AMBER ANNING BREAKS THE UK INDOOR 200M RECORD

Amber Anning (coach: Chris Johnson, club: Brighton & Hove) lowered the long-standing UK indoor 200m record with a clocking of 22.60 at the Razorback Invitational in Arkansas over the weekend [26 January].

Anning – part of the bronze medal winning women’s 4x400m relay squad at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last year – improved the mark previously held by Katharine Merry – 22.83 – set in 1999, before Anning was born.

Just under 24 hours later she followed the record breaking 200m mark by running an outright PB in the 400m with a time of 50.56 which was also an Olympic Games qualifying standard. The time was the third best in history by a British woman indoors.

Other notable marks across the weekend saw George Mills (Thomas Dreißigacker, Brighton Phoenix) and Sam Atkin (Lincoln Wellington) claim Olympic qualifying standards over 5000m in a meeting at Boston University.

Mills ran the third fastest time ever by a British man with his time of 12:58.68, with only Sir Mo Farah and Marc Scott running quicker. In the following race in Boston, Atkin would also dip under 13 minutes for the first time with a time of 12:58.68, a time that moved him ahead of David Moorcroft and just behind Mills in the all-time UK rankings.

Elsewhere, Molly Caudery (Stuart Caudery, Thames Valley) cleared an outright personal best of 4.83m in the pole vault in Val-de-Reuil, France. This added 8cm to her best which she had previously set in the world final last year. The clearance also saw her achieve the Olympic qualifying standard.