{"id":162723,"date":"2025-02-15T17:48:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T17:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/15\/british-records-fall-at-the-keely-klassic-aw\/"},"modified":"2025-02-15T17:48:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T17:48:23","slug":"british-records-fall-at-the-keely-klassic-aw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/15\/british-records-fall-at-the-keely-klassic-aw\/","title":{"rendered":"British records fall at the Keely Klassic – AW"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
Georgia Hunter Bell and Molly Caudery in fine form in Birmingham as Lina Nielsen and Neil Gourley set national indoor records<\/h5>\n

No Keely, no problem. The inaugural Keely Klassic did not feature the Olympic 800m champion in action on the track, but the event in Birmingham on Saturday (Feb 15) still bubbled along with a number of top-quality events.<\/p>\n

Georgia Hunter Bell narrowly missed Laura Muir\u2019s UK indoor 1500m record with training partner Sarah Healy clocking an Irish record in second.<\/p>\n

The meeting did see some British records, though, with Lina Nielsen and Neil Gourley setting new national figures in the women\u2019s 300m and men\u2019s 1000m respectively.<\/p>\n

In the field, Molly Caudery showed encouraging form in the pole vault with a 4.73m win ahead of the European and world indoor championships.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Molly Caudery (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hunter Bell was coming off a fine victory in the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games seven days earlier. Following the pacemaker through 800m in 2:09.87, she then took the lead with Healy close behind, passing 1000m in 2:42.79 and the bell in 3:30.4 before coming home in 4:00.63, narrowly missing Muir\u2019s UK record of 3:59.58, as Healy improved the Irish record to 4:01.62.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many young people here \u2013 and especially girls \u2013 who look up to what Keely has achieved,\u201d said Hunter Bell. \u201cThere seemed to be more fun and a bit less pressure today, which was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the record bid, she added: \u201cI\u2019m proud about how I went for it and it\u2019s important to always try to shoot for it so it gives me confidence that I can win races when it\u2019s scrappy like in New York (Millrose Games) and also when I front run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healy said: \u201cIt definitely felt like a good team effort and we knew we were going to push each other. I knew Georgia was going to go for the record and so I slotted in behind. I wanted to try to help out if I could but that didn\u2019t happen although maybe another day I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Georgia Hunter Bell (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hodgkinson was of course at the event and spent the day buzzing around signing autographs for the dozens of young Keely-ites in the audience and cheering on her GB team-mates. These included Caudery, who cleared 4.73m to back up recent 4.75m results in Karlsruhe and Lievin.<\/p>\n

The world indoor champion retired at that height but her performance bodes well for the rest of the season. \u201cI missed my first two competitions this season as I was dealing with a very small hamstring thing from training in South Africa,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m really glad to clear my heights today off a short approach and I\u2019ll go up to a full approach next week at the UK Indoor Champs.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt\u2019s probably been my best winter ever. Training has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lina Nielsen (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nielsen set the first British record of the day with 36.53 in the 300m. Taking down Dina Asher-Smith\u2019s national mark of 36.77, Nielsen led Emily Newnham (36.88) and Ama Pipi (37.22) home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so happy I committed,\u201d said Nielsen. \u201cI needed to go through 200m fast and I did. I\u2019ve got big goals this year and that was a good start. You need a specific race plan in the 300m as you\u2019re running up two \u2018hills\u2019 or slopes and you need to make sure you attack each of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gourley broke Charlie Grice\u2019s UK indoor 1000m record of 2:17.20 with 2:16.74 but he was out-kicked on the final lap by Samuel Chapple, who beat Rob Druppers\u2019 long-standing Dutch record with 2:16.09 after taking the lead through 800m in 1:46.9. In third, Alex Botterill ran 2:17.25.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve worked very hard today,\u201d said Gourley. \u201cI\u2019ve felt tired this week but was committed to giving myself this hard effort which will hopefully bring me on a bit. I have a lot of fitness behind me but not as much sharpness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Neil Gourley (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There was another record attempt in the men\u2019s 600m and a near miss for Callum Dodds. The target was Thomas Staines\u2019 75.31 from 2023 but Dodds clocked 75.81.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was close so it\u2019s a bit frustrating and I felt I had a bit more in the tank,\u201d said Dodds. \u201cIn the second half of the race I think I lost a little bit of momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t all about British records either. With a time of 1:45.78 in the 800m, the up-and-coming Justin Davies broke a Welsh record which had been held by Joe Thomas since 2012.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Justin Davies (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The women\u2019s 800m was a slightly slower affair but won impressively by Issy Boffey as she went from last to first in the final lap to win in 2:01.69 \u2013 a qualifying mark for the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Patrik Domotor beats Efe Okoro (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Elsewhere, Patrik Domotor of the Slovak Republic \u2013 one of several international visitors at the meeting \u2013 won the men\u2019s 400m in 46.61 ahead of Efe Okoro\u2019s 46.84.<\/p>\n

Yoshiki Kinashi of Japan won the men\u2019s 60m in 6.72 with Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake runner-up in 6.66, with Mitchell-Blake later returning to win the 200m in 21.16, albeit in literally a two-man race. \u201cI wanted more but I have to be grateful to be healthy,\u201d said Mitchell-Blake. \u201cI have to keep grinding and see where it takes me.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 200m is my baby. The 60m, I love, but it doesn\u2019t seem to love me. And with the 100m, we have our moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Amy Hunt beats Mabel Akande (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Amy Hunt clocked 7.24 ahead of the defence of her UK Champs 60m title defence next weekend as Mabel Akande was runner-up 7.28. \u201cI think it\u2019s been the old Amy at these races lately and I\u2019m waiting for the new Amy to turn up,\u201d said Hunt. \u201cSo it\u2019s definitely a work in progress right now. We\u2019re trying to piece things together and I\u2019m racing back to back in the next three weeks now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sprint hurdles victories went to Rafael Pereira in 7.66 and Marika Majewska with 8.15 ahead of Abigail Pawlett, the latter clocking 8.15 just one day after setting a British Universities Championship record of 8.11 in Sheffield.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Edson Gomes, Rafael Pereira, Callum Holder (Getty)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In the long jump, Eusebio Caceres, a former European under-23 champion from Spain, won with 7.73m as Britain\u2019s Jacob Fincham-Dukes was runner-up with 7.68m. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t my best day and I really had to fight for it,\u201d said Fincham-Dukes.<\/p>\n

\n

READ MORE: Reasons to be cheerful at the Keely Klassic<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hodgkinson would much rather have been a competitor than a spectator, but said: \u201cWhen I saw the branding for the meeting, it looked so good. But I was gutted not to race, so I have mixed emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Full results here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00bb\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Subscribe to AW magazine\u00a0<\/i>here<\/i><\/span><\/a>, check out our new podcast\u00a0<\/i>here<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0or sign up to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day\u00a0<\/i>here<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia Hunter Bell and Molly Caudery in fine form in Birmingham as Lina Nielsen and Neil Gourley set national indoor records No Keely, no problem. The inaugural Keely Klassic did not feature the Olympic 800m champion in action on the track, but the event in Birmingham on Saturday (Feb 15) still bubbled along with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":162724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-162723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}