Athletics<\/a> Indoor Championships on Sunday.<\/p>\nThe 200m is not contested internationally during the indoor season so elite athletes almost never race it, and Azu had already won the 60m title a day earlier. In an era where world-class athletes tend to wrap themselves in cotton wool for fear of injury it was unusual to see one so accomplished run an additional three times in three hours when there was no particular need.<\/p>\n
That Azu triumphed \u2013 in a personal best 20.77 seconds \u2013 came as little surprise given his accolades include world and European 60m gold medals. He will defend the first of those at the World Athletics Indoor Championships next month.<\/p>\n
With Keely Hodgkinson opting not to take her place in the 800m final, and the Olympic medallists Georgia Hunter Bell and Josh Kerr late injury withdrawals from their races, Azu\u2019s presence added some sparkle to an afternoon that otherwise lacked some sheen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mainly for the training,\u201d Azu said of his decision to contest a sprint double. \u201cThere\u2019s a level of speed you get from competition that you don\u2019t get from training. It\u2019s three good rounds and it\u2019s adding to the base. It was a good session.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether more athletes should take the chance to run at these events, he said: \u201cWe travel around the world so much, and we represent Great Britain, so if there\u2019s an opportunity to do it, for [the crowd] to come and see us, I think people should grab that. But, obviously, people are based in different places. It\u2019s not easy to just break up training and come here. I\u2019m two hours away [in Cardiff]. Everyone\u2019s got different things to juggle.<\/p>\nIssy Boffey continued her breakthrough season with victory in the 800m.<\/span> Photograph: Alex Livesey\/British Athletics\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cFor me, it really works. I think people should definitely make use of these championships. You get some great work from it, and you get to come out and run in front of the British crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those at the Utilita Arena certainly appreciated it. Hodgkinson had blitzed her way to a scintillating British record when winning her 800m heat on Saturday but, with designs on challenging the world record at a high-profile French meeting next week, chose to sit out the final. That left Issy Boffey to take the title, a fortnight after entering the all-time global top 10. The triumph on Sunday was not quite as quick, coming in 1:59.64, but it continued a whirlwind season that has seen a necessary change of plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of weeks ago, I really wasn\u2019t sure about doing the world indoors,\u201d Boffey said. \u201cBut now I\u2019m feeling more confident. Ultimately, I want to be in that [world] final. You take one step at a time, but I definitely want to be there.\u201d<\/p>\nHodgkinson will head there as the overwhelming favourite, especially if she claims a world record that has stood since the day she was born: 3 March 2002. Of Hodgkinson\u2019s absence from the final, Boffey said: \u201cI was super excited to race against her. She\u2019s the Olympic champion and deserves so much respect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been so nice to run with her and really try to hold on for as long as I could. But I absolutely respect her choice to not do the final. A lot of people don\u2019t really understand there\u2019s a lot of things going on behind doors. If you\u2019re racing again next week it\u2019s a short season. You\u2019ve got to do what\u2019s best for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a surprise defeat for the reigning world indoor 400m champion Amber Anning, who could only win bronze behind Yemi Mary John. The former world medallist Ben Pattison claimed 800m gold, and Jemma Reekie won the 1500m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid a raft of high-profile absentees from Birmingham this weekend it was quite the surprise to see Jeremiah Azu\u2019s name on the 200m start list for the UK Athletics Indoor Championships on Sunday. The 200m is not contested internationally during the indoor season so elite athletes almost never race it, and Azu had already won […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":228707,"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-228706","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\/228706","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=228706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}