Athletics: Mitchell leaps to fourth

Jan 28 2008 by Staff Reporter, Western Mail

ROB MITCHELL has vowed not to be the “nearly man” anymore after coming close to breaking his own Welsh high jump record on Saturday at the National Indoor Track in Cardiff..

And 26-year-old Sri Lankan Anoma Sooriyaarachchi, of Cardiff AC, has put herself in the top 10 UK rankings after a championships best performance in taking the 60m title.

A number of Wales’ big guns missed Saturday’s annual Welsh Indoor Championships showpiece to concentrate on training at a big national camp in South Africa ahead of the crucial outdoor season that will culminate in the Beijing Olympic Games.

But there were some good displays, with 27-year-old Mitchell’s winning leap of 2.20m one of the highlights of the day.

He was in the car and straight back to work as a personal trainer in Liverpool yesterday and, although he was three centimetres short of his Welsh record, he was happy with a good workout.

Mitchell, whose family live in West Wales, said, “I didn’t have a very good night’s sleep in the hotel the night before the meeting because my dad can snore for Britain, but I cleared 2.20m first time and now I’ll do some technical stuff with my coach before the AAA Indoor Championships on February 9.

“I’m now up to fourth in the UK rankings – but that will change. I know 2.27m is there and that’s the qualifying standard to go to the World Indoor Championships.

“At this stage of the year, I usually lay back and I stop concentrating. I don’t keep following good performances up and I get a bit lazy, but this year my dad, Gary, said keep going.

“I’ve always been a guy who nearly does this and nearly does that. I don’t want that anymore.”

Sprinter Sooriyaarachchi is only six one-hundredths of a second from breaking into the UK rankings top four over 60m after recording 7.58 seconds on Saturday to comfortably take the women’s title ahead of Bedford-based Michelle Webster.

There was also a championship best performance in the men’s triple jump where Uwic’s Gary White leapt 16.01m to beat the previous best by Newham’s Charles Madeira-Cole back in 2000 by over a metre.

Meanwhile, in the men’s 60m, Uwic student Ben Simons just dipped ahead of Deeside’s Bradley Williams to clinch the gold medal.

Adebowale Ademuyewo, the former training partner of Welsh 200m Olympian Christian Malcolm, came home to win the men’s 400m ahead of second-placed Cardiff AC man Tom Miller and promising youngster Andrew Smith, from Swansea Harriers, in third spot.

The men’s middle distance events went to Cardiff AC’s bright prospect Joe Thomas, who roared home in the 800m to beat Uwic’s Paul Bradshaw by four seconds, crossing the line in 1min 50.11secs.

And Thomas’ clubmate Chris Moss secured the 1500m crown by beating former AAA Championships Under-23 gold medallist Chris Gowell, from Cwmbran, with a time of 4mins 02.21secs.