Been away for a few days and have just caught up on all the streamed/televised athletics of last week.
Originally Posted by
Edward_Sloley:
“I wouldn't be surprised if Gavitar put a sneaky bet on Jessica Andrews to win the women's race at tonight's Olympic 10,000m trials in Highgate* - not only that, she also took the scalp of Linet Masai and broke 32 minutes! Together with Beth Potter (runner-up in trials), she has earned automatic Olympic selection.
Ross Millington and Dewi Griffiths were top-2 in the men's trials, but neither made the standard.
[* "Who?" was my initial reaction to that happening - here's her Po10 profile]”
Ha ha. No, unfortunately not. That women's race was the highlight of the week's athletics for me though. I did vaguely know of Jess Andrews from her Aldershot days but, like everyone else, I was gobsmacked by her performance. With Beth Potter pushing the pace behind Masai and looking strong it seemed like Andrews was just hanging on and starting to flail a bit. But then with a mile to go she really took the bull by the horns and just flew. A terrific race.
I was sad to see the other Jess (Coulson) struggling around. Her revitalised career was going so well for her up until Mile 20 of the Frankfurt Marathon and then she tore her plantar fascia. From what I gather she's only been back in proper training for a couple of months so it was a lot to ask for her to be competitive at Highgate (and she would have been a long shot anyway for the 10,000 team, even in tip-top shape). She has been selected though for the British team for the European Cup 10,000 in Turkey on June 6th.
No mention by anyone of Rob Mullett's 8 second PB and Olympic qualifier in the steeplechase at the Hoka One One meet in LA last Friday? The fastest time by a Brit for 22 years!
Ok, it was 'only' 8:22.42 but he was pretty competitive in a race won by Jager in 8:15 that also included a couple of other very good Americans and two very good Canadians.
The race video is here.
Also PBs for Charlie Grice (1:46.95) and 20yo Robbie Fitzgibbon (3:41) in the same meeting.