DAS will compete at the Meeting Città di Gavardo on 29 May. Judging by the amount of detail on her career highlights, the organisers seem quite happy to have the 'First Champion' on board.

Genzebe pulled out of her 10000m at the w/e citing injury but big sis, Tirunesh, is set for her first comeback race at the Great Manchester 10k on 22nd May.

Gemma Steel also says she's going to run in Manchester. So, it seems she only has plans for the Euro Champs half-marathon and not Rio because the 10,000m trials for Rio are on the 21st May (the night before) in Highgate. She had said earlier this year that she was aimig for the Rio 10,000m team but perhaps her recent injury/illness has meant she's not going to be in shape for the trials.

Meanwhile, Stella McCartney should be banned from sportswear design for life. She designs horrendous tennis gear and the kit for Rio is no better.

Gotzis organisers have also confirmed that Jess, KJT & BTE will all compete at this year's event on 28-29th May. Let the double barrelled battle begin.

Talking of Multi Events the Multistars event is taking place in Italy starting tomorrow. Not particularly star studded fields. Kevin Mayer from France probably the biggest name. There is also some Brit interest in the Decathlon in new Welsh record holder Ben Gregory & a return from injury of Commonwealth medal winner Ashley Bryant. If Ashley is in 2014 form he represents the best chance of qualifying for Rio. He had some promising individual performances last weekend so fingers crossed

Also Morgan Lake (or Morgan Lake-Barton to give her her full name) is also pencilled in to compete. Shame there's no Mr. Eaton in the decathlon field, too close to the US trials apparently.

Penn Relays 5:30-8pm today
Drake Relays 8-10pm
Both streamed at http://cricfree.tv/update/nbcsn.php

Men's 400m at the DR - 44.08 and 44.22 for James and Merritt respectively. Only Michael Johnson has gone faster at this point in the season (43.75 in 1997 - ironically he got injured that year and AFAIK had to rely on wildcard entry as world champ to defend title).

Lorraine Ugen won the Drake Relays last night with 6.82. Her jump was wind assisted but she did beat Brittney Reesr

Tyson Gay going for the Mr T look with huge beard and tons of gold chains. Then proceeds to totally cockup the exchange to Isiah Young. Jamaica with their B team win in 38.70.

A 2nd British winner at Drake - excellent win for Megan Beasley, 55.43 in cold & wet conditions, out in lane 9 over a good field including Kaliese Spencer & Cassandra Tate.

Omar McLeod smashed a good field in 13.08 (WL). Oliver 2nd in 13.31.

Mary Cain's faltering career continues. She ran 4:13 indoors this year. She beat that by just half a second last night, finishing over 6 seconds behind winner Jenny Simpson.

About 20 Brits (around half of them US-based) are competing at Payton Jordan tomorrow, all in the mid & long distances. Shame it's only streamed on Flotrack which requires a subscription.

London 2012 cause of DQ: Tyson Gay
Beijing 2015 cause of DQ: Tyson Gay
Penn Relays 2015 cause of DQ: Tyson Gay

And I'm sure there have been other instances.
Oh and don't get me started on Dennis Mitchell being the relay coach. I used the Jeneba Tarmoh/Allyson Felix 4x200 cock up from last year's world relays to cheer me up the other night.

I'm back with another post, this time profiling 10 British athletes to look out for in 2016 (obviously not an exhaustive list!)

https://athleticsappetizer.com/2016/...t-for-in-2016/

Enjoy!

Best British performances at Payton Jordan - Olympic qualifiers & big PBs for Laura Whittle 15:08.56, Eilish McColgan 15:09.94 & Andrew Butchart 13:18.96

Marginal PB for Rob Mullett in the steeple 8:30.63. Rosie Clarke 9:54.82 in her first 3k steeple (making the move up from being a 1500 runner).

A lot of the other British performances were disappointing.

IAAF report - http://www.iaaf.org/news/report/payt...-lagat-cheptai

Full results - http://www.rtspt.com/events/stanford/pjc16/

Thanks! Nice article.

