Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i AW - Athletics Weekly Magazine

FEBRUARY 2024 AW Editorial Director How did you get into athletics? What was it that drew you to the sport and led you to your chosen event? Of course there's no fixed route and, whether it be by accident or design, for most it comes down to first finding out what you're good at. You will often hear of sportspeople working on their weaknesses – and there's a very important place for that – but what about maximising your strengths? It's something which former javelin world record-holder Steve Backley, who features on p54, placed a huge emphasis on during his highly decorated career. “I always tell people that if you have one thing you're really good at within the event – I'm thinking of Steve Ovett's kick with 120m to…

DIGEST COMBINED EVENTS To the eye of the outsider, it must appear that the Brits truly love their combined events. Olympic champion heptathletes Denise Lewis and Jessica Ennis-Hill are permanent fixtures in the athletics coverage of the national broadcaster. The 1972 Olympic pentathlon gold medallist Mary Peters is considered a national treasure. In any debate about the greatest sportsman in history, one need not wait too long before the name of Daley Thompson enters the chat. For every hurdle – both literal and metaphorical – the double world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson clears, the British public falls a little more in love with her, captivated by her unique combination of strength and vulnerability. Since 2000, athletes have featured 15 times in the top three of the BBC Sports Personality of the…

Shaikira King knows what she wants – to be a double Olympic champion like Kelly Holmes. The 15-year-old has already taken impressive strides towards trying to realise that ambition. With two athletic parents and a sister also excelling on the track, it's perhaps no surprise that Shaikira has already begun her collection of international vests. She is looking to build on a very successful 2023, which saw her break European and British age 14 records for 800m and 1500m, as well as winning the Schools International Athletics Board (SIAB) International over the shorter distance. When it came to cross country, Shaikira took the under-17 English National title and was the first in her age group across the line at the Liverpool Cross Challenge in November. Her finish in joint third…

INTERVIEW DANIELLE WILLIAMS When Danielle Williams won her first 100m hurdles world title in 2015, she was very much the surprise package. With the American challenge faltering as Keni Harrison false-started, Dawn Harper-Nielson fell and Brianna Rollins finished fourth, the Jamaican seized her chance to take gold. Fast forward to 2023 in Budapest and a similar scenario faced Williams. The final was stacked with talent, including reigning world champion and world record-holder Tobi Amusan, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, as well as 2019 world champion and previous world recordholder Harrison. Williams was out in lane two, seemingly well away from the main race but, when it finished 12.43 seconds later, it was her name which appeared at the top of the list. In the Jamaican trials she had finished third. In Budapest…

SPOTLIGHT INSIDE STORIES “There's nothing like the thudding of feet on the boards” Jason Henderson – Head of Digital What do I love most about indoor athletics? The thud of feet on the boards. Tight banked bends and the way this affects tactics. Crash mats at the end of sprints and hurdles races. A pleasant temperature and the lack of rain and wind! As an athletics writer, covering the indoor season is also not quite as overwhelming as the outdoor season. There are far fewer events at indoor championships for starters, which means I'm more likely to convince myself I've got a grip on everything that's going on. My favourite indoors memory came at the European Indoor Championships in Valencia in 1998. It was my first international event as an AW…

OFFERING A HELPING HAND Q: I am part of a training group and have seen some signs that one of my fellow athletes isn't quite themselves. I want to approach them about it but I'm wary of getting it wrong or upsetting them. Is there a good way to start a dialogue?” Caroline McKenzie Firstly, on behalf of the others in your training group, thank you for caring enough to notice. When we are struggling with something the world can feel very lonely and having people around who care enough to ask how you are can be very comforting. Before you start the dialogue, though, there are three things to consider; your approach, the environment in which you have the conversation and the language you use. Your approach We tend…

CROSS COUNTRY BRITISH ATHLETICS CROSS CHALLENGE (Inc UKA WORLD CROSS COUNTRY TRIAL), Parliament Hill, January 20 Men (4km): 1 A Melloy (C&C, U20) 12:57; 2 S Mills (Exe, U20) 12:58; 3 R Miell-Ingram (Rad, U20) 13:01; 4 J Tuffin (BRAT) 13:02; 5 T Bilyard (Gt Yar) 13:14; 6 L Minale (Gate) 13:27; 7 S Coppard (Ton) 13:35; 8 J Keir (Inv EK, U20) 13:36; 9 F O'Brien (NEB) 13:43; 10 F Vaughan (S Lon, U20) 13:51; 11 T Bridger (Birm U) 14:00; 12 M Grindrod (B&H) 14:08; 13 G Rowland (C&C) 14:11; 14 A Rainbow 14:34; 15 C Wright (Lewes, U20) 14:35 Men (10km): 1 H Milner (Der) 29:58; 2 T Evans (Lewes) 30:00; 3 M Mahamed (Soton) 30:05; 4 J Crowe (Centr) 30:11; 5 J Dempsey (SB) 30:26; 6…

