World 1500m silver medallist Hannah England capped her short yet impressive indoor season with a fine second place finish amongst a world class field in Birmingham on Saturday 18 February, whilst a trio of ‘On Camp with Kelly’ and ‘Future Stars with Kelly’ athletes registered lifetime bests at the Aviva Grand Prix in the city’s National Indoor Arena.

Speeding to the cheers of her home crowd support, 24-year-old Hannah clocked a season’s best of 4:09.79 to finish as runner up to Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba (4:01.33).

A week after clinching the UK 3000m title in Sheffield and a month after running 4:25.11 in the Aviva Glasgow international, the Oxford born runner explained: “It was good and I performed as I expected, I just hoped to go a bit quicker than that.  I did it the hard way and in the last few laps I was just trying to concentrate on running well and not worrying about the girls behind.”

Seventh in this same event in 2011 before taking her first major international championship medal, she continued: “I’m chuffed that I managed to hold them off the whole way.”

Although not far off her 4:07.13 indoor personal best from 12 months ago, Hannah will now call an end to her winter racing campaign as she shifts her competitive focus in preparation for the Olympic Games in London this August.

One of the youngest athletes to impress the packed crowd overlooking the bright blue track was FSWK athlete Guy Learmonth.

The 19-year-old Scot sped to a superb 1:47.84 800m lifetime best when finishing eighth amongst another top class senior elite field.  Fresh from a second place finish in Sheffield, the former rugby player took a second and a half off his season’s best and eclipsed his personal best set last season by almost a second.

“I’m so happy to get the qualifying time (for the World indoor Championships) at 19 – it’s just brilliant to achieve that at this age,” he said.  “I tried to run my socks off in such a strong race and I can’t quite believe it – I’ll find out about selection for definite early next week and it would be a real dream come true.”

Another athlete feeling confident yet still awaiting official selection for the main event of the winter is OCWK athlete James Brewer.  The 23-year-old from Cheltenham crossed the line in seventh in the 1500m with a new lifetime best of 3:38.03 to greet him.

Taking almost four seconds off his previous indoor best dating back to 2008 and moving to fifth on the UK indoor all-time list, the UK indoor silver medallist from Sheffield is now looking forward to recapturing his best form from the beginning of the last Olympic cycle.

“I tried to hold on for as long as I could and felt good really,” he explained.  “The plan was to hold on to the quicker guys and chase hard the whole way - I made sure I didn’t push too hard too soon so it was nice to feel strong on the home straight.   That’s the fastest I’ve run since around Beijing and Berlin (the 2008 Olympics and 2009 World Championships) so I’m really pleased.  The field was a strong as the Worlds will be next month so I hope to get into the final there and then anything can happen.”

One OCWK runner still searching for the illusive qualifying time for Turkey, however, is fast improving 800m athlete Tara Bird.  The 24-year-old from Woodford Green with Essex Ladies registered an indoor personal best by almost half a second here when speeding to a strong 2:04.96 clocking, yet is still forced to chase the 2:03.50 criteria before time runs out in the coming days.

In a race paced by OCWK athlete Vicky Griffiths (Liverpool Harriers) the UK indoor silver medallist finished behind a trio of top Europeans and her training partner Marilyn Okoro (who finished third in 2:02.62) and revealed afterwards: “I was quite nervous going into this competition because I was the slowest going into it by far so I’m really pleased to not come last. Although I was a second outside the qualifying time, I do feel I can do it and will have another go. I’ve missed the indoor season for the past couple of years with injury so it’s really great to be running so well.”

Meanwhile, an OCWK athlete suffering frustration was Birchfield Harrier Mark Mitchell, who was forced to withdraw midway through his two mile debut against World 5000m champion Mo Farah and a stellar cast.

Report by Nicola Bamford

Photos Mark Shearman