Mills breaks long-standing championship 3000m record as Scott Lincoln, Morgan Lake, Amber Anning and Neil Gourley also impress on day two at the Utilita Arena
Back in 1986 at the old RAF Cosford, Dave Lewis out-kicked Billy Dee and Seb Coe to win the AAA men’s 3000m title in 7:49.61. That mark has stood as the championship record for 38 years but George Mills demolished it on day two of the Microplus UK Indoor Championships on Sunday (Feb 23) with 7:40.16 as he held off 2024 champion James West with a 54.6 last 400m, with West finishing 17 hundredths of a second behind.
“Today was about winning first of all to secure Euros and Worlds place,” said Mills, who opened his season with a British record of 7:27.92 in France. “I came in on a week of heavy training so my legs weren’t fully fresh because I need to peak at the champs.
“It was fun to be out there today but going forward there are much bigger things on the line. I will go to the Euros and Worlds to be competitive. I always race to get the medals.”
In third, Henry McLuckie – the pacemaker during Grant Fisher’s recent world indoor 5000m record in Boston – was also inside Lewis’s old mark with 7:48.88 as Adam Fogg was fourth after struggling with illness in the build up.
Charlie Wheeler made much of the early pace, which must have been a relief to most of the 20-strong field, but he dropped out in the latter stages.
Laura Muir leads Hannah Nuttall (Getty)
The women’s 3000m was no less exciting as Hannah Nuttall out-kicked Laura Muir to win in 8:49.49. Coincidentally, Nuttall is the partner of West but they had mixed fortunes when it came to employing their finishing sprint in these 3000m finals.
“I am super happy today as I knew I was in good shape to do well,” said Nuttall. “I wanted to stay in the mix over those first few laps, I was watching everyone’s moves and making sure I wasn’t too far away, stay relaxed while keeping out of trouble.”
Behind, there was a glimpse into the future, too, as Innes FitzGerald placed third in 8:52.56 and Jess Bailey fourth on her indoor debut in 8:54.79 – both 18-year-olds having enjoyed a spell at the front during the race after choosing the blue boards of Birmingham over the mud of Parliament Hill in the previous day’s English National Cross Country Champs.
In her first race since the Olympics, Muir suggested she was a little race rusty and that her main goal was the World Championships in Tokyo this summer.
Neil Gourley (Getty)
Like Mills, Neil Gourley was also in championship record-breaking form as he beat Eddie King’s mark of 3:40.24 from 1999. Charging past Tom Keen down the backstraight on the final lap, Gourley won in 3:38.84 as Keen and third-placed Tyler Bilyard were also inside King’s mark with 3:39.97 and 3:39.98 respectively.
There was disappointment for Elliot Giles, though, who pulled up mid-race with a calf injury just a few days after winning an international race in Poland.
Georgia Hunter Bell was never in trouble in the women’s 1500m as she coasted to victory in 4:13.23 from Revee Walcott-Nolan. The early pace was slow as the runners passed 800m in 2:24 but Walcott-Nolan injected some pace and led approaching the bell, when Hunter Bell struck and then pulled away to win by just over a second, although Walcott-Nolan also secured selection for the European Indoors in Apeldoorn.
Georgia Hunter Bell (Getty)
Scott Lincoln won his 19th national shot put title with a championship record of 20.86m, Only fellow shot putter Judy Oakes, has won more British titles with a staggering 35 gold medals – 17 outdoors and 18 indoors during her career.
Lincoln, 31, started with 19.24m before improving to 20.40m in the third round and then 20.86m in the fourth to beat the mark of 20.66m set by American Garrett Johnson in Sheffield in 2008.
“It always feels special to add another championship medal and there was a great turn-out today,” said Lincoln. “I am fresh from a flight from Australia. I am very jet-lagged and tired. It was my first time on a wooden circle in a long while so I struggled a little figuring out speed and timing but it came together.”
Patrick Swann of Cornwall AC was runner-up with 16.97m as Chukwuemeka Osammor of City of Sheffield & Dearn was third with 16.73m.
Morgan Lake (Getty)
Morgan Lake won her seventh national indoor high jump title with a season’s best of 1.94m. After clearing that height on her third attempt, the 27-year-old went on to try 1.97m, which would have equalled the championship record, before bowing out.
Emily Borthwick took silver ahead of Hannah Lake with both athletes jumping 1.84m.
Otis Poole (Getty)
Otis Poole of Yate & District was a surprise winner of the men’s high jump with a PB of 2.20m after a last-minute decision to compete. Amazingly, his best mark on arrival into Birmingham was just 2.09m, all of which earned him a reward of £500 as winner of the ‘performance of the day’ by the organisers.
Outside athletics, Alex Haydock-Wilson is an expert in solar technology and in Birmingham he flew through 200m in the men’s 400m final with Efe Okoro hot on his heels. But as Okoro fell back to finish fourth, there was light at the end of the lactic tunnel for Haydock-Wilson, as he held on to win in 46.70 with Josh Faulds coming through for silver and 400m hurdles specialist Alastair Chalmers third.
Alex Haydock-Wilson (Getty)
After breaking the British women’s 400m record at the Paris Olympics last year, Amber Anning is turning into one of the biggest names in British athletics. Here in Birmingham she looked smooth and in control, too, as she won gold in 51.40.
Passing 200m in 24.25 ahead of Lina Nielsen, Anning maintained her form on the second lap to win comfortably as Nielsen, who had set a UK 300m record the previous weekend, clocked a PB of 51.77 in second.
Ama Pipi was third in 52.10 with Emily Newnham running a 52.16 PB in fourth.
“It is a relief as the Euros was my goal for the indoor season so it is good to come and put together some good performances to justify my spot,” said Anning. “I only got back from America a couple of days ago so I have been struggling with jet-lag as well as battling all those rounds.”
Amber Anning (Getty)
There is no European indoor selection in the non-championship 200m event these days but Alyson Bell stormed to a Scottish record of 23.12 as she took the national title. The men’s 200m title, meanwhile, went to Joe Ferguson in a PB of 20.93.
One week after breaking Joe Thomas’s Welsh record at the Keely Klassic, Justin Davies won the British title in style in 1:47.26. After passing halfway in 54 seconds, Davies surged into the lead with 300m to go and held off Jack Higgins and Tom Randolph to win.
Justin Davies (Getty)
Issy Boffey took the women’s 800m in 2:04.24 ahead of Grace vans Agnew, but similar to the women’s 3000m the bronze went to a potential future star as Shaikira King, who is only 16, clocked 2:04.64 to hold off fourth-placed Erin Wallace.
Georgina Forde-Wells won the women’s triple jump title with 13.36m after an injury-hit 2024 due to a fractured bone in her ankle. Injury also hit Jacob Fincham-Dukes in the men’s long jump but only after he had sealed gold with a first-round leap of 7.69m.
On a weekend that saw a world indoor 5000m race walk record of 17:55.65 by Francesco Fortunato at the Italian Championships, the 3000m race walks titles in Birmingham went to Hannah Hopper of Cambridge Harriers in 14:21.97 and Callum Wilkinson of Enfield & Haringey with 11:12.44.
Heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson followed her sprint hurdles outing on Saturday by throwing the shot on Sunday with 12.50m as victory went to Serena Vincent of City of Portsmouth with 16.89m as she won her first-ever British title.
In the same competition, para-athlete Sabrina Fortune set a world record in the F20 category with 15.50m.
Day one report here.
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