Monday, April 25, 2005

NORWICH UNION GB&NI TEAM FOR EUROPEAN CUP OF RACE WALKING UK Athletics - Four athletes with an average age of 18-and-a-half will form the Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland Team at the European Cup of Race Walking to be staged in Miskolc, Hungary, on Saturday 21 May. The 'four for the future' named today by UK Athletics are 21-year-old Dominic King (Colchester AC), 17-year-old Nicholas Ball (Steyning AC), 20-year-old Johanna Jackson (Redcar RWC) and 16-year-old Rebecca Mersh (City of Sheffield AC). All proved their fitness to take on stars from as many as 27 other countries by showing great form at the European AA Permit meeting at Royal Leamington Spa on Sunday 17 April. King became the first home winner of the Senior Men[base ']s 20km race in a time of 1 hour 29 minutes 19 seconds that is inside the England qualifying time for next year's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. He now has UK titles at 5km, 10km and 20km. Jackson, on her 20km debut only two years after she took up the sport, clocked 1:43:07, also inside England[base ']s Commonwealth Games standard. Both Juniors won their Leamington 10km races. Ball's personal best of 44 minutes 5 seconds was inside the UKA qualifying standard for this summer[base ']s IAAF World Youth Championships in Marrakech and the fastest time ever recorded by a British Junior over the Leamington course - knocking King off the top of the rankings. Mersh comfortably beat all the Under 20 Women to take the UK title in 51:27. Former international race walker Martin Bell, who will be the Coach with the Norwich Union GB&NI Team, said: [base "]I would love to have had a bigger Team, but its size reflects the standard of world walking - and our selections are certainly four for the future. 'Dominic will be targeting the European Under 23 Championships this summer. Johanna has only been race walking part-time for two years and didn[base ']t even think she would be good enough to get into the Commonwealth Trial, but now she has a very good chance of being in the England Team for Melbourne. And I am really looking forward to seeing whether young Nick and Rebecca can make the top 20 or even 15 of the Junior races. It will be hard but it[base ']s possible on the form they have shown.' 1:15:02 PM     comment []

German titles and standards for Andr» Hoehne and Sabine Zimmer André Hoehne (SCC Berlin) and Sabine Zimmer (sports club Potsdam) won the German walking championships in Dresden over 20 kilometers on Sunday the titles - the citizen of Berlin triumphed in 1:21:49, the Potsdamerin after 1:29:07 hours. Both thereby gained the WM standard for Helsinki. Andreas Erm - one of the favourites for Helsinki - was disqualified just before the ten-kilometer mark. The championships took place on a two-kilometer course along the Elbe, the king bank formed a trueful royal backdrop, but the view was crowned over the Elbe, to the magnificent silhouette of the old part of town, still more beautifully by the woman church lit up in the new gloss. 1:08:00 PM     comment []

© Copyright 2005 Tim Watt. Last update: 28/9/05; 02:17:44.