Lorraine Shaw after winning 2002 Commonwealth Hammer title (© Getty Images)
Loughborough, EnglandA smattering of British internationals, past, present, and (probably) future, came to test their early season form at the Loughborough International Athletics meeting today – (Sunday) - a six-way, seven-hour match held at a track that was once the training venue of athletes such as David Moorcroft, Sebastian Coe, Jack Buckner, Steve Backley and Paula Radcliffe, all of whom were students at the university at some time over the last 30 years. Unfortunately, performances today hardly matched the heights reached by those UK greats.
When 1998 European 400m champion Iwan Thomas moved from Southampton to train here eight months ago he probably hoped some of the Loughborough magic would rub off on him. Thomas is attempting to re-start his career after four years of ankle and hamstring injuries, a series of set backs that have seen his career crash from the heights of 1998, when he was crowned European and Commonwealth champion, to the lows of last year, when he failed even to make the final at the British national championships. At that point, Thomas admitted today, he almost gave up.
But this season, with a new coach, a new training group and a fresh start, Thomas has again become one of the chief attractions of British athletics. At least, he was heading that way when he clocked 45.94 last week, his quickest time for two years. Cool, blustery winds and thunder showers hampered many athletes here, but none more than Thomas, who was running for Wales in the match with Scotland, British juniors, British students, Loughborough students and an international select team. His 48.03 was the slowest he has run since he was at school, a time, he insists, which is no reflection of his form or fitness.
“That was the weirdest race I’ve ever had,” he said. “Last week I felt so easy running 45.9, so I honestly can’t explain what happened. Yes, it was windy, but I’ve never run that slowly before, even during all those low points during years of injury. It was a freak race.”
A freak it may have been, but British student Robert Tobin won’t mind as he beat Thomas to the line to claim a notable scalp, clocking 48.00.
Jason Gardener is another British athlete hoping to recapture his best form this year. The World Indoor 60m bronze medallist became only the third Briton ever to break 10 seconds for 100m in 1999, when he ran 9.98 in Lausanne. But the man nicknamed the ‘Bath Bullet’ has never reproduced that form since, nor shown his best at an outdoor championships. Like Thomas, he has suffered from niggling injuries. Like Thomas he has changed his coach in recent months in an attempt to kick start his career.
Gardener is now under the watchful eye of Bath University’s Malcolm Arnold, the man who guided hurdler Colin Jackson to World records and gold medals. Arnold has changed Gardener’s training regime, introducing more sprint endurance work, and it was with that background that Gardener chose to make his opening race of the season a rare outing over 200m. He won easily, in 20.81, taking some 10 metres out of the 199 World Indoor 400m champion, Jamie Baulch. That may be a modest time in world terms but is well within sight of his personal best, 20.65, a time he set in 1999, the same year he was flying over 100m, and being tipped as the man to watch by the likes of Maurice Greene and Ato Boldon.
Not surprisingly, Gardener saw today’s performance as a good omen, a sign that he can get back to that level. At the very least he is clearly hoping that this year, at last, he can threaten Dwain Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis for the British sprint crown. We will soon know, for the three meet in a one-off race over 100m for European Cup selection in Ostrava on Thursday.
“It’s a really exciting period for me,” said Gardener. “I’ve enjoyed my new training and I’m healthy. I’ve always said if I could stay healthy I could be dangerous at 100m.”
It was another University of Bath-based athlete, however, who provided the top performance of the meeting. Before Loughborough had even had time to unveil its new High Performance Athletics Centre, a 500 million pound indoor training venue, at the beginning of the day, the Commonwealth Hammer throw champion Lorraine Shaw had broken the British record. Shaw threw 68.93m with her first throw of the competition, shortly after 11 o’clock in the morning, setting her 16th national record since 1994 and putting her firmly among the world’s top ten for 2003.
In the absence through injury or illness of Jonathan Edwards, Phillips Idowu and Larry Achike from this month’s European Cup in Florence, the hunt was on for Britain’s fourth choice triple jumper. Tosin Oke, fifth in the Commonwealth Games last year, was everyone’s favourite. But he left it until the last round before staking his claim with a leap of 16.53m, having previously managed only one valid attempt in the second round, 14.88m.
There was a three-way battle for European Cup places in the men’s javelin. With Backley injured, a place in the team was open for Mick Hill, Nick Neiland or Mark Roberson. Neiland came out ahead, posting Britain’s first 80m plus javelin throw of the year, with an 80.71m effort in the second round.
Australia’s 800m runner Tamsyn Lewis was one of a handful of international athletes on show. Coached by former Loughborough student Sebastian Coe, Lewis ran 53.70 in an invitation 400m, ahead of Britain’s Jenny Meadows (53.91).
Lewis’s compatriot Matt Shirvington, also running as a guest, stole the men’s 100m. Now coached by Ron Roddan, formerly Linford Christie’s coach, the Australian pipped former world junior champion Christian Malcolm of Wales, 10.35 to 10.38.
In the women’s 100m, Carly Wenham, a 15 year-old running in the invitation race, clocked an impressive personal best of 11.79.
