as is her custom, is expected to tighten the screw in the run-up to her Olympic Heptathlon with four events on the weekend agenda. The City of Sheffield woman has the highest personal best in the field and may need to go close to that 1.95m mark if she is to see off the challenge of rising star Isobel Pooley. Pooley, 19, jumped a personal best 1.88m in Sheffield at the City Challenge series just last weekend, and the University of Nottingham undergraduate’s confidence is riding high ahead of this morning’s competition.
“My recent personal best has given me the perfect boost heading into an event which I have targeted all winter. I still need to jump 1.93m to qualify for the World Indoors, but I’m confident I can jump those extra five centimetres and compete well at Sheffield this weekend,” she said.
“The pressure’s on me to pull out a big jump to win the competition, but my training has been going well and I am really confident of a big performance on the day. Big personal bests, such as the one I jumped the other day, can take a lot out of athletes mentally and physically. I am pleased to say I’m not too tired though.
“The Trials have certainly been my biggest target for this indoor season, with the World Indoors a by-product of doing well there. In the next couple of weeks I also have the BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships, where I am looking forward to jumping big heights for the University of Nottingham.
“A year ago it would have been absurd to consider me as the favourite for the UK Indoor Championships. To now be ranked number one in 2012 and one of the favourites is a very big compliment for me.”
All the main protagonists are set to show in the men’s pole vault, with Steve Lewis an outright favourite as the man currently ranked number one and the entrant with the highest personal best. However, as was evident at the International Match in Glasgow last month, Lewis is not immune to domestic defeat. Andy Sutcliffe, Lewis’ Glasgow conqueror, is amongst the entries alongside Joe Ive and last year’s UK Indoor Champion Max Eaves.
20-year-old Sutcliffe is ranked number two after making a huge improvement upon last year’s results with a 5.54m clearance at the Insa Perch’formance event in France last month. After only clearing 5.25m during a disrupted 2011, his personal best arrived on one of those days where everything went right for the Sale Harrier. However, the Julien Raffalli-Ebezant coached-jumper has warned for spectators to expect the unexpected in an event where form goes out the window.
“Pole vault is an event which an athlete can make massive improvements in, in a one-off competition. There are those who can get it right on the day and improve by half a metre and some who may improve by two or three centimetres at each event over the summer. At Villeurbanne everything went right for me and I nailed that 5.54m,” he explained.
“In major championships, the pole vault is one of those events where there will always be one unexpected result, without a doubt. None of the athletes can ever count their chickens and just about anyone can beat anyone if they get it right on the day.
“Steve (Lewis) has lots and lots of experience and knows how and when to get himself into great shape for the championship meets. If you look at his record you will see how rarely he is outside the top-two when competing amongst British athletes. He’ll be in form, but that may count for little if someone pulls out a massive jump. Max Eaves pulled out a huge jump (5.61m) in last year’s event to surprise everyone by winning the competition, which just goes to show anything can happen.”
Other events which strike me as unexpected, but potential highlights are the women’s triple jump and shot put competitions. Yamilé Aldama is a strong favourite for the national title in the former, but the challenges of Peter Stanley’s Nadia Williams and Yasmine Regis should not be totally discounted. Ranked second and third respectively, the pair have competed heavily in the run up to the championships, with competitions across the continent and a steady rate of progression in their performances. Williams has improved from 13.11m on January 15 to a season’s best 13.52m in Vienna last week, and Regis reached out to 13.16m at the same meet to confirm her own 2012 best. Aldama, on the other hand, has only her outing in Glasgow almost a fortnight ago to call upon.
Women’s shot put has suffered from a dearth of talent for over 20 years. Two months after Judy Oakes putted a British record 19.36m in 1988, Eden Francis was born. Now 23, Francis looks the most talented Briton to have contested the event since Oakes, with a personal best 16.92m recorded in Austria last week putting her eighth on the all-time list. With another seven or eight years until her peak, the Birchfield Harrier may well threaten Oakes’ legacy in due course.
Current British number one, Francis is favourite for the crown in Sheffield, but must be weary of 22-year-old Rachel Wallader. Wallader is coached by the legendary Geoff Capes and is the only other woman to have surpassed 16 metres this year. Registered at an uncompetitive Loughborough Students open meeting, Wallader’s 16.02m puts her well in the mix for a gold medal dust-up with Francis.
Beren Cross
beren.cross@hotmail.co.uk
