Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i AW - Athletics Weekly Magazine

JUNE 2023 AW Editorial Director W ho'd be a meeting director? The high wire balancing act that so many top athletes perform between invincibility and injury means that, at the drop of a hat, the best laid plans can be cast asunder before you can say “groin strain”. Of course the top stars have to look after themselves, particularly at this stage in a summer when August's peak time is still some way off, but it doesn't stop the frustration – nor does it do much to help the sport – when some of the biggest match-ups and head-to-heads fail to materialise at short notice. There are some prime recent examples. Exhibit A was Marcell Jacobs not making it to the start line of either of the much publicised 100m…

DIGEST KATHARINE MERRY I must admit, I have loved seeing a spark and some good old-fashioned rivalry emerging recently on social media. Whether it's Fred Kerley and Marcell Jacobs in the men's 100m, Sha'Carri Richardson typically making her presence felt on the women's side —even Quanesha Burks and Tara Davis-Woodhall calling each other out ahead of their recent long jump battle — it has definitely added some spice to the early weeks of the season. I blame the pole vaulters for making such a show of all getting along so well and being so nice to each other! However, it does seem like it's been a while since we've seen athletes showing some outward hostility or playing mind games so openly and publicly. In years past, we had become used to…

Ed Faulds isn't afraid of the expectation he puts on himself. The prodigious 20-year-old has claimed European under-20 400m and 4x400m titles, run an impressive 45.72 over the one-lap distance and last year broke a 38-year-old European under-20 400m indoor record. When he clocked 46.16 at the British Grand Prix in Birmingham, demolishing the 46.39 that 1987 world 400m champion Thomas Schönlebe set three years previously, the bar rose significantly ahead of the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade. However, Faulds pulled out. At the time he stated it was because of a “small niggle” sustained at the Grand Prix but it was, in fact, a navicular stress fracture. Surgery followed and two pins were placed in Faulds’ right foot to rectify the issue. He went through rehabilitation and returned to…

This athletics summer might still be in the early stages, but already it is beginning to hit its stride. From the Night of the 10,000m PBs, to the Great Manchester Run and the Loughborough International, in the UK the third weekend of May was bursting at the seams with competition opportunities. A look back through the output of the AW social media channels and website from that 48-hour period showed a huge level of interest and engagement in the sport – that there was a feeling of momentum gathering. It all served as a welcome reminder that all is not entirely unwell with athletics and that the potential for growth is very real. There's just one, key problem. For that growth to happen, the audience is going to have to…

The conversation in athletics frequently turns to how we as athletes should be promoting ourselves in order to promote the sport. Pundits cry out for competitors with character to draw in the crowds. Amongst the elite ranks, we are expected to become the salespeople of our sport, to drive the business that it creates, but most of us arrived at this position through the single-minded pursuit of a beloved childhood hobby. We didn't go to business school. American sprinter Kyra Jefferson recently summarised it perfectly, defining track as “an amateur sport that just so happens to have professionals in it.” Even in the mythical land of the American dream, carving a viable career out of this struggling sport is a labour of love. With this in mind, I picked the…

The British Milers’ Club was created in 1963 and its origins can be traced to the pages of AW. Exasperated with the poor performances of middle-distance runners at the time, endurance coach Frank Horwill wrote to this magazine and his mission statement appeared in the June 29 issue that year. “A number of Senior AAA Honorary Coaches,” he said, “wish to start a specialist club for milers (male and female), to be known as the British Milers’ Club. The emblem for this Club will be a Union Jack mounted above a runner.” The letter ignited debate and led to the creation of the ‘BMC’, a specialist organisation which has given training and racing opportunities to generations of leading domestic runners for the past 60 years. Horwill passed away in 2012,…

FIELD FOCUS CHRIS BENNETT I COULDN'T PUT MY ARM ACROSS MY SHOOULDER WITHOUT BEING IN PAIN Chris Bennett describes the scene as “like something out of Laurel and Hardy”. Over Zoom, he subsequently demonstrates, quite comically, how he partially squeezed his body into an MRI scan machine, acknowledging that the “squashed” position was not optimal for an accurate diagnosis. The popular Scottish hammer thrower, who represented Team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was trying to get to the bottom of a seemingly innocuous injury sustained when falling on the ice during a throwing session in February 2021. Initially believed to be inflammation, Bennett continued to train and compete despite some shoulder discomfort. He was throwing consistently well – in fact, five of his ten best ever throws came between April…