But, no Laura Muir? I think she'll break Kelly's UK record this year (in Paris, I reckon). It's a shame for her that that kind of ability would probably win a medal in any other era - though it could be argued she wouldn't be pushed to run such fast times in other eras. Unfortunately, for her, the African-born athletes have come to the fore in numbers for the first time in her event.

So after a good few years not achieving much at the Steeplechase, Eilish McColgan has now turned her attentions to not achieving much at the 5000m. And uncorking the potential to not achieve much at the 10000m and eventually on the road.

Really hope MHS comes back strongly from injury this year. Perhaps not this year but think he is capable of breaking not only the British record but the European record too. I also think we might need him to win a 4x4 medal. Probably the most competive of all the relays & the British team only won the bronze in Beijing by the thickness of a vest.

I agree as well on PSD. She hasn't raced for 3 years so to expect her to come back running 50.xx early doors is unrealistic. She just needs to get back racing & stay fit first of all. Then maybe start thinking about a Rio qualifying time & build from there.

I do think that she got undue attention because of her name and consequently she was over-rated in the press as a 'hope'. I know 15:10 ability won't win any medals (even in Europeans) but I was a bit surprised by that time. I had her down, at best, as a 15:20 kinda girl. Maybe she is, because Payton Jordan does seem to produce a lot of times that athletes can't replicate elsewhere.

Nevertheless, it's nice that Steph won't be all on her lonesome on the 5k team.

That's a 2nd qualifying time for Laura Whittle which means that if she finishes top 2 at the trials she is guaranteed a ticket to Rio.

Promising return from Eilish after best part of 2 years injury. I think she's made the right decision to focus on the 5K. Her Steeplechase technique wasn't the best & she obviously wouldn't have had the chance to work on this whilst injured - could see her going sub 15. The 5K at trials could be quite a competitive race when you throw in Twell & in all likelihood Pavey too.

My performance of the weekend goes to Meghan Beesley. She beat a pretty strong field at Drake Relays. She's been a bit unlucky to miss out on the final at the last 2 world champs, perhaps a Rio final beckons? And glad to see she got an invite to Doha Diamond League.

It's all come round again! Preview for Doha, 17:00 Friday

http://www.diamondleague.com/news/si...ck-off-season/

Sad news that Abigail Irozuru ruptured her achilles tendon while competing at El Paso last weekend and at just 26 after a succession of injuries and surgeries has now decided to retire.

https://abigailirozuru.com/2016/05/0...good-bad-news/

JEH has withdrawn from the Hypo-Meeting. Thankfully she already has the Olympic standard from last year, but a true domestic battle for the title is looking less likely...

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Meanwhile, Wayde van Niekerk is already in sub-44 400m territory this season! 43.88 WL

No, scratch that - timing screw-up means it's actually 44.11 (still quick, mind)

Action in Doha - looks like the best of the early events is the women's triple jump.

World indoor champ Yulimar Rojas currently leads with a 14.79m (+1.3m/s) WL/NR (also a MR) - can she end Ibarguen's 3-year unbeaten streak?

Merritt kicks off the DL track events with 44.41 in the men's 400m.

Let's hope the revamped live results website isn't as prone to failing as the previous iteration was.

Women's 100m up next, headed by Schippers - should be a good'un after that 200m last month.

10.83 for her, but beaten by Bowie in 10.80 (+0.7m/s) WL! Shouldn't be surprised as she did a cracking 200m as well recently.

Another MR, BTW

Another WL bites the dust - 3:32.15 for 1500m world champion Asbel Kiprop. He was the only competitor to stick with the pacemakers.

Also 68.03m for Piotr Malachowski in the men's discus (67.26m NR for Philip Milanov)

Women's 400mH - Eilidh Doyle wins with a 54.53 WL! Has she won a DL meet before?

55.72 for Meghan Beesley in sixth place.