by Stuart Weir
Day 1
Day one of the Novuna UK Athletics Indoor Athletics Championships certainly gave the spectators value for money with the first race off at 11.26 AM and men’s pole-vault ending Just before 7:30 PM. The quality is always mixed, partly because many athletes opt not to do an indoor season and also because GB has a limited number off world class athletes. The 60m races were brilliant and high class – see separate post. To see a 16 year old in the national triple jump competition is, while at the same time exciting, as an athlete for the future was discovered, and depressing, with no athlete reaching 16 meters let alone 17 or 18.
The two pole vault competitions again illustrated the nature of a national indoor championship. There was a world class performance by Molly Caudery who retired after a 4.65 clearance; But there was new competition as all but one of the vaulters was out before Molly took her first leap. The men’s competition was not world class but was really exciting to watch.
Jax Thoirs (from Scotland) became disillusioned with having to train alone in COVID and gave up competing. The Scotland hosting the Commonwealth Games, he decided to see if he could gain selection. He led the competition throughout before retiring on 5.45 only for Owen Heard to clear 5.55 at the third attempt to secure the win.
Keely Hodgkinson ran 1:56.33 in the 800m prelim to win by almost 9 seconds. Had no-one told her that she just needed to finish in the top five to reach the final? Similarly Jemma Reekie qualified for the 1500m final with an impressive piece of front-running. A middle-disappointment was the late withdrawal of Georgia Hunter-Bell as a precautionary measure due to an injury flare-up this week. She added: “I have to be smart this season”. Her absence does not rule her out of the World Indoors, should she decide to take it on.
Amber Anning was another world-class athlete performing as she cruised into the Day 2 final. The last final of the day saw a photo finish in the men’s 60m hurdles, Daniel Goriola (Blackheath & Bromley, Tony Jarrett) edging out Tade Ojora (Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) to bring up back-to-back British indoor titles, their times both clocked at 7.78 – a season’s best for Goriola.
Results from the Novuna UK Athletics Indoor Championships can be found here.
