Sprint

I spent a long day in Manchester for day one of the UK Athletics Championships, which also acts as the Olympic trials for Team GB. It was quite a cool day, with rain during the last couple of hours - not ideal for athletics, but athletes take conditions as they find them.

My main image shows the finish of the last event, with rising star Louie Hinchcliffe (fists clenched in lane 6) fresh from clocking 9.95 in winning the US College title a few weeks ago, winning ahead of more experienced rivals for the Olympic squad. He will be on the starting line in Paris. 

I popped a few more in extras: another new star, World Indoor pole-vault champion Molly Caudery, who won easily but just missed out on a new British record; Women’s 100m champion Daryl Neita; reigning 1500m world champion Josh Kerr in a heat, and a wider view of the Manchester Regional Arena and it’s neighbour, the Eithad Stadium, during the women’s 5000m final.

With events finishing just after 8, I was pleased to be home a couple of hours later after a reasonably smooth tram/train/bus journey home, albeit with the occasional ‘sprint’ to secure a connection. I’ll be following Day 2 on the iPlayer.

Head’s up that today’s events will have some bearing on July’s prompt for Love Blippin Books (#LBB19), of which more in the next day or two.