Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i AW - Athletics Weekly Magazine

JULY 2024 The mixed zone of a major championships is a fascinating place to be. As the athletes troop by to run the gauntlet of journalists, it tends to go that there is either a ready smile and open chat if things have gone well or an interview of clipped answers and mutterings of “learning from this” if the opposite is true. But then, sometimes, there is also a conversation like the one I had with Elliot Giles immediately after the 800m final at the European Championships in Rome. Having looked good in qualifying, the 2016 bronze medallist’s race could barely have gone any worse. Seventh after a strangely disjointed run, I approached him with the expectation that he might not have much to say. Instead, he began to attempt…

OPINION NETFLIX Stop the presses. Cancel the promotional campaigns. The folk in the innovation department? Take a well-earned holiday. We like the long jump as it is, thank you very much, and who ever asked for a one-mile steeplechase? In case you haven’t heard, our sport is about to be saved, and it didn’t take a big commercial deal or a cracking World Championships to do it. No, our knight in shining armour is hurtling towards us, set to arrive and sweep us off our feet on July 2. SPRINT, the long-awaited Netflix docuseries, will tell the stories of the world’s fastest 100m runners. Produced by Box to Box Films, the company who made Formula 1: Drive to Survive, it will have a similar, game-changing effect on athletics. Now that we…

INSIGHT VERITY OCKENDEN With one solid month of training in the Swiss Alps having drawn to a close, and having ventured up here alone to a wood-clad studio apartment on the outskirts of town not large enough to swing a cat in, I find myself nonetheless with a long list of newfound friends to thank for the general success and enjoyment of the trip. It would be easy for the pressure of an Olympic year and the ruthless nature of its qualification process to create tension amongst the athletes who flock to such bubble-like places as St Moritz in pursuit of their dreams but, happily for me, I have found the atmosphere to be quite the contrary. From the very first day that I arrived here, I was pleasantly surprised by…

SPOTLIGHT PARA ATHLETICS In the vibrant city of Kobe, Japan, Great Britain illuminated the World Para Athletics Championships last month as the athletes vied for Paralympic qualification whilst others set out to defend their world titles. Although there was a smaller squad than usual, the team returned home with a total of 12 medals, securing fourth place in the overall standings, while China dominated the top spot. Amongst those was an impressive haul of seven gold medals, two of which came from Hannah Cockroff in the T34 100m and 800m. On the field, Holly Arnold won her sixth world F46 javelin title whilst Aled Davies (F63 shot put), Sabrina Fortune (F20 shot put), and Dan Pembroke (F13 javelin) added to the gold medal tally. Reclaiming his world title in the T64…

It was the perfect start. “I automatically thought: ‘Okay you lot. Get that!’” says Tessa Sanderson as she casts her mind back to the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics and her first throw in the javelin final. It flew to 69.56m, breaking the Olympic record. The then 28-year-old had eased through qualification but the final had looked like being a considerably taller order. Two of her 11 fellow finalists in particular stood out. The first was reigning world champion Tiina Lillak who arrived as the world record-holder - under the old javelin model that was eventually changed in 1999 - with 74.76m. Fatima Whitbread also had the Olympic gold medal in her sights, with the Briton having painfully lost out on the world title late on to Lillak in Hesinki. This…

JUNE 29-30 • UK Athletics Championships Manchester britishathletics.org.uk JUNE 30 • Scottish National Athletics League Grangemouth scottishathletics.org.uk JULY 2 • Newham and Essex Beagles “Stratford Speed” Track Open London newhamandessexbeagles.co.uk JULY 3 • Vault Manchester Summer Series 2 inc.Hammer eventbrite.co.uk • Tracksmith Twilight 5000m London Tracksmith.com/events JULY 6 • Fast 5000 Paris fast5000.fr • BMC Grand Prix Birmingham britishmilersclub.com JULY 7 • Paris Diamond League diamondleague.com • FBK Games Hengelo fbkgames.nl • National Athletics Premiership London nationalathleticsleague.org.uk • National Athletics League - Regional Various nationalathleticsleague.org.uk JULY 10 • BMC Gold Standard Races Watford britishmilersclub.com JULY 12 • Monaco Diamond League diamondleague.com JULY 12-13 • English Schools’ Championships Birmingham Esaa.org.uk JULY 13 • BWAA Grand Prix Series Stoke Mandeville bwaa.co.uk JULY 13-14 • 4J Studios scottishathletics Combined Events Championships, Masters Championships…