Age changes low on support There has been a furious reaction across much of the sport to the decision of the UKA Board to ignore the responses to the England Athletics and UKA Rules Group consultations and implement the proposals from the home country athletics federations to change the age groups from under-13, under-15 and under-17 to under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18. These proposals will cause the biggest upheaval in my 65 years in the sport. They should only have been approved if there was an overwhelming majority in favour of the changes. This is clearly not the case. Northern Athletics, English CrossCountry Association and English Schools AA all strongly opposed the changes. According to England Athletics’ own survey, 61 per cent of clubs opposed the change (only 25 per…

Jack Scott won the 2024 Montane Winter Spine Race last month after covering the 268 miles of the Pennine Way from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders in a record time of 72hr 55min 5sec. His time was over 10 hours inside Jasmin Paris's previous record of 83:12:23 from 2019. All the competitors had to contend with sub-zero temperatures at night and close to zero temperatures during the day. Scott, who slept for less than an hour throughout the entire race, said: “This race meant everything to me, it was all I was focused on. I had a once-in-a-lifetime type of run and I'm so happy.” Scott works part-time in the construction industry and first began running in his early 20s, using it to help him…

OPINION KATHARINE MERRY A packed arena, a noisy crowd getting caught up in the action, impressive athletes showing off their power, speed and strength… is it any surprise that it crossed my mind the other day if there's anything athletics can learn from the new series of Gladiators? Before you all start writing in, I know this TV programme and the indoor version of our favourite sport are two very different things. In truth its not necessarily a fair comparison and I think we already present indoor athletics nicely – but I have already seen the crossover between the two having some effect. Now, in all the years I've watched and commentated on him competing, I don't think I've ever seen Harry Aikines-Aryeetey being used as a poster boy by UK…

INTERVIEW JAKE WIGHTMAN Jake Wightman has coffee on his mind. He is speaking to AW from the latest java stop of his training camp in South Africa and, such is his enthusiasm for the bean, after our interview he is hoping to see some being roasted at the café where he is using up a substantial chunk of mobile data to have a chat. His interest is related to both pleasure and business. Coffee is indeed one of his passions but he is also exploring the idea of creating his own brand. But before we get distracted by all things espressobased, we get to the topic of something else that's brewing – namely the 29-year-old's return from what has been a lengthy injury absence. If 2022 was the year when the…

Dropping his beloved skateboard by his feet as he flops down on to a sofa in the Loughborough Students’ Union, it is like Robbie Grabarz has never been away. For much of his adult life – the decade that saw him win Olympic, world and European medals – the East Midlands university campus was Grabarz's second home. But he thought those days were long behind him; he made a conscious effort to make it so, which is why his presence on a bitterly cold January morning requires some explanation. As does that of Morgan Lake sat alongside him. Two of the finest high jumpers Britain has ever produced, united in the unlikeliest of partnerships. “It happened out of necessity,” says Grabarz, with a laugh. “It's a hobby that I didn't…

Two Olympic champions ready themselves for a call with a few journalists from across the globe. Eliud Kipchoge, decked in a white NN top and red shorts sits on his bed, his Supersapiens glucose monitor conveniently placed on his left arm in front of the camera. He leans forward in his private room at the same Kaptagat compound where he has resided for almost 20 years. A few moments later, another face of the Tokyo Olympics appears. The last time we spoke, Sifan Hassan was in Park City, Utah preparing to run the Chicago Marathon. “Win or lose, it's good for me to find out,” she joked that day, on whether six weeks would be long enough to prepare for the distance, having barely finished contesting the 1500m, 5000m and…

Athletics is a world that spins at break-neck speed and, while the clock often can't tick fast enough as we count down the last numb seconds of a frigid ice bath or the final strained metres of a difficult workout, when it comes to championship season, many of us might be forgiven for wishing we could hit pause or rewind. With the blessing of hindsight, we always wish we had known the things we know now, back then. It's easy to see what we could have done to prepare ourselves better, but in a sport that takes no athlete on the same journey twice, recognising how to best control as many performance-influencing factors as possible is crucial to coming out on top. For that very reason, as we sit a…