PERFORMANCE DISCUS The rules Athletes throw a metal disc weighing 2kg for men (22cm in diameter) and 1kg (18cm in diameter) for women, as far as possible while remaining inside a 2.5-metre diameter circle. In order for the throw to be measured, the discus must land inside a marked sector and the athlete must not leave the circle before it has landed. The athlete must also only leave from the rear half of the circle. How did you start? I started doing athletics when I was about eight years old but was also playing basketball and volleyball. What I liked about athletics is that it is an individual sport – it was up to you if you succeeded, it did not depend on how your team-mates played. Five years later I…

OVERSEAS AUSTRIA Hypomeeting, Götzis, May 27-28 Anna Hall won the women's heptathlon by over 400 points as she just missed the 7000 points barrier. Her marks were 12.75 in the hurdles, 1.92m in the high jump, 13.90m in the shot, 22.88 in the 200m, 6.54m in the long jump, 43.08m in the javelin and 2:02.97 in the 800m. In second Kataina JohnsonThompson gained her best score since winning the world title in 2019 and showed good throwing form with 13.92m in the shot and 44.14m in the javelin – the two events in which she outscored Hall. Pierce LePage beat Damian Warner to win the decathlon with a world leading 8700 points. Dec: 1, P LePage CAN 8700 (10.28/1.5, 7.57/0.1 15.05, 2.03, 48.01, 13.87/1.0, 49.34, 5.00, 63.09, 4:45.74) 2 D…

DIP FINISH Sprinters Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Montell Douglas have been signed up to star in the new series of Gladiators. The duo are following in famous footsteps as the television contest was first shown in the UK in 1992 and has featured athletes such as Judy Simpson, Du'aine Ladejo, Jenny Stoute, Kate Staples, Shirley Webb and Lucy Boggis, among others. The early years also saw athletics coach John Anderson acting as referee with the catchphrase: “Contender ready! Gladiator ready!” Filming for the new series takes place at the Utilita Arena in Sheffield in early June and will be shown on BBC later this year. Douglas is a former UK 100m record-holder and says: “I'm so pleased I've been asked to be ‘Fire’. Being a gladiator has been a secret lifelong…

DIGEST PICTURE THIS Jackie joynerKersee's heptathlon world record of 7291, set at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, has stood the test of time. Since then only three heptathletes have broken the 7000 points barrier — Carolina Klüft of Sweden (7032), Nafi Thiam of Belgium (7013) and Larisa Nikitina of the Soviet Union (7007). At the latest Hypo-Meeting in Götzis on May 27-28, America's Anna Hall almost joined this exclusive club with a big score of 6988 to win the annual combined events extravaganza in style. Runner-up Katarina johnsonThompson of Britain posted her best score since winning the world title in Doha in 2019 with 6556 as Adrianna Sulek of Poland was third with 6480.…

MY GREATEST RACE STEVE SCOTT 70th Drake Relays, Des Moines, Iowa, April 27, 1979 Invitational Mile, 1st place, 3:55.26 (MR) The Drake Relays goes back over 100 years. When I was a senior in college at UC-Irvine, the meet director asked my coach, Len Miller, if they could fly me out and try to break the four-minute mile for the first time in Drake history. He said: “Sure, we'll bring out a couple of my other athletes and we'll do it.” But, the morning that we were flying out, I came down with a fever. I flew out anyway, hoping that if I had a day's rest, and the fever broke, that I'd be fine. But I was sick, and I had a temperature of 120°F. The director asked if I…

DIGEST THOMAS YOUNG It's wonderful to be making preparations for another championships summer. Personally, I'm desperate to make up for lost time after missing the Commonwealth Games last year through injury and having a World Para Athletics Championships on the horizon for the first time since 2019 is very significant. The fact they are taking place in Paris, host city for next year's Paralympics, only heightens the excitement levels. Though it will be a different competition venue, to be able to get the lay of the land – from transport systems through to where to get good coffee – and work the city out in advance is going to be massively helpful. As I mentioned, the pandemic has meant we haven't had a World Championships for four years now and this…

