TITLE RACE HOTS UP
BIRCHFIELD FINISH LEVEL WITH SHAFTESBURY IN THIRD MATCH OF THE SEASON
NICK PAGAN
THE ALEXANDER Stadium in Birmingham was the venue for the third round of the British Athletics League Premiership match, and – much like the British Championships at the same stadium a week earlier – the blustery conditions made things tough for the athletes.
Chris Baker: one centimetre shy of his season’s best
DAVID GRIFFITHS
With wind speeds varying from -0.5m/sec to 4.1m/sec and sharp showers to contend with, many events did not produce the kind of results expected. In the pole vault, for example, several competitors could not record heights of over three metres despite having PBs of almost double that in some cases.
Sadam Koumi (1): runs off the top bend to victory in the 400m
One of the events with the strongest field was the long jump where European Championships-bound Dan Bramble was making an appearance before boarding the plane to Amsterdam.
Greg Miller: a 68.68m throw for the win
The Shaftesbury Barnet man endured a frustrating afternoon with a series of no jumps and had to settle for second with 7.35m behind Ezekiel Ewulo’s 7.47m. Newham’s JJ Jegede won the B pool with 7.23m but appeared to injure himself in the process. Veteran Tosin Oke doubled up to win the triple jump with 15.28m and 6.88m in the long jump.
Leon Reid: cruised to victory in the 100m in a time of 10.48
Another athlete headed for Amsterdam and Rio is high jumper Chris Baker. The Sale man has already jumped 2.36m indoors in 2016 and was just short of his outdoor season’s best of 2.26m with a leap of 2.25m. The high jump was one of the most stacked events with Allan Smith, David Smith and Mike Edwards – all of whom rank in the UK top 10 in 2016 – and seven men managed to clear 2.00m despite the windy conditions.