‘On Camp with Kelly’ athlete Emma Jackson (City of Stoke) continued her excellent season by running under two minutes for 800m for the first time at the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace on Friday 5 August, clocking 1:59.97 for fifth place in the Diamond League race.
With the pace was fast from the gun Emma settled towards the back of the field but by the time pacemaker OCWK athlete Tara Bird (Woodford Green with Essex Ladies) led them through the bell in 56.51, she was beginning to move through the field and was up to fourth by the start of the back straight behind Jamaica’s Kenia Sinclair, Marilyn Okoro and Jenny Meadows. She dropped to fifth when passed by Slovakia’s Lucia Klocova around the final bend but fought hard down the home straight to maintain that position and close on the athletes in front of her and was rewarded with her first ‘sub 2’ and another World Championships B qualifying standard. Meadows won the race in 1:58.60 ahead of Sinclair in 1:59.16, Klocova in 1:59.65 and Okoro in 1:59.85.
After the race Emma said: “I don’t know what to feel. I am so pleased to run under two minutes but it’s tinged with disappointment as I thought I had a great chance to get the World Championships A standard (1:59.80). I lost my momentum slightly when I was clipped with 150 metres to go and just tied up a bit at the end. My aim for the season was to run sub two and I have accomplished that and going to the Worlds will be a bonus.”
Hannah England (Oxford City AC) also showed good form in the ‘GB v USA’ 1500m on Saturday, taking second place in 4:05.38 behind Lisa Dobriskey’s 4:04.97. After being up with the leaders in the early stages Hannah found herself back in sixth at the midway point but moved through strongly on the final lap and was closing fast on Dobriskey at the line.
Hannah said: “I have put in a heavy week of training this week ahead of the World Championships and didn’t feel quite as fresh as usual so am pleased with how it went. I’m really looking forward to the Worlds and my goal is definitely to reach the final.”
Stacey Smith (Gateshead Harriers), who sat off the fast pace in the early stages, finished seventh in 4:10.80 and Stevie Stockton (Vale Royal) eighth in 4:14.21.
German Jana Hartmann was the winner of Friday’s ‘On Camp with Kelly’ 800m invitation race, clocking 2:01.97 ahead of Australian Tamsyn Manou in 2:02.24 and OCWK Charlotte Best in 2:02.96.
When pacemaker Tara Bird dropped out after leading the field through the bell on schedule in 58.35 seconds, Manou was lying in first place followed by Karen Harewood, Italian Elisa Cusma Piccione and Hartmann. Cusma Piccione dropped out at the 500 metre point and Manou and Harewood began to pull away down the back straight, with Charlotte Best (Crawley AC) moving through the field into contention.
It was Hartmann who had the fastest finish, passing Manou shortly before the line to take the win and Charlotte also finishing strongly to take third in exactly the same time (2:02.96) as Czech Tereza Capkova. Harewood took fifth in 2:04.32 with Philippa Aukett sixth in 2:05.23 ahead of the two other OCWK athletes in the race in seventh and eighth - Rowena Cole (Coventry Godiva Harriers) who clocked 2:06.34 and Lucy Dowsett (Cambridge & Coleridge) who was close to her personal best with 2:06.75.
After the race Charlotte said: “I am pleased with that, it went much better than the Trials last weekend. I held back a bit in the early stages and was able to come through strongly at the end. I had hoped to run a bit quicker but it was good preparation for the World University Games. My aim there is to reach the final and see what happens.”
Lucy added: “It was a fantastic experience and a good race. It was brilliant to have such a big crowd supporting us. The first lap was very fast and I was just trying to hang on to the pace. My time wasn’t quite as quick as I wanted but I wasn’t too far off my personal best. It was enjoyable and good to mix it with faster athletes.”
Rowena said: “I enjoyed doing the race and it was lovely to run in front of a large crowd. I’m a bit disappointed with how I ran but it was nice to get back into racing after winning a silver medal at the European Juniors two weeks ago. Thank you to Aviva and ‘On Camp with Kelly’ for organising the race.”
Andrew Osagie (Harlow AC) produced an excellent performance in the men’s 800m on Friday, moving through the field on the second lap to finish in fifth place in a personal best and A qualifying standard of 1:45.36 to secure his place in the team for the World Championships later this month. The race was won by Kenyan David Rudisha in 1:42.91, the fastest time ever run in the UK.
Meanwhile Gemma Kersey (Basildon AC) celebrated her selection to join ‘On Camp with Kelly’ by winning the Under 20 3000m which opened the programme on Friday, clocking a personal best of 9:44.31 to win by three seconds.
Gemma said: “I enjoyed the race and found it really comfortable. I didn’t want to take it on straight away as it’s my first 3000m at that level but I went for it with two laps to go. I think I could have gone a bit quicker but I’m pleased with the win.”
Non Stanford was in action at the ITU Triathlon World Championship race in Hyde Park, London, on Saturday 6 August, finishing in 39th place in 2:03.13 (20:09 for 1500m swim, 65:27 for 40km bike, 36:21 for 10km run). The race was won by fellow GB athlete Helen Jenkins in 2:00.34.
As the field set off on the 40km bike leg after the 1500m swim, Non found herself in the third group formed of around 15 athletes. By the end of the second of the seven laps the second and third groups has joined together and over the course of the next four laps were chasing down the leading group of 34 with Non doing a lot of the work at the front. On the final lap the two groups came together meaning that 59 athletes went through transition together onto the run section.
Having worked hard on the bike Non was unable to keep with the leaders on the run and also had to serve a 15 second time penalty for a transition infringement but given her ranking of 66th going into the race 40th was a very solid result.
Photos Mark Shearman
