GB struggle to field full sprint team
BRITISH ATHLETICS are facing the selection headache of being unable to deploy a full sprint team for the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow next month. A combination of leading male sprinters not competing at the British Indoors in Birmingham, and the underwhelming showing of those who did, means only three men have fulfilled the qualification criteria for the 60metres sprint in Glasgow. Of that trio, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, the European 200m silver medallist, is understood to have made it clear to team bosses that he doesn’t intend to compete in Glasgow, leaving only two of three 60m spots filled. As it stands, that means just Ojie Edoburun, who finished eighth in Birmingham, and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, who failed to make the final, have met the two requirements of having turned up to the Championships and achieved the qualifying time since the start of the 2018 season. None of the top three from Saturday’s 60m final in Birmingham — Dominic Ashwell, Adam Thomas and Jeremiah Azu — have hit the marks of 6.60sec in the 60m or 10.20sec in the 100m. Meanwhile, Katarina Johnson-Thompson won long jump gold yesterday, a day after taking silver in the 60m hurdles. The heptathlete, who will head to Glasgow as strong favourite for pentathlon gold in the absence of injured Olympic champion Nafi Thiam, jumped 6.46m — 10cm clear of Jahisha Thomas in second. Johnson-Thompson, a gold medallist in both the Commonwealth Games and World Indoors last year, said: ‘It is the best I’ve felt at this point in a season.’ Commonwealth high jump silver medallist Morgan Lake cleared 1.94m to win gold.