James Shane emerges in 1500m run at the UK Trials – Athletics news
The UK Trials last weekend observed some scintillating performances and one of them was displayed by James Shane, the 21-year-old middle distance runner from UK. While running in the 1500m contest, for lowering his Personal Best by a staggering three seconds,
he booked a place to represent his country in a prestigious global athletics event like the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Daegu.
The place earned in the Daegu event by the young runner was a surprising incident and Shane is happy after securing a ticket to the world championships venue. Charles Van Commenee, head coach of UK Athletics wanted to put together a contingent that would
possess a genuine capability to compete for the country.
However, he was also generous enough to think of giving youngsters like Shane a chance to have a broader exposure. In his words, the selectors wanted to send athletes that would win medals, however, it was also imperative to keep the country’s future in
athletics in sight and thus, there was no point in arguing against sending the third finisher of the 2011 European Team Championships in Stockholm to South Korea.
Athletes participated in the Birmingham trials with different mindsets, as for some, appearing in the prestigious event was more than enough as they just wanted to acquire an opportunity to do different things. However, for others, it was a matter of life
and death as their entire focus was not on displaying an above the mark performance, but also on attaining the IAAF’s ‘A’ standard, which was an essential for their ticket to Daegu championships.
Just like athletes, coaches and trainers also have different targets in their mind when they send in their athletes for big competitions. For instance, taking the example of Van Commenee, head coach, who wants his contingent to claim at least eight medals,
for which it is imperative for him to prepare a lot of about 15 individuals.
Among these eight targeted medals, two are expected in the Relay competitions and 10-12 individual medals from the rest of athletics disciplines. If one had to predict the number of medals UK can claim in the upcoming Championships as well as in the next
year’s Olympics, the Birmingham trials displayed that the country had a reliable potential of expecting eight to nine individual medals out of these events.
Tags: