2010 British Outdoor Season

[lsabre]

On the opportunity of the European Cup Winter Throws in Arles, France, I'd like to launch a new thread concerning the action, performances and happenings of the outdoor season, with the European Championships in Barcelona the pick of the bunch.

I know, of course, that action is going to be sparse within the following few weeks but it won't take long before things get going in earnest, with the early season in the States, the Caribbean and South America traditionally setting the early pace.

So let's set the ball rolling...

[lsabre]

Initiating proceedings into the outdoor season on a promising note, Bret Morse has thrown a big PB of 60.25m in the U23 Discus competition at the European Winter Throws Cup in Arles, France!! That was a superb start from him and hopefully will pave his way to the Europeans this summer! His previous best was 59.52m from last May at Bedford.

[lsabre]

Also, European U23 bronze medallist Sarah Holt made a promising outing with a 63.04m in the women's hammer. That was her 6th furthest competitive mark ever.

[lsabre]

Over the Atlantic, Darren StClair got his competitive season off on the front foot as he ran a good early 47.86 secs over 400m at Tempe in Arizona, showing he has wintered well. He finished last season as second fastest Briton over 800m with a PB of 1:46.20 so will be looking to build up on that and into the 1:45 territory.

[lsabre]

U20 Matthew Graham also started positively as he came narrowly off his PB in the 3000m steeplechase to set 9:14.77 at the Charlotte 49er Classic, winning his race in the progress. His best is 9:13.50 from last May.

Natalie Pearson, who ran a substantial PB of 24.01 secs over 200m (0.6m/s) from the off last weekend, dropped down a distance to record 11.91 secs (1.6m/s) over 100m on Friday. She came back to run a much better 11.97 secs yesterday considering that this same wind was adverse!

[fatmanrunning]

Not that this'll make the slightest bit of difference, but should there not be a "notable performances by UK athletes" type thread - and another one relating to the build up to barca? I mentioned this on the Doha thread as many of the performances and pb's, whilst good signs of improvement for each athlete, bore no relation to Doha whatsoever.

It's probably just the way I'm reading it, but when I read - the journey to barcelona in a heading, I read it as performances either likely to lead to quali for barcelona, or by athletes we'd expect to see there.

Nit-picking I know, but just helps people know where to post or read for the different info. I kept finding myself reading about pb's rather than performances likely to lead to Doha - and feel this will also lead to some of the same circular arguments that went on there.

[lsabre]

For starters, three of the above mentioned athletes are going to be contenders for places on the British team to Barcelona - Morse, Holt and StClair.

From there on, there are going to be many cases where you can't really tell whether some performances will be Barcelona-related or not, simply because you can't tell how many athletes are going to develop into the season.

Therefore the build-up of the season is also important, as is a consistent look and check on the relative depth in each event in my view.

Finally, the main topic again is titled "2010 British Outdoor season", incorporating the "Journey to Barcelona"...

[jjimbojames]

FMR - I'm with you. There is likely to be hundreds of posts with conflicting aims. With the greatest respect, no one is convincing me that someone who has just set a PB of outside 24 seconds over 200m is going anywhere near Barcelona - at least, not to compete!

Would be far easier/better to split info as you suggest. That or just stop with the talk of Barca and beyond until we have a fuller picture, and keep this as info/stats only

[lsabre]

...and talking of Barcelona contenders, Chris Thompson's first track outing of the season saw him finish runner-up in 7:54.16 over 3000m in Oregon, USA. The winner was Jordan McNamara in 7:53.63.

Here's a video of his race:

http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2010&event_id=52&folder_id=1594#video

[fatmanrunning]

Re-read the first line - I'm clearly better at predicting your response than I am at predicting athletics results. Try adding the word "incorporating" into your thread if that's what you mean - although I'm not sure that having a thread to capture two areas is sensible on a forum.

I am probably in a minority of one here, but when I open a thread suggesting it's the road to barcelona - I don't expect to find this

Natalie Pearson, who ran a substantial PB of 24.01 secs over 200m (0.6m/s) from the off last weekend, dropped down a distance to record 11.91 secs (1.6m/s) over 100m on Friday. She came back to run a much better 11.97 secs yesterday considering that this same wind was adverse!

Which is what the majority of this item will end up containing - but as this thread (and at times it feels the forum) is yours to do with as you will, feel free to dismiss my comments out of hand.

As we both know - you are right - I am wrong.

[lsabre]

First of all, if the set-up of the forum suited certain threads under a specific division like "British Outdoor Season", I would have gone for that. But since it doesn't, I have to take things this way.

Further, to my mind someone who runs 24.01 secs in mid March could well move on to run even, say, 23.3s later on into the same season. I don't know what the final product of Pearson's is going to be this summer but seeing that I cannot but include her in my results.

[jambob]

Sorry lsabre but I'm with FMR on this one. Much as I love your updates I really do think two separate threads would be a good idea in this case.

[jjimbojames]

No disrepect to Natalie (if she even gets there - she'd have to have knocked nearly 1.5secs off in one year!), but if we are selecting 23.3x girls for Barcelona, we really do have problems! We should have 5 or 6 girls quicker than that over 200m by my reckoning this year

[lsabre]

I just presented a standard example of how much someone could progress within a season, JJimBoJames. I'm not saying that a British girl would be picked on only 23.3 secs for Barcelona this summer.

Anyway, I've switched the title to just "2010 British Outdoor Season" and will start a respective thread over Barcelona a little later into the season. You can send me PMs if you like to tell me what would you like to see there or how would you like it to be.

By the way, any impressions from Chris Thompson's race (link above) in Oregon?

[jjimbojames]

^^ that field was massive - and didn't help the lead guys having to run round everyone! the winner looked very smooth, but felt Chris ran a sensible race - just didn't have the legs for the sprint at the end

The new title is much better, btw!!

[Michael F]

Throws results from Arles

Disappointing start from Goldie Sayers: 58.69m
Ratej and Abakumova both went over 65m.

The Smith brothers were both off their best in the HT: Alex threw 68.64m, Peter threw 64.23.

[trevorp]

Goldie Sayers thew 58.69 for 5th place in Arles (winner Martina Ratej of Slovenia with 65.96)


Results at http://www.arles2010.com/

[bevone]

I think it should be noted that the winter throws fest is a very early competition and not too much should be read into it. It is early for the long throwers who should be in the middle of a strength phase if they are anything like Mr Morse. Others pulled out as they weren't ready and others used this as an indicator to see where they are. Brett, for example, went on to throw 3-4m further in the season last year and probaby should have thrown another 2m further.

Thus, it is nice that he threw pb however, he has only thrown outdoors for the last 2 weeks and it wasn't exactly warm there either and has thrown considerably further in training. Thus, he used it as an indicator and the fact that he couldn't wait to have a 'cheeky lob'. He has been invited to throw indoors next week so he'll have a crack at that but his main focus is later on in the year.

Again, I reiterate that not too much should be read into those performances as ALL should be throwing much further later in the season.

[lsabre]

Going over to the road and the Men and Women's Stage Relays in Manchester, the short and long leg split times make some interesting reading as regards the shape of certain key distance runners heading into the spring:

Men's Short Legs
Nick McCormick 13:43
Gavin Mashingham 14:26

Men's Long Legs
Mark Buckingham 21:58
Patrick Martin 22:00
Peter Riley 22:03
Andi Jones 22:06
Luke Gunn 22:10
...
Johnny Mellor 22:24
James Walsh 22:24

Women's Legs
Hattie Dean 16:08

[plyometric]

Mo Farah looked awesome today at the Southern at MK.

[lsabre]

Even more so the respective leg split times of the Southern Counties Stage Relays at Milton Keynes highlighted by the presence of Mo Farah among others:

Men's Short Legs
Mo Farah 15:46 (Course Record)
Phil Wicks 16:06
Mark Warmby 16:13
Nicholas Goolab (U23) 16:29
...
7.Tony Whiteman (V35) 16:49
11.James Shane (U23) 16:55

Men's Long Legs
Moomin Geele 23:50
Daniel Mulhare 24:05
Mitch Goose (U23) 24:08

Women's Legs
Sophie Morris 18:33

[lsabre]

Here are the respective split times from the Midland Counties Stage Relays held at Sutton Park:

Men's Short Legs
Tom Russell 14:13
Phil Nicholls 14:13

Men's Long Legs
James Trollope 26:25
Bruce Raeside 26:27
Josh Lilly 26:29
Phillip Hinch 26:33

Women's Legs
Gemma Turtle 15:57
Tina Brown 16:13
Gemma Steele 16:25
R Calligan 16:34

[lsabre]

Mark Draper improved his SB to 13:50.09 in taking second over 5000m at the international meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand, but I guess that's still nowhere near where his recent mile PB has suggested... Still, it's very early into the season yet.

[Dutch]

I am probably in a minority of one here...

Definitely not - I am firmly in the camp that a thread should do what it says on the tin. I don't mean that thread-drift should be censored- that's part of the experience when you participate in a forum - but that the intention of the thread should align with the title accurately. I don't think it takes any more effort, and it makes it a lot easier to locate threads and content of particular interest.

But maybe we're in a minority of two.

[lsabre]

The initial title of the thread was definite and clear-cut Dutch. Now, if anyone likes to make one's own sense out of it that's not of my concern. But I'm not going to dwell over that...

[Dutch]

The initial title of the thread was definite and clear-cut Dutch. Now, if anyone likes to make one's own sense out of it that's not of my concern. But I'm not going to dwell over that...

Clear-cut Dutch or Double Dutch?

(That's a joke, BTW - you can chill! )

[lsabre]

Dutch, has your alias got anything to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger's part of the same name in "Predator"?

[lsabre]

Andrew Sutcliffe, who has risen to third in the U20 all-time UK lists with 5.36m in the pole vault this season, cleared a useful 5.12m at the second attempt in France during the weekend.

[lsabre]

Andrew Lemoncello returns to the track to race over 10000m at the Stanford Invitational at Stanford in California, held this Friday and Saturday. It's going to be very interesting to see whether he could challenge his PB of 27:57.23, set at Berkeley in late April last year.

Chris Gowell looks past any injury scare, having not finished his heat at the NCAAs, as he goes into the 1500m.

[lsabre]

Well, it seems it has slipped under anyone's radar that Jemma Simpson opened her outdoor season with an easy win over the women's 1000m in 2:39.70 at the Oregon Preview, the same meet where Chris Thompson came second over 3000m on Sunday....

Here's her race:
http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?do=videos&year=2010&event_id=52&folder_id=1616#video