DIGEST JUNE 9.95 Louie Hinchliffe became the first European to win the NCAA (US collegiate) men’s 100m title after a 9.95 (0.2) victory in Eugene on June 7. The 21-year-old from Sheffield, England, who studies at the University of Houston in a coaching squad led by Olympic legend Carl Lewis, went equal No.6 on the UK all-time rankings. “It was just a fight to the end,” said Hinchliffe, who is becoming known for his trademark fast finishes despite his modest height. “The moment the gun went off, it was full throttle. I just gave everything.” The performance builds on his wind-assisted 9.84 in Arkansas in late May. “Call him King Louie,” the Houston Chronicle reported. Only five years ago Hinchliffe finished in last place in the English Schools 100m final, but…

OPINION BEN BLOOM Does athletics have a Bobby Kersee problem? No, not those allegations from a few decades ago, but the more recent issue of why the leading athletes under his charge do not compete more. In the context of a sport desperately attempting to build a season-long narrative, consider this: since becoming Olympic 400m hurdles champion in 2021, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has not contested the event at a single Diamond League meet. On just one occasion during that time, in Paris last year, has she even turned up on what is supposedly athletics’ premier circuit, when she ran over the 400m flat. It was one of only two non-championship appearances she has made outside of the United States since joining Kersees group in 2020. Hers is not a unique case. Other…

Ava Lloyd was reminded of the calibre of her training partners when she watched Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Bell secure European medals in Rome on her TV screen. However, having recently run inside the 1500m World Under-20 Championships qualifying time [4:15.00], the 18-year-old is starting to make her own mark in the world of athletics. Lloyd ran 4:12.07 at the Watford BMC Grand Prix in June, knocking six seconds off her personal best and cementing herself as one of Britain’s rising stars. She previously placed 10th at the European Under-20 Championships in Jerusalem last year with a time of 4:23.78, a mark she has now well surpassed. The Wigan athletes success has been boosted by training with middledistance coach Trevor Painter and wife Jenny Meadows, the two-time World Championships bronze…

The opening ceremonies seemed like a dream - the kind that logic and sense have abandoned. A man in a silver-white flight suit piloted a jetpack around the Coliseum before touching down lightly in lane four. Hundreds of women in frilly summer gowns and wide-brimmed sun hats then strolled down the aisles handing out flowers. On the infield, dancers re-enacted an Old West hoedown, which morphed into a Mississippi steamboat. A total of 84 grand pianos, played by nearly identical blue-suited men, rose on platforms into the archways of the peristyle, while on stage men in top hats and women in diaphanous white gowns danced a Rodgers and Astaire number. Down on the infield, the dancers, now in all white, held up large mirrored squares which looked like peeled-off sections…

LEARNING TO SWITCH ON AND OFF Q: I noticed during the pole vault competition at the European Championships how long the competitors - especially the best ones - have to be out there and how long they have wait between jumps. What mental techniques might they use to avoid losing focus? Erin McNeill Research suggests that up until our mid-teens we can focus for about 2.5 times our age. So a five-year-old can focus for about 12 minutes and a 10-year-old will be able to focus for about 25 minutes. Once we become an adult it tends to settle at about 45 minutes. As many of the field events will go on for far longer than 45 minutes then accepting you won’t be able to maintain focus for the whole…

1 Which film was inspired by events at the Paris Olympics of 1924? 2 Can you name the two British gold medal winners that were the focus of the film? 3 How many editions of the summer Olympics had been held in Asia prior to Tokyo in 1964? 4 Which Ethiopian athlete successfully defended his Olympic marathon title in Tokyo 60 years ago? 5 In which event did Ken Matthews strike gold for Great Britain in 1964? 6 Seb Coe finished runner-up in the men’s 800m in LA 1984 but can you name the athlete who beat him to gold? 7 Ed Moses won 400m hurdles gold in 1984, but for how many races did his renowned unbeaten run last in the event? A) 106 B) 114 C) 122 8…

DIP FINISH European Athletics described the media and spectator interest in the European Athletics Championships in Rome as “phenomenal”. The governing body says Italian channel RAI 2 attracted more than two million viewers for June 11, the day upon which Gianmarco Tamberi and Nadia Battocletti struck gold for the host nation. In France, television figures reached 1.8 million on June 13 and, in Germany, evening coverage on June 14 hit 4.1 million viewers on the flagship ARD channel. It wasn’t all good news, though. Crowds in the stadium were thin for most sessions, or at least looked that way in the cavernous 72,000 capacity stadium. The event attracted 137,000 spectators over the six days, which averages out at 23,000 per day. Fans with long memories, though, remember the same Stadio…

OPINION KATHARINE MERRY To me, the British Championships has always been a big deal. When I was competing, every year it was the first date that was put into my schedule by Ron Roddan and Linford Christie. That was because firstly they were huge supporters of the championships and very much advocates of competing there but also because they wanted us fully focused on not leaving our selection for the major championships to chance or leaving our fate in anyone else’s hands. They wanted us to be in total control of what we were doing and it gave us a chance to replicate the major champs and getting through the rounds. I always loved competing in the British Championships, which is why it gladdens my heart to see them getting a…

SPOTLIGHT CALLUM ELSON Storytelling in sport can be emotive, immersive and relatable. It’s also necessary. When Scottish golfer Bob MacIntyre won his first PGA Tour title at the Canadian Open recently, the media coverage focused less on the details of his breakthrough win and more on the fact that his dad, Dougie - the man who taught him to play the game - was his caddie. Overwhelmed by emotion and disbelief in the moments after his final shot, the MacIntyres’ immediate response was shared with viewers across the world who connected with the down-to-earth duo. Their authenticity led to subsequent interviews about the player’s early life on the golf course and the fact that he couldn’t take part in tournaments as a junior because his family couldn’t afford it. Bob MacIntyre…

Iwan Thomas was never one to take the easy option. In fact, he used to go out of his way to make life difficult for himself. An example? Rather than park directly outside the Southampton track at which he trained, the former European 400m champion would instead drive up to the nearby ski centre. Why? Because that way he would have to walk further and also come down a staircase of 76 steps to get to the track. More importantly though, he would have to struggle his way back up those steps after his session, usually throwing up somewhere along the way. In his mind, this was another way to push himself that bit harder, another way to make his already aching legs burn even more intensely, another thing that…

Not since Sonia O’Sullivan took 5000m victory in Budapest back in 1998 had an Irish athlete left the European Championships with a title to celebrate. That all changed in Rome as the nation produced its finest collective continental performance, a return of four medals that consisted of two gold and two silver. It was via the mixed 4x400m relay on opening night, beating an Italian national record and a formidable Dutch line-up featuring Femke Bol, that set the side on their way as Rhasidat Adeleke once again showcased her burgeoning talent. The US-based 21-year-old who turned professional last year would only narrowly miss out on 400m gold before standing out again in the process of helping her side to women’s 4x400m silver on the final evening of action. However, the…

SPOTLIGHT GREATEST BRITS A question for you: ‘Who is the greatest athlete to have competed for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in athletics at the Olympics?’. With the Paris Games closing in and plenty to look forward to, we at AW thought this would be the perfect time to look back and examine some of the great performances of the past from British athletes at the greatest show on earth. We put the aforementioned question to a panel assembled from across the athletics world - including athletes past and present, coaches, statisticians, commentators and journalists - and asked each to rank their top five athletes. Based on those responses, we were able to assemble an overall top 20 which is printed and profiled over the following pages. The whole process sparked…

40 YEARS ON FROM LOS ANGELES WENDY SLY In an unforgettable final, the Briton finished second to Romania’s Maricica Puică, who won in an Olympic record of 8:35.96. But the greatest dramas had unfolded with the controversial British naturalisation of South African-born Zola Budd ahead of the Games and her subsequent tripping of American favourite Mary Decker Coming off 1983, I was among the top 3000m runners in the world. I’d finished fifth at the World Championships in Helsinki in a British record time. I was fifth or sixth in the rankings and I was the only British athlete who had run under 8:40 at that time. I was in the shape of my life and I had just won the world 10km title on the road so I was as…

ASICS asics.com GEL KAYANO 31 £180.00 ASICS’ most popular support model sees updates to all areas of the shoe, but they are only minor and existing fans of the Kayano won’t be disappointed. A new sole means better all-around traction, while the FF Blast Plus Eco foam bumps up to a 40mm stack in the heel with a 10mm drop meaning lots of soft, smooth cushioning. The 4D guidance system provides an adaptive level of support that suits all but the most severe pronators without distracting from the easy-going transition from heelstrike to toe-off. The upper retains a premium level of comfort with a great-fitting heel and Achilles collar that hugs the foot beautifully. BROOKS brooksrunning.com GHOST 16 £135.00 Another long-standing and popular model, the latest version of the Ghost…

GET IN TOUCH: Email us at haveyoursay@athleticsweekly.com or via our social media channels A missed opportunity I wish the BBC would treat their athletics coverage with a little more respect. While it was of course positive news when they agreed a deal to show the European Championships, the fact that it was done at the 11th hour was all too evident. Deciding not to show some of the sessions is one thing, but then tucking the coverage away on the red button is quite another. This is an Olympic year and here was a perfect opportunity to really highlight some of the athletes that the general public should be watching out for later this summer. For the dedicated fan, athletics coverage is hard enough to track down as it is…