by Stuart Weir
Men’s 60m hurdles, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Heather Paton, GB, was ony pic we had on women’s 60m hurdles, photo by Getty Images/ British Athletics
A tale of two hurdles races
Andrew Pozzi is the World Champion at 60h. And as stadium announcer, Geoff Wightman, said, he will still be world indoor champion this time next year! Pozzi’s record coming into the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow was races 4, wins 4. He had won the Meeting de Paris and the Orlen Copernicus Cup – prelims and finals. He made it 5 from 5 winning in Glasgow in 7.57. You could say that the field was not the strongest, with no Americans but you can only beat those who are in the race and he did that comfortably.
He said afterwards “It was a solid race but it wasn’t especially quick. I’m happy with how it went. It was smooth more than anything which is the main thing. I think that might be the last race for me indoors. We’ve seen all that we need to see from the indoor season and overall it’s been really productive and things are going really well. Things feel really different this year and I hope this will be my year. We’ve made a lot of adjustments and it all makes sense to me and hopefully I’ll see the rewards of that”.
The reference to making adjustments is about his coach, Santiago Antunez, whom he has been with just a year and a bit.
The women’s hurdles race was a cracker. The fastest in the prelims was Christina Clemons in 8.01. Alina Talay won the other prelim in 8.12. World outdoor champion, Nia Ali was second slowest of the qualifiers, having hit the second hurdle hard. The final was inseparable to the naked eye with Alina Talay being awarded the win from Nia Ali, both clocked as 8.03. Clemons was third in 8.04.
Talay said: “I expected to run a little bit faster. Last week I was quicker so I thought I’d be able to show progression but I don’t know what happen. In such great company, I’m glad I took the win. You win and you lose some days but that was the best one. I’ve moved closer to the top spot in the standings and I’ve come back from injury and it’s been a long time to come back from injury and run well. I’ve been coaching myself for three years now and it isn’t easy but I’m happy with today”.
Nia Ali commented: “It was super-close. I was expecting it to be that way and I’m happy it turned out that way. We’re always neck and neck so it’s great that I could challenge myself under that pressure. I think the gates open up outdoors because indoors is a speciality but it’ll be a much bigger task”.
