Julian Golding winning the 200m at the AAA championships (© Getty Images)
Two comeback kids made the news in the two headline events on the final day of the Norwich Union World Trials and AAA championships in Birmingham this evening. Former Commonwealth champion Julian Golding was the surprise winner of the star-packed men’s 200m final, while the 1994 European champion Du’aine Ladejo produced his best performance for years to claim silver behind Daniel Caines in the men’s 400m final.
Golding held off Christian Malcolm to claim a place on his first world championships team since Seville in 1999 – where he finished seventh - clocking a season’s best of 20.37, just two hundredths ahead of the Welshman. Olympic silver medalist Darren Campbell took third by an even smaller margin, edging the world indoor champion Marlon Devonish out of the medals by one hundredth, 20.49 to 20.50.
Dwain Chambers, who won the 100m on Saturday, in the end decided to quit while he was ahead, and did not double up, while the fastest man in the field this year, Chris Lambert, could only finish fifth in 20.81. Lambert, a law graduate from Harvard, had run 20.34 to win the European under 23s last week but couldn’t live with the pace in such a high quality race.
For Golding it was a triumph of faith over adversity after three years of injuries and illness, including a virus, a groin strain and a bruised heel. In June last year he could only run 22.28 in a meeting in Spain and nearly walked away from the sport. “That was devastating,” he said. “I came very close to hanging up my spikes.
“It’s been three tortuous years, I feel like crying now. I am happy to be back in the sport,” said Golding, now coached by former world silver medalist John Regis. “My coach has had a lot of faith in me and that has made me have a lot of faith. He told me not to come here to qualify, but to win.”
The 28 year-old also revealed how close he had come to taking a full time job to help pay the bills, having been abandoned by sponsors and fallen out of eligibility for the UK’s lottery funding system. All of which made victory here even sweeter, for Golding was one of the athletes to win a 5000 pounds prize bonus for the best five performances as measured against the IAAF’s world lists.
Christian Malcolm was one of the other winners, awarded for his second place 200m run of 20.39, but 400m winner Daniel Caines’s time of 45.56 left him out of the money. Caines has faced criticism in Britain for failing to reproduce his indoor form during the outdoor season and will be seeking a good performance in Paris to see off his detractors. Ladejo, on other hand, was a complete revelation, even to himself.
“I cannot believe how I performed today and over the weekend,” said the man who gave up 400m running for the decathlon and then the 400m Hurdles. “I have been away from this event but now I am going to concentrate on it for the foreseeable future,” he said.
Scotland’s Ian Mackie, a former 100m runner (famously, he once beat Linford Christie), was third in 46.10, while former European champion Iwan Thomas faded to last, in 47.13, a sad shadow of his former self.
Ironically, the best performance of the day came from the one athlete present who isn’t able to compete for Britain. World number one Yamile Aldama won the triple jump by more than two metres, and eclipsed the injured Ashia Hansen’s championships record (14.50m) in the process. The former Cuban leapt 14.98m – a UK all comers record - in the third round (wind -0.37m/s), backed up by efforts of 14.73m in the fourth and fifth rounds, and 14.86m in the sixth.
“I think if Ashia had been here the winning jump would have been further,” said Aldama. “Whenever you get good jumpers together, the pressure makes everyone perform.”
Having jumped more than 15m five times this year, the 30 year-old is clearly disappointed not to be able to compete in Paris. She moved to Britain in November 2001, when she got married, but has not lived here long enough to qualify for British citizenship, and will only become eligible in October 2004.
“The problems concerning my jumping for Great Britain are still there, but all I want to do is compete at the highest level, which means World Championships and Olympic Games,” she said. “If I have to sit and watch it on TV I would be upset. It’s frustrating but reality.”
However, her coach, Frank Attoh, who used to guide Hansen’s career, appealed for his athlete to be given special dispensation by the IAAF. “She should be able to compete in Paris, maybe under an IAAF banner if necessary,” he said. “I just think you should have the best athletes in the world at the World Championships.”
UK Athletics’ Performance Director Max Jones agreed, revealing that the federation is now trying to persuade the UK government to speed up her application, pleading “mitigating circumstances”, at least in time for her to compete at the Olympic Games in Athens next year. “We keep pushing it down the corridors of power,” he said. “She is the best triple jumper in the world at the moment and she should be there. Hopefully, common sense will prevail.”
Not surprisingly, Aldama’s was the top money-winning performance of the weekend, although Carl Myerscough’s championships record shot put of 21.55m was a close second. Myerscough broke the 23 year-old British record earlier this year when he putted 21.92m to win the NCAA championships in Sacramento, an effort that is only 0.75m behind Kevin Toth’s world leading performance.
“I am pleased that I had a good performance and proved that I can throw like that regularly,” said the man who is known as the Blackpool Tower, in reference to the Eiffel tower look-a-like construction found in his home town. “It was difficult after doing my big throw because it’s hard to find the adrenaline for another one. In Crystal Palace it will be the top six in the world so it will be good to see where we are all at.”
Commonwealth Games 400m Hurdles champion Chris Rawlinson was so angry that he had had to appeal against disqualification from his semi-final yesterday that he threatened not to run the final this afternoon. He did though, but had a harder task winning it than he would have bargained for. He crossed the line in 49.24, only 0.16 seconds ahead of Matthew Douglas, who caught the world number three at the final hurdle and competed hard over the run-in.
“I wasn’t that happy about running after the fiasco of the semi-final,” said Rawlinson. “But the British title still means quite a lot to me. To win any medal in Paris would be great but I do feel Felix Sanchez is beatable this year.”
Multi-British record breaker Lorraine Shaw surprised no-one when she won the women’s hammer with a throw of 65.93m, exactly three metres short of her best. The surprise in the women’s 200m wasn’t so much the winner, Abi Oyepitan, but her time – a significant personal best of 22.95, ahead of Joice Maduaka’s 23.42.
In the absence of British record holder Chris Tomlinson and the injured Commonwealth champion Nathan Morgan, Scotland’s Darren Ritchie won the men’s Long Jump with a leap of 7.74m. Commonwealth champion Michael East won the men’s 1500m in 3:42.29, while long-time British international and expectant father John Mayock trailed in fifth in what could be his final outing.
The fifth dollop of five grand went to Chambers for his 10.08 100m win on Saturday. Like Golding and Ladejo, he too has been a bit of a come-back kid over the last few weeks.
Matthew Brown for the IAAF
