Sunday was a good day for UW volunteer coaches Tim Duckworth & Sam Prakel (and Brooks Beast Henry Wynne)...
With apologies to famed rapper/producer Ice Cube, Sunday was a good day for a trio of Washington-based track and field professionals:
In Glasgow, Scotland, Tim Duckworth (left/photo by Paul Merca) survived a sub-par performance in Saturday’s shot put and the 60 meter hurdles early Sunday morning to earn a second place finish in the heptathlon at the European Indoor Championships at Emirates Arena.
Duckworth, who was leading the competition at the break with a four event score of 3533 and a a 58 point lead over Fredrik Samuelsson of Sweden, with Spain’s Jorge Ureña third at 3443, lost the lead in the 60 meter hurdles.
The Briton, who is a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Washington, finished third in his heat of the hurdles, running 8.16, as Ureña was the overall event winner in 7.78.
Ureña’s win gave him a 4481-4475 lead over Duckworth, with Fredrik Samuelsson dropping to third after his 8.20 time in the hurdles.
Duckworth wasn’t able to gain ground on Ureña, as both cleared 16-4.75 (5.00m) in the pole vault, setting up a showdown in the 1000 meters.
Ureña entered the last event as the clear favorite, with the fastest personal best of 2:40.06, while Duckworth entered the final event with a 2:56.23 best, set at last year’s NCAA indoor championships.
Duckworth set a personal best in the 1000 of 2:49.44, as Ureña won the event with a time of 2:44.27 to cement the overall title with a world-leading mark of 6218 points.
Scoring 6156 overall, and making history in becoming the first-ever British heptathlon medallist at the European Indoor championships, Duckworth reflected on his success: “There were lots of ups and downs. That’s for sure. It started out well, took a dip with the shot put, came back up with high jump, then the beginning of today kind of went back down but I finished strong.”
On knowing what was required ahead of the 1000m, he continued: “I needed a PB and I knew I could do it in the 1000m, so that was the main goal going into it – just run as fast as I can, for as long as I could. And I just kept going with the group so I thought OK, just keep riding it out!”
“It’s hard to describe – I knew I could do it but to come here and do what I did in the thousand was great. I’ve been dreaming about that feeling of winning a medal for a while.”
Results from the European Indoor Championships are available here.
Back in Boston, another Washington volunteer assistant coach, Sam Prakel, finished third at the Bruce Lehane Invitational Mile World Record Attempt, in a personal best time of 3:50.94.
True to the name of the meet, the race was set up at the conclusion of the ECAC/IC4A collegiate meet at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center as a world record attempt by Ethiopia’s Yumif Kejelcha of the Nike Oregon Project, after he missed the world record by .01 at the NYRR Millrose Games in New York.
Kejecha was also taking a shot at the world 1500m record of 3:31.04 set last month by compatriot Samuel Tefara in Birmingham.
Kejelcha finished in a new world record time of 3:47.01, but missed the 1500 world record, going through in 3:31.25, still the third fastest in history behind Tefara and Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj.
Behind Kejelcha, Oregon alum Johnny Gregorek became the seventh man in American history to break 3:50 with his 3:49.98, while Prakel came up with a huge personal best of 3:50.94.
One spot behind Prakel was another Seattle based runner, as Henry Wynne of the Brooks Beasts finished in 3:51.26, a big personal best.
For both Prakel and Wynne, the personal bests Sunday also got them under the IAAF world championship standard of 3:53.10, which is a big deal, as USA Track & Field is not allowing athletes to chase the world championships qualifying standards after the national championships at the end of July in Des Moines, Iowa.
What does that mean? All Prakel and Wynne have to do to assure a spot on the plane to Doha is finish in the top three at nationals, as those two, plus Gregory and Craig Engels (who hit the 1500m standard during the race, splitting 3:35.79 but faded to fifth in 3:53.89).
Courtesy of letsrun.com, here’s a video interview with Prakel:
Complete results of the Bruce Lehane Invitational Mile World Record Attempt are available here, along with letsrun.com’s recap.
UW RECRUIT SAM TANNER BREAKS 4 MINUTES IN THE MILE...
Completely overlooked by the blog over the last few days is the news out of New Zealand that incoming University of Washington freshman Sam Tanner broke 4 minutes in the mile Saturday.
Tanner ran 3:58.41 to finish second in a meet in Whanganui, New Zealand, and in the process became the youngest man in New Zealand history to break 4 minutes, and also broke two-time Olympic medalist Nick Willis' U-20 record.
