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PREVIEW
Meeting organiser Bill Foster is delighted with the turn-out for the third BMC Grand Prix of the season at Loughborough University on Saturday.
“We had so many entries and even had to turn some away as we reached 400,” said Foster.
“No-one likes to say no to runners wanting to enter but we just couldn’t accommodate any more in the four-hour programme.
“The BMC Grand Prix events are superb meetings, so well organised with race after race”
It is not just sheer size of numbers that has delighted Foster. With the Grand Prix incorporating the World Challenger Tour there is also a strong sprinkling of overseas athletes to add spice to the A races.
“It is really good to see some strong international athletes here at Loughborough and in the women’s 300m in particular we have some very fast runners from Mexico and Australia,” added Foster.
“And for the women’s steeplechase we have a strong runner from Sweden in the line-up.”
While the UK Championships and Olympic trials the following weekend means that the top British elite runners are keeping their powder dry others are taking the chance to sharpen their speed by stepping down a distance.
The men’s 800m features last year’s European U23 1500m silver medallist Ethan Hussey, who has a best of 1:45.43 this summer at Brussels last month and is looking for another solid time in that region – and maybe even challenge his PB of 1:44.96.
The BMC Indoor 1500m champion and reigning UK Indoor champion Piers Copeland has chosen Loughborough for his first outdoor race of the year. Last year he finished fifth in this race clocking 1:47.91 and is targeting a time in that region.
Jamie Phillips, who is third in the UK U20 Ranking after clocking a PB of 1:48.40 at the BMC races in Belfast last weekend, is also entered.
The women’s 800m A race also sees 1500m specialists Bethan Morley and Ellie Leather stepping down for some sharpening up,
Leather ran a PB of 4:06.12 in America last month to put her 10th in the UK Rankings while Morley has already impressed on the GP circuit by winning the 1500m at Sportcity in a PB of 4:11.84 and then placing fifth at Watford.
Both experienced runners will have to keep an eye out for outstanding teenager Shakira King, who tops the UK U17 Rankings with her 2:02.60 at the BMC meeting in Gillingham, in April. She also followed that up with a 2:02.87 in the BMC Belfast meeting last weekend.
Indienne King, Madie Deadman and Latvian Liga Velvere, who is chasing a 2:01, are also in the line-up.
The women’s 1500m features India’s Harmila Bains Kaur, who has raced the GP series before, Laura Nagel of New Zealand and American Taylor Werner; they have declared target times of 4:04, 4:06 and 4:06 respectively so if the pace is good then that should ensure a true race from the gun.
Lyla Belshaw and Lauren Church have both set PBs of 4:12.19 and 4:15.99 respectively this summer so could really benefit from that sort of pace to go even faster.
In the men’s 1500m Rory Leonard steps back onto the track after making his GB senior track debut at the recent European Championships in Rome, placing 19th in the 10,000m.
It will be interesting to see how he has recovered from that experience and he will be joined in the field by Will Barnicoat, who was 10th at Watford and Tiarnan Crorken, who will be racing his first 1500m of the season.
On the basis of his 1:45.58 in Brussels last month his target of challenging his lifetime best of 3:39.41 is well within his range.
Australian Jenny Blundell, the reigning Oceania 5000m champion, is the fastest woman in the 3000m field. Blundell ran 8:43.59 in Sydney, in March and then opened her European racing season with a 15:14.94 5000m in Bilbao on Tuesday night, just outside her three-year-old PB.
She is joined by Alma Cortes Garcia of Mexico, who has clocked 9:09.52 this season and will have her sights on going even quicker.
There is a strong British contingent too including Jenny Nesbitt, top junior Innes Fitzgerald, Phoebe Anderson and Philippa Bowden. The race promises to be one well worth watching.
There are three sub eight minute men in the 3000m A race with Edward Bird, Alasdair Kinloch and junior Aron Gebremarariam all chasing 7:50. Ireland’s Eferm Gidye is also one to watch.
Two-times Sweden champion Majken Soderlund Larsson is an intriguing entry for the 2000m steeplechase. The 16-year-old ran 6:36.01 last year and is looking to better that this weekend so that should ensure a strong pace from the gun which should be good for British teenagers Ava James (6:45.84) and Olivia McGhee (6:55.93), who are both targeting 6:40.
The fastest in the men’s race are Iwan Thomas, who has run 5:49.17 this summer and Dillon Millard, with 5:51.88, putting them one and two in the UK U20 Rankings.
The meeting starts at 5pm with the 30th and final race at 8.49pm. Spectators are welcome but if you can’t make it there will be the usual live coverage from Vinco.
