The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Reekie steps down to 800m in World Series
Jemma Reekie, winner of the 1,500m at last weekend’s Muller Indoor Glasgow Grand Prix, steps down to the 800m tonight at the penultimate meeting in the World Indoor Series – the Meeting Haut-de-france Pasde-calais in Liévin.
The Kilbarchan athlete opened her indoor season on February 1 at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena where she headed training partner Laura Muir in a UK indoor record of 1 minute 57.91 seconds. A UK record over 1,500m and one mile followed a week later in New York before last weekend’s victory back at Emirates Arena.
Reekie will come up against a star-studded field including Ethiopia’s Habitam Alemu and Switzerland’s double European indoor champion Selina Buchel.
Reekie’s coach Andy Young views his charge as a genuine Olympic contender over 800m – having run that 1:57 indoors earlier this month, the fastest indoor time in the world since 2006.
He said: “You’ve still got to remember she’s 21 and this will be her first Olympics, but if you can deliver that kind of performance – and you can navigate heats and semis and get to the final and deliver a performance like that – it’s an exciting opportunity.”
Another of Andy Young’s Glasgow training group, Gabriela Debues-stafford (Canada), goes in the 1,500m, taking on Ethiopians Guduf Tsegay and Dawit Seyaum, second behind Reekie in Glasgow.
Armand Duplantis, who has twice improved the world pole vault record in the space of a week, will seek an unprecedented hat-trick of world marks.
The 20-year-old Us-based Swede followed up his 6.17m clearance in Torun last week adding a further centimetre in Glasgow and, at what will be the penultimate stop on the World Indoor Tour, has the opportunity to create further sporting history.
Given the huge margin by which he cleared the bar in Glasgow, Duplantis would appear to have plenty to spare when it comes to making another advance on the 6.16m achieved by France’s Renaud Lavillenie in 2014.