Here's what Husky fans can expect of Tanner (video courtesy Ace Sports):
NOTE: British Athletics, RunnerSpace.com, and letsrun.com contributed to this report.
In Glasgow, Scotland, Tim Duckworth (left/photo by Paul Merca) survived a sub-par performance in Saturday’s shot put and the 60 meter hurdles early Sunday morning to earn a second place finish in the heptathlon at the European Indoor Championships at Emirates Arena.
The Briton, who is a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Washington, finished third in his heat of the hurdles, running 8.16, as Ureña was the overall event winner in 7.78.
Ureña’s win gave him a 4481-4475 lead over Duckworth, with Fredrik Samuelsson dropping to third after his 8.20 time in the hurdles.
Duckworth wasn’t able to gain ground on Ureña, as both cleared 16-4.75 (5.00m) in the pole vault, setting up a showdown in the 1000 meters.
Ureña entered the last event as the clear favorite, with the fastest personal best of 2:40.06, while Duckworth entered the final event with a 2:56.23 best, set at last year’s NCAA indoor championships.
Duckworth set a personal best in the 1000 of 2:49.44, as Ureña won the event with a time of 2:44.27 to cement the overall title with a world-leading mark of 6218 points.
Scoring 6156 overall, and making history in becoming the first-ever British heptathlon medallist at the European Indoor championships, Duckworth reflected on his success: “There were lots of ups and downs. That’s for sure. It started out well, took a dip with the shot put, came back up with high jump, then the beginning of today kind of went back down but I finished strong.”
On knowing what was required ahead of the 1000m, he continued: “I needed a PB and I knew I could do it in the 1000m, so that was the main goal going into it – just run as fast as I can, for as long as I could. And I just kept going with the group so I thought OK, just keep riding it out!”
“It’s hard to describe – I knew I could do it but to come here and do what I did in the thousand was great. I’ve been dreaming about that feeling of winning a medal for a while.”
Results from the European Indoor Championships are available here.
Back in Boston, another Washington volunteer assistant coach, Sam Prakel, finished third at the Bruce Lehane Invitational Mile World Record Attempt, in a personal best time of 3:50.94.
True to the name of the meet, the race was set up at the conclusion of the ECAC/IC4A collegiate meet at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center as a world record attempt by Ethiopia’s Yumif Kejelcha of the Nike Oregon Project, after he missed the world record by .01 at the NYRR Millrose Games in New York.
Kejecha was also taking a shot at the world 1500m record of 3:31.04 set last month by compatriot Samuel Tefara in Birmingham.
Kejelcha finished in a new world record time of 3:47.01, but missed the 1500 world record, going through in 3:31.25, still the third fastest in history behind Tefara and Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj.
Behind Kejelcha, Oregon alum Johnny Gregorek became the seventh man in American history to break 3:50 with his 3:49.98, while Prakel came up with a huge personal best of 3:50.94.
One spot behind Prakel was another Seattle based runner, as Henry Wynne of the Brooks Beasts finished in 3:51.26, a big personal best.
For both Prakel and Wynne, the personal bests Sunday also got them under the IAAF world championship standard of 3:53.10, which is a big deal, as USA Track & Field is not allowing athletes to chase the world championships qualifying standards after the national championships at the end of July in Des Moines, Iowa.
What does that mean? All Prakel and Wynne have to do to assure a spot on the plane to Doha is finish in the top three at nationals, as those two, plus Gregory and Craig Engels (who hit the 1500m standard during the race, splitting 3:35.79 but faded to fifth in 3:53.89).
Courtesy of letsrun.com, here’s a video interview with Prakel:
Complete results of the Bruce Lehane Invitational Mile World Record Attempt are available here, along with letsrun.com’s recap.
UW RECRUIT SAM TANNER BREAKS 4 MINUTES IN THE MILE...
Completely overlooked by the blog over the last few days is the news out of New Zealand that incoming University of Washington freshman Sam Tanner broke 4 minutes in the mile Saturday.
Tanner ran 3:58.41 to finish second in a meet in Whanganui, New Zealand, and in the process became the youngest man in New Zealand history to break 4 minutes, and also broke two-time Olympic medalist Nick Willis' U-20 record.
Here's what Husky fans can expect of Tanner (video courtesy Ace Sports):
NOTE: British Athletics, RunnerSpace.com, and letsrun.com contributed to this report.
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