Athletics – Sainsbury’s British Championships – Day 2

Mixed fortunes for Scots on Day 2

Day 2 of the Sainsbury’s British Athletics Championships in Birmingam was a mix of qualifying rounds and finals, depending on the number of entries. Most of the success came from the women, with only a couple of the men making any progress. Four of our household names Sharp, Childs and Muir all won their respective events by a fair margin while Emily Dudgeon won by 1/100 sec.

Eilidh Childs (Pitreavie) was in the first of the 400m Hurdles qualifiers and won through, coasting over the line in 55.98s – a margin of 3 seconds in front of second place. The second heat saw Avril Jackson qualify as a ‘ fastest loser’, finishing third in her hear with a PB of 1:00.45.

Edinburgh University graduate, Linsey Sharp (Edinburgh) won her 800m heat by about a second with 2:03.44 and was followed up in the second heat by Emily Dudgeon (Edinburgh) who squeaked through into first in her heat by that 0.01 seconds in 2:04.07.

The men’s 800m had Lasswade’s Guy Learmonth running in the third heat and he qualified with a second place 1:49.44, while Central’s Andrew Butchart finished a distant fourth in 13:56.14 in the 5,000m Final.

In the Men’s Hammer final, Scotland’s Commonwealth Games Bronze medal, Mark Dry (Woodford) came second with 73.02m, Chris Bennett (Shaftsbury) finished third with 72.62m and Andy Frost Woodford) trailed behind his countrymen in eighth with 67.00m.

More good news on the running front as Laura Muir (Dundee) and Madeleine Murray (Edinburgh) both qualified from the second heat of the 1500m. Muir won her heat in 4:18.39, with Murray in fourth with 4:19.37. In fact Murray and fellow Edinburgh club member, Laura Dunn, shared the lead for a couple of laps, but Dunn faded to finish last in her heat with 4:40.36. Another athlete who failed to qualify was Jenny Tan (Fife) who posted 4:30.43 on her way to twelfth in her heat.

It wasn’t all good news as hurdler Hazel Ross (Victoria) finished third in her heat, thus failing to qualify, and pole vaulter, Henrietta Paxton (Birchfield) came in at the third height of 3.90m and failed to clear with her three attempts. A couple of athletes also failed to start.

However, it was a promising day for the Edinburgh based athletes and the Scots in general with the women certainly showingthe men how it should be done.

Images will appear here over the next few days