2017 British Athletics Indoor Championships & Team Trials
EIS Stadium, Sheffield
Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th February
The best athletes in Britain gathered in Sheffield on the weekend of 11-12 February 2017 as they competed for the prestigious honour of being crowned British Champion and they battled for a place on the British Athletics team for the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade at the start of March.
Hundreds of the best athletes from across the country were looking to get 2017 off to a good start in a year which will see London host both the IAAF and IPC World Championships in the summer.
Pole vaulter Clare Blunt had a week to remember with 2 of the best results of her career coming on consecutive weekends. First she made the long trek to Surrey worthwhile by clearing a new personal best height of 3.92m when finishing 3rd in the prestigious Vault London event held at the Carshalton Indoor Arena. This was a new club record and followed a frustrating 2016 for the York based athlete when she struggled to transfer huge improvements in her training performances into competitive results whilst making major technical changes to her vaulting.
Clare’s next event was considerably closer to home when she contested the British Indoor Championships in Sheffield just 7 days later. She could not quite match her earlier performance but still managed a highly creditable 5th place with a vault of 3.81m.
Having taken up the event in 2005 Clare has enjoyed a highly successful career to date having won several Northern titles and a medal in the English Championships along the way. She will now look forward to the outdoor season with her eyes firmly on the 4 metre mark – probably the vaulter’s equivalent of the middle distance runners 4 minute mile barrier. Her recent improvement has seen Clare rise up the UK All-Time rankings to 43rd place, a position she will be seeking to further improve on as 2017 progresses.
Also in action at the British championships was sprinter Luke Giblin who had once again been invited to compete in the 200 metres sprints at the prestigious event. This meeting was Luke’s third competitive outing of 2017 following his appearances at the EIS in January in the Sheffield run jumps and throws series and of course the Northern championship meeting later that month where he was the bronze medallist in the 60 metres and a finalist in the 200 metres.
He was drawn to run in the fourth of the 200 metre heats and his run of 22.24 sec gave him a 2nd place finish in the race which saw him qualify to compete in the semi-finals which were to be held later in the day.
The semi-final draw saw Luke competing in the second of the races where his time of 22.30 sec was not enough for him to make the cut for the final which was won by Antonio Infantino of the Shaftesbury Barnet club.
Andrew Morgan-Harrison who was recently crowned one of the ‘Hull Daily Mail Sporting Champions’ got the call to compete in the 200 metres sprints an event where he is currently ranked number 2 in Yorkshire and number 5 in the UK in the under 20 age category He has enjoyed a successful 2016/17 indoor season winning the 200 metres silver medal and 60 metres bronze medal at the recent Northern indoor Championship meeting at this same venue.
He was in action on the Sunday the second day of the championships and he was drawn to run in the 3rd of the four heats where he ran a season’s best time of 21.81 sec for 4th place in the race and qualified to run in the semi-finals. The draw for which placed him in semi-final 1where once again he was a 4th place finisher but his time of 21.97 sec was not enough to see him into the final.
For Hollie Smith 2016 was an excellent year the outstanding high jumper won three major championship medals taking the bronze medals at both the England indoor and Northern indoor championships whilst in the track and field season she won the bronze at the prestigious English Schools Championship’s and also won the County title and gold medal for the third time. She carried her form through into 2017 and began the new year with a gold medal success at the Northern indoor championships.
The high jump timetable saw her in action on Saturday’s opening day of competition where she cleared a height of 1.68 metres which wasn’t enough to get her into the mix for the medals.
Hollie is currently ranked number 2 in Yorkshire and number 6 in the UK in the under 20 age category
