There
may still be some way to go before Britain has a genuine
replacement for the recently retired Colin Jackson,
but the strength in depth of Britian's male sprint
hurdlers has rarely looked in better shape indoors.
By the end of an event that had seen numerous pb's;
Britain had four athletes under the World Indoor Qualifying
mark of 7.75, whilst a further two athletes had run
under eight seconds and had not even made the all
British final. All this with defending champion Dominic
Girdler not even taking part in the championships.
Mohammed
Silah Freckleton guarrenteed himself the automatic
selection for the World Indoors Championships with
a narrow 7.68 victory over training partner 2000 Olympian
Damian Greaves 6.69. Freckleton has impressed all
winter and his victory took him to equal 8th on the
all time GB indoor list, improving upon a 7.73 heat
victory.
Rob
Newton had impressed in qualification with a 6.69
pr, but hit the third hurdle hard in the final and
did not finish, leaving the other World qualification
holder Allan Scott to take the bronze with a career
best equalling 7.74.
Andy
Turner also recorded new figures, his 7.78 4th place
taking him to equal 16th on the all time list. With
new best figures in the heats for Tristan Anthony
7.87, Richard Alleyene 7.95 and Paul Crossley 7.99
-who missed out on the final along with Newham's Duncan
Malins 7.98, the event's competitve nature promises
for a very interesting chase for Olympic marks in
the summer.
There
were further breakthroughs for Matt Butler 8.08, Edward
Dunford 8.10, David Hughes 8.17, Tom Carey 8.23 and
juniors Rob Henry 8.25, Nick Gayle 8.27 and Jordan
Fleary 8.38 to complete a big re-write of the year
list.
Although
the women's event did not produced the same volumes
of new bests, Sarah Claxton cofirmed her great form,
retaining her title in 8.11 to take 1/100th off her
2003 best, comfortbly defeating Rachel King [8.24]
and Irish Champion Derval O'Rourke [8.27].
In
fifth and sixth Tamsin Stephens 8.36 and Jenni Molloy
8.37 repeated their new best times set in the heats,
Stephen's time also being a new Northern Ireland Indoor
record. The biggest breakthough in the women's event
came from Jessica Ennis who smashed her week old 8.60pb
with an excellent 8.43 heat time to make the final
which she then backed up with 8.51 in the final.
Olympic
champion opened her 2004 hurdling season with 8.48,
whilst fellow multi eventer Fiona Harrison set a new
best mark of 8.54 in th heats, as did Welsh Champion
Sarah Lane 8.70