Q+A ENGLAND ATHLETICS AW sat down last month with four members of the board of England Athletics – CEO Chris Jones, chair Gary Shaughnessy plus directors Lorna Boothe and Janice Kaufman. We put a selection of readers’ questions to them concerning some of the biggest issues affecting the sport. What is the biggest area in need of attention? Chris Jones: Coming off the back of the pandemic, we lost 25 per cent of our members during that year – going from 187,000 registered athletes and 1750 member clubs down to 146,000 – and particularly we were affected in the youth section of track and field. We're gradually recovering and we're back at 168,000 members. Road running makes up the largest proportion of our membership but, in terms of track and field,…

INTERVIEW NIELSEN TWINS I wasn't only recovering physically, but also grieving my first World Championships, and the Commonwealth Games and Europeans. There was that loss as well. It was a lot” — Lina Nielsen Laviai and Lina Nielsen are laughing. That is the most important thing. With Logan, their much-loved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel — “this is the only King Charles in our lives” —sat obediently on Laviai's lap, they are discussing the merits of their new life in Vienna after last year's turmoil: the European coffee shops, the slower pace of life compared to their native London, the quality of food and enforced Sunday rest when most shops shut. Austria is not so much a fresh start and more of a low-key reset away from the spotlight. “Last week, I…

FIELD FOCUS KATIE MOON On the outside, it looked like 2022 had been the perfect year for Katie Moon. When the American added the world pole vault title, on home soil, to the Olympic gold she had won in Tokyo, it appeared that she was riding the crest of a particularly impressive wave. In reality, the 31-year-old was completely exhausted and even getting herself to Eugene had been an achievement in itself. Just a few months previously, an athlete accustomed to scaling great heights was “barely getting off the ground”. The pole vault is a scary enough event even when you're at the peak of your powers so even the smallest seeds of doubt being sown soon grow into a constricting force. To experience the high of victory again, Moon (née…

PERFORMANCE ASK THE PHYSIO I have pain on the inside of both of my lower calves when running. What could this be and should I run through it or rest immediately? I have been doing this job for a long time and I rarely tell people to rest. Your body often doesn't like you resting too much until you need to, so there are other ways of changing your training so it's not just a complete rest. I'm assuming this is pain deep down on the inside of your calves. There is a muscle there called tibialis posterior. We also have the medial gastrocnemius and the medial fibres of the soleus muscle, which are both also calf muscles. The tibialis posterior is more akin to people getting shin splints. As it's…

GET IN TOUCH: Email us at haveyoursay@athleticsweekly.com or via our social media channels Too Goodge to be true? As someone who ran across the USA in 2011 I have been following William Goodge's English record attempt with great interest. He reached New York from LA on May 27 in 55 days, just missing the record set by John Lees in 1972 and eclipsing Bruce Tulloh's previous record from 1969 by 10 days. As a male model and influencer, he has over 150,000 supporters on Instagram following and believing his run. However, there are many in the ultrarunning world who doubt its credibility. With only a minimal presence on Power of 10, his very limited competitive record to date suggested he was unlikely to be capable of running in excess of…

DIGEST MAY 23.56M Ryan Crouser threw 23.56m to add 19cm to his own world shot put record at the USATF Los Angeles Invitational on May 27. Such was his effort, the American almost threw the shot beyond the official throws area. The event at Drake Stadium was part of the Continental Tour Gold and the biggest athletics event in LA for more than a decade as it gears up to stage the 2028 Olympics. Crouser's throw came in the fourth round and his series also included 23.23m in the first round, 23.31m in the third, plus 22.94m, 22.86m and 22.80m. “I'm really excited because it didn't feel polished,” Crouser explained. “It felt like I had a tonne of power and I caught a big one.” 12.31 At the same LA meeting,…

Abigail Ives is a runner on the rise and recently hit the headlines when she broke the twominute barrier for 800m. In so doing, she became just the 30th British – and fourth under-20 – member of this exclusive club. The 19-year-old was already on the radar, having finished sixth at last year's World Under-20 Championships, and is now cementing her name as one to watch. From her university degree to travelling to overseas camps plus competing and maintaining a balance in life, it's a real juggling act, but one the young runner is more than ready for. How did you first get into running and how did you decide which event you would specialise in? I started running because of my older sister, Isobel, who also runs. I was…