PERFORMANCE COACHING “I'm a little bit of a chameleon I change to meet the specific needs of the athlete” ASTON MOORE When Katarina Johnson-Thompson was crowned world heptathlon champion for a second time last summer, she was quick to identify her work with Aston Moore as one of the key reasons for her victory. The two-time Commonwealth triple jump medallist has spent the majority of his life leading some of Britain's best to international success, mainly in the horizontal jumps but also combined events. The likes of JohnsonThompson, Ashia Hansen, Phillips Idowu and Jazmin Sawyers, not to mention Paralympic long jumper and sprinter Olivia Breen, have all benefited from the 67-year-old's coaching. How did you start coaching? I started a little bit as an athlete, just helping out youngsters in the squad.…

“I t's been a bit of a whirlwind,” begins Scott Beattie. Having completed his studies at the University of Tulsa in the summer of 2023 and after moving back to the UK, the Morpeth athlete arrived in South Africa in early January for his first official training camp and to kick-start 2024 as a professional athlete. The warm weather of Potchefstroom was quite the contrast to the icy conditions back home in the north-east of England. It was even more incomparable to life in Leeds and the graduate job he had lined up for September, a role that was politely declined when he committed his immediate future to Hoka. Beattie's final year performances at Tulsa were undoubtedly contributing factors in securing the deal. Notable highlights included a 10,000m personal best…

FEBRUARY 3 ● US Olympic Team Trials – Marathon Orlando usatf.org ● BUCS Cross Country Champs, Leeds bucs.org.uk ● National Indoor League Final Athlone athleticsireland.ie FEBRUARY 3-4 ● Loughborough Indoor Open lboro.ac.uk ● Southern U20/Senior Champs Lee Valley southernathletics.org.uk ● Welsh Athletics U20, U17 & U13 Championships, Cardiff welshathletics.org FEBRUARY 4 ● New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Boston nbindoorgrandprix.com ● ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf duesseldorf.istaf-indoor.de FEBRUARY 6 ● Mondo Classic, Uppsala mondoclassic.se ● Copernicus Cup, Toruń copernicuscup.pl FEBRUARY 10 ● Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-deCalais ‘Trophée EDF’ Lievin hautesdefrance.fr FEBRUARY 11 ● Millrose Games New York millrosegames.org ● Meeting de Paris accorarena.com ● England Athletics U20, U17 & U15 Indoor Championships Sheffield englandathletics.org FEBRUARY 16-17 ● USATF Indoor Championships Albuquerque usatf.org FEBRUARY 17 ● Welsh Cross Country Championships Brecon welshathletics.org FEBRUARY 17-18 ●…

DIGEST JANUARY 28:46 Agnes Jebet Ngetich has become the first woman to break the 29-minute barrier for 10km after clocking a scintillating 28:46 on the roads of Valencia on January 14 The 22-year-old Kenyan took 28 seconds off Yalemzerf Yehualaw's world record of 29:14, which was set in Castellon, Spain, in 2022. After passing halfway in 14:13, Ngetich also equalled Beatrice Chebet's world 5km record, which had been set two weeks previously in Barcelona. Runner-up Emmaculate Achol was also under Yehualaw's record as the Kenyan clocked 28:57 to become the second woman to break the 29min barrier. Lilian Rengeruk of Kenya was third in 29:32 as Britain's Jess Warner-Judd clocked 30:41 to take 25 seconds off her best as she moved to No.4 on the UK all-time rankings. With 31:22, Megan…

MY GREATEST RACE FRANK O'MARA The Irish three-time Olympian had many rollercoaster rides during a career that delivered two world indoor titles but a trans-Atlantic journey to Seville that had more ups and downs than expected brought an unexpectedly satisfying conclusion Every indoor season, I said I wanted to save a bit for the outdoors. In 1987, when I won my first world indoor title, I finished eighth in Rome at the World Championships. I'd had a chance. With about five laps to go, John Ngugi went to the front and Said Aouita and I went with him. Ngugi pulled out to lane two, looking for one of us to take it on, but Aouita didn't and neither did I. I should have, and I might have gotten away, but I…

