Solihull Grand Prix – 16 Aug 2014 – Results

Races: 27
Finishers: 277
PBs 68 (25%) Power of Ten: Here

Video footage from athleticos: Here

Report

AMONG the many big and established names who turned up for the final Grand Prix race of the season two lesser lights shone out and offered a glimpse of an exciting future.

Understandably the likes of experienced British internationals Jenny Meadows and Jemma Simpson plus Kenyan runner Vincent Kibet made the headlines with impressive wins in the 800m and 1500m respectively.
But the 800m in particular offered two outstanding runs by young British runners Kyle Langford and Seren Bundy-Davies.

Langford’s talent has been well documented and the 18-year-old year-old recently proved he is among the best young two-lappers around after reaching the final of the World Junior Championships.
Langford pushed Kibet hard in the men’s A race and only missed his PB by just a frustrating 0.04secs as he clocked 1:47.45 to finish second. But the Shaftesbury Barnet Harrier shouldn’t feel down about that as among his scalps on the evening was American World Championship medallist Matthew Centrowitz plus seasoned British seniors Paul Goodall and Niall Brooks.

In the women’s A race Commonwealth Games semi finalist Kate Kirk, aged 20, Adelle Tracey and Alexandra Bell, who are both 21, showed up well behind Meadows but it was the performance of Bundy-Davies in winning the B race that really caught the eye.The 19-year-old Trafford runner was originally scheduled to set the pace for the B race and could have legitimately dropped out at the bell having done her job.
After all Bundy-Davies has been concentrating on the 400m this summer and in addition to winning the Welsh title at the end of May and then finishing fourth in the British Championships has also improved her PB to 52.50secs to go eighth on the UK Rankings.So it may have surprised her rivals to see Bundy-Davies ploughing on into the second lap and maintaining her form excellently to win in an impressive time of 2:03.73.
That slashed 14.2 seconds off her PB, which she set in 2011 and would have placed her third in the A race. The time also puts Bundy-Davies 21st on the UK Rankings and suggests that her future may belong over two laps. It will certainly give Bundy-Davies and coach Stephen Ball plenty to think about this winter.

As for Meadows and Simpson the final Grand Prix race of the season was a good chance to get back into the winning grove and enjoy a late season flourish as neither athlete would have been particularly happy with the outcome from Glasgow – former UK No 1 Meadows was sixth in the 800m and Simpson ninth in the 1500m.
Meadows was too strong for 20 Kirk as she won in 2:01.48 with her fifth fastest time of the season. For Simpson it was her second 1500m in four days having won the BMC Gold Standard race in Watford on Wednesday in 4:08.94, which is her second best the of the year and her fastest on home soil.

The Newquay & Par runner couldn’t quite match that on Saturday but still proved a class above he rivals as she clocked 4:12.18 to finish over two seconds ahead of the field with Racheal Bamford delighted to slice over two seconds off her PB with 4:14.27 in second and leap to 10th in the UK Rankings.
Julia Cooke won her first Grand Prix A race in Trafford last month and was equally delighted with her third in 4:14.60 to shave another second off her best . It means the 25-year-old newly qualified doctor, who is coached by Bud Baldaro, has improved her time by a staggering 14 seconds this year.

It was also good to see 22-year-old Jonny Hay finally improve his three-year-old PB in the 1500m as he showed a return to form with victory in 3:42.13 to edge out the experienced Tom Lancashire, who was rewarded with a season’s best of 3:42.38. Typically he then finished runner-up in the 5000m!
In fifth 42-year-old Anthony Whiteman recorded a season’s best of 3:44.28 – easily the quickest by a British veteran runner this summer.

In the longer distances 24-year-old Jess Coulson celebrated her return to track action – it was her first race on tartan since the 2012 Olympic trials – with an encouraging victory in 15:44.85 which carved almost 40 seconds off her best time.Runner-up Stevie Stockton also clocked a PB and there were season’s bests for the next three runners, including former GB junior star Charlotte Purdue a she continues her comeback from injury.

The winner of the men’s 5000m, Alex Bruce-Littlewood, was also please to set a new PB of 14:03.79 to finish ahead of the busy Hay and Adam Hickey.