PICTURE SPECIAL HIGHGATE It is 10 years since Highgate Harriers’ Ben Pochee decided to hold an event designed specifically to help boost and develop 10,000m running in the UK, introducing the athletics world to the Night of the 10,000m PBs. The latest staging of the event took place at the Parliament Hill track in London and, once again, combined top class athletic performances with crowds, street entertainment…and beer. ADANE RUNS AWAY WITH IT Mizan Alem Adane arrived at Heathrow on the eve of the race with no English language skills and merely a phone number for one of the organisers. Yet the Ethiopian found her way to the athlete hotel near Hampstead Heath and stunned the crowd with a runaway victory in 29:59.03, making her the 12th woman in history to…

THE FAST SHOW FRED KERLEY F red Kerley wants to talk about carrots. We are discussing one of the world 100m champion's favourite pastimes – outside of winding up sprint rival Marcell Jacobs, that is. If he's not on the track or in the gym, chances are you will find the Texan in the garden of his Florida home, tending to his crops. For a man who admits his “mind is forever on the go”, the simple pleasure of putting on some music and taking a quiet moment to help his plants grow is an important release. He does acknowledge there are parallels with the day job, though. “Gardening is peace and it takes patience,” says Kerley. “You need that in track and field, too. You've got to have patience through…

PERFORMANCE NEWS WANT TO RUN MORE ECONOMICALLY? HOP TO IT! Athletes are always on the lookout for ways to make improvements and, in recent years, plyometric exercises – training that uses speed and force of different movements to build muscle power – have been used as a way to do that. If you think they sound, or look, complicated then it might interest you to know that a recent study has shown that the humble act of hopping can have a big impact on your running economy. Scientists at Goethe University in Frankfurt investigated the effects of daily plyometric hopping activity in amateur runners. A total of 34 runners were allocated to either a control or a hopping exercise group. During the six-week study, the exercise group performed five minutes of…

361° 361europe.com CENTAURI £120.00 I'd be inclined to say this is the best shoe yet from 361°. Not only is the Centauri an excellent running shoe, but it offers cushioning and performance usually found in models costing significantly more, so it's great value, too. The real magic in the Centauri comes from the brand's ENGAGE midsole. This TPE (thermoplastic-elastomer) material offers that much sought-after soft, almost bouncy, ride. It remains stable and although not particularly light (283g) its performance makes up for the extra weight. The smooth, energetic cushioning soaks up the impact of the road and provides a nice, responsive feel when required. A neat, engineered mesh upper has the feel of a much more expensive shoe and matches the Centauri's impressive performance. LULULEMON Lululemon.co.uk BLISSFEEL 2 £133.00 With…

1 How many times has Mondo Duplantis broken the pole vault world record? 2 Who recently said: “This morning I was telling myself, “I'm so stupid. Why am I playing this kind of game? Why the hell am I thinking that I want to run a marathon? What is wrong with me?” 3 Which 100km runner recently improved his own world record by six seconds? 4 Which sprinter was named Laureus Sportswoman of the Year for 2023? 5 Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake won the British 200m title last year. To whom did he finish second in the European Championships final last summer? 6 Which sprinters completed the USA's clean sweep of the medals in the men's 100m at the World Championships last year? 7 Who are these four reigning British champions above? 8 Why did Bou Samnang make headlines…

FIXTURES JUNE 9 • Meeting de Paris diamondleague.com JUNE 10 ● British Grand Prix of Race Walking, Leeds ● UCD Track and Field Meet, Dublin ● BMC Grand Prix, Loughborough britishmilersclub.com JUNE 11 ● NAL Divison 1, Reading nationalathleticsleague.org.uk ● NAL Premier Division Fixture A & B, Sportcity and Eton nationalathleticsleague.org.uk JUNE 13 ● Trafford Grand Prix, Manchester ● Paavo Nurmi Games, Turku paavonurmigames.fi ● BMC Gold Standard Races, Manchester britishmilersclub.com JUNE 15 ● Bislett Games, Oslo diamondleague.com JUNE 16-17 ● Northern Ireland Senior Championships, Belfast athleticsni.org JUNE 17-18 ● England Athletics U20 and U23 Open Championships englandathletics.org JUNE 18 ● Northern Track & Field League Various northernathletics.co.uk ● Southern Athletics League Various southernathletics.org.uk ● Scottish National Athletics League Grangemouth scottishathletics.org.uk JUNE 20-25 ● European Athletics Team Championships, Silesia european-athletics.com…