Oliver Dustin has just finished detailing that 800m race, which took place in the setting sun of southern France in mid-June 2021: the stillness of the pre-race wind, his concern at falling “way too far back” in eighth place at the bell, the astonishing finishing speed that blitzed his rivals, and the disbelief when he crossed the line in 1:43.82 to break Seb Coe's longstanding British under-23 record. “It is a good memory,” he summarises, before hastily adding: “But I don't want it to be the defining point of my career.” Dustin's story is one that might appear horribly familiar from the outside; the promising talent who began to crack the big time at a young age, only for setbacks to start mounting. Approaching three years ago, he competed at…

Robbie Grabarz says his joy at having his London 2012 bronze medal upgraded to silver nine years later was swiftly followed by relief that he “messed up so badly that I didn't win gold”. Grabarz initially finished in a share for third place at the London Games, with his 2.29m clearance securing bronze behind Russian winner Ivan Ukhov. When Ukhov was belatedly stripped of his medal for doping offences, Grabarz was upgraded to silver, with America's Erik Kynard earning gold almost a decade after the event. Grabarz received his new medal during a ceremony at the 2022 Birmingham Diamond League meet. “I was probably in shock and then I was just relieved that I was only in second place because, to be upgraded to gold, I'm not sure how I…

Something I always tell people is that if you have one thing that you're really good at within the event – I'm thinking of Steve Ovett's kick with 120m to go or Mo Farah could wind up the pace and do things physically that no one else could do – if you have then really go to town on it. I found that I had that with the way I used my chest to create a long pull of the javelin. If you've got that one thing, you can really lean on that when it comes to championships and that's what makes you a safe pair of hands. My favourite moment of that [in action] was at Crystal Palace in 1990. I borrowed Jan Železny's javelin and he had just…

It takes bravery to shoot for the moon. Marc Scott's only goal this spring – athletically speaking at least – is to achieve the Olympic Games marathon qualifying time (2:08:10). While he has a ‘Plan B’ back on the track, landing amongst the stars isn't what he's training for. The 30-year-old has never been afraid of going all-in. With a focus on what might be possible, he balanced the minimal educational requirement with maximal output on the track to win the NCAA 10,000m title in his final year at the University of Tulsa in 2017. That performance also led to his first professional contract with Nike. For the next five years Scott plied his trade with the Bowerman Track Club, a period dedicated to the track and culminating in highlights…

HOKA CIELO X1 Hoka.com £250.00 The latest racing shoe from HOKA takes things to the next level for the brand. This visually striking model oozes speed from the moment you pull it on. The 40mm stack of cushioning combines twin layers of PEBA foam sandwiching a uniquely shaped carbon plate for a springy ride. A softer layer of foam sits directly beneath the foot, with the plate providing both stability and propulsion. A slightly firmer PEBA foam sits below the plate and creates a steeply angled geometry and forefoot rocker that provides one of the most propulsive rides we've ever experienced. It's HOKA's best road racing shoe to date and feels unlike anything they've ever produced before. The Cielo is a little heavier than some of its competitors, but there's a…

Test your knowledge with our teasers about indoor athletics in Birmingham 1 Who are the defending men's and women's UK Indoor 60m champions? 2 Three British records were broken at last year's Birmingham World Indoor Tour Final. Can you name which events they were broken in? 3 How many UK indoor titles did legendary shot putter Judy Oakes win? a) 10 b) 12 c) 18 4 Jemma Reekie is due to be competing at this year's UK Athletics Indoor Championships. From which event did she and world 1500m champion Josh Kerr emerge victorious in 2023? 5 Which British athletes struck gold at the 2018 World Indoor Championships when they were staged in Birmingham? 6 What was unusual about Laura Muir's journey to Birmingham six years ago, where she won world indoor 1500m silver and 3000m…

DIP FINISH David Sharpe is best known as being Steve Cram's talented but underperforming training partner. When the Jarrow Arrow was smashing world records at 1500m and the mile in the 1980s, Sharpe was nicknamed the “Jarra Sparra” and often found making headlines for the wrong reasons after various brushes with the police. Now, in a hard-hitting autobiography out this month, Sharpe reveals all. Written with Brian Gardner and entitled Enigma on the Track – Wild Child to World Champion, the former 800m runner remembers the incidents that led to him becoming one of the sport's most enigmatic characters. There are tales of being arrested for “causing harassment, alarm and distress” at a nightclub, being found guilty of assault (charges that were later dropped) and getting into a white-collar boxing…