21st February 2019

OSKAN-CLARKE STARS FOR BRITISH CONTINGENT ON THE FINAL WORLD INDOOR TOUR LEG

Shelayna Oskan-Clarke (coach: Jon Bigg; club: Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) narrowly missed the chance to claim the IAAF World Indoor Tour title in the women’s 800m on the final leg of the tour last night in Dusseldorf.

The meeting saw six Brits in action across the course of the evening in the west German city.

A tactical race, that also involved fellow Brit Lynsey Sharp, Oskan-Clarke and Habitam Alemu (ETH) locked in a close battle over the first couple of laps, before the latter kicked with 200m to go, powering away to cut the tape in 2:00.70.

Oskan-Clarke held on to second place, clocking 2:02.25 as she continues to showcase her good form ahead of the European Indoor Championships in just over a fortnight’s time. Sharp, who was in the top three for the majority of the race, clocked 2:03.07 and finished in seventh position.

Andrew Pozzi (Santiago Antunez; Stratford-upon-Avon) showed his injury worries look to be behind him as he kicked off his season with a 7.67s showing in Dusseldorf.

After initially ruling himself out of the indoor season due to a quad injury, the Italy-based athlete produced a clean run in his heat to safely qualify for the final in 7.70s, finishing in second place.

There, he stepped up once again and shaved another three hundredths off his time in the final event of the night, which was won by Milan Trajkovic (CYP) in a season’s best 7.52s. Jarret Eaton (USA) took the overall tour title, despite false starting in his heat.

His time places him second in the British standings for 2019, behind David King (James Hiller; City of Plymouth), who leads the way on 7.64s.

One of the showpiece events of the night, the women’s 60m, saw Imani-Lara Lansiquot (Steve Fudge; Sutton & District) finish just 0.01s outside her season’s best as she crossed the line in 7.24s.

Having safely qualified for the final in 7.27s in her heat with a composed run, she was edged into fourth place in the final despite a good finish, with Marie-Josee Ta Lou (CIV) taking victory in a world lead of 7.02s.

In the field, Sophie McKinna (Mike Winch; Great Yarmouth), who was making her debut on the IAAF World Indoor Tour circuit, produced a fifth-round 17.94m effort that helped her to a fourth-place finish.

McKinna’s effort follows her 17.97m effort that she produced at the SPAR British Indoor Championships, that moved her to 12th on the European list for the indoor season.

World leader Christina Schwanitz took the title in her homeland with a best of 19.14m with McKinna’s best effort coming in the fourth round of action.

In the men’s 800m, a non-tour event, Guy Learmonth (Henry Gray; Lasswade) continued his preparations for the European Indoor Championships with a fourth-place finish in 1:49.07 as European Championship silver medallist Andreas Kramer (SWE) took the win in 1:48.19.

Learmonth was sat in third place for the majority of the race and looked in good form in the early stages but slipped down to fourth in the final 100m as Kramer moved through the gears and took a comfortable victory.

Full results from the meeting can be found here.