by Georgia Hunter Bell will be chosen next week for the 800m and 1500m in the British World Championships team, all being good. But the dilemma on the opportunity to really challenge the two will only have started.
Not since Hunter Bell’s mentor, Kelly Holmes, claimed two memorable Olympic gold medals in 2004, a British athlete even tried the daring double of the intermediate distance during a world championship.
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In relation: Amber Anning: “Gold is always the goal. Access the final and then whatever happens, happens’
As long as Hunter Bell, the former Parkrunner, ends in the first two on 800m – and it would be an all -powerful shock if it does not do it – during the British championships this weekend in Birmingham, it will obtain a qualification on the shortest distance along the place guaranteed the 1500m which comes with the Olympic bronze last year.
“We asked to be selected for both,” confirmed Jenny Meadows, who leads Hunter Bell alongside her husband, Trevor Painter. “Whether it’s double or not, that’s another thing to do.”
Meadows explained more: “If the 800m was the first [at next month’s world championships]This is how Kelly won it when she obtained double gold in Athens, we would be double.
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“But the 1500m is the first and I think it’s a more difficult task to perform three,1500m, then fall to the faster event thereafter. So I am not convinced that we would double. I think we could choose an event compared to the other.
“She has another Diamond League on the two events: the 1500m in Silesia on August 16 and the 800m in Lausanne on the 20th. The final selection of the British team is August 26, so we will let them know after the 20th what she wants to do.
“Does she stay in both events or does she come out of one and stay with the other? A lot of things are in the air, but it’s a brilliant position to be.”
This Hunter Bell, 31, is a real competitor of the medal with two distances remains remarkable. A very efficient junior, she retired from athletics for five years in 2017, and barely two years ago, only challenged local meetings and parkruns. Now she is the fastest second woman in the world this year by 800m – winning the events of Diamond League in Stockholm and London on the distance – and fourth faster over 1500m.
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If she chooses the shorter event in Tokyo next month, she should line up alongside her training partner, Keely Hodgkinson, who has not run since her disappearance from Olympic gold last summer and skips the British championships this weekend as she recovers from the injury. The couple spent a large part of the fortnight spent together in a training camp in Portugal, with Hodgkinson who will have to resume action this month in Lausanne.
Insured of their place in the British world championship team, the five individual Olympic medalists-Hodgkinson, Hunter Bell, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Josh Kerr and Katarina Johnson-Thompson-chose to contest their main events in Birmingham this weekend.
The question of whether the absence of the 1500m of Hunter Bell is sufficient for the medalist in Olympic Tokyo silver, Laura Muir, to secure her place in the team is uncertain. Muir, 32, has not lacked a global final of 1500m for a decade, but remains on the return path against serious injuries.
“I torn my calf in February, but it was a very bad tear,” she said. “And then I had the longest in my career in progress, probably since I started at 12 years old. So it will take effect.
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“I did not run for two months, then another month to be able to put spikes. So, at least three months, if not four months, of compromised training.
“You have to expect that I am not on fire right now. But we are getting there. I am making great improvements week on week. If I can get into the team, I think I can be in a good place in September. But it will be competitive to get there. All I can do is go and give my best. That’s all I can do this year.”
Five events to watch
Vault with women’s pole, final 3:15 p.m. Saturday The former world indoor champion Molly Caudery failed to release a height when an favorite for an Olympic medal last year, but is classified n ° 2 in the world this year.
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100m male, final at 7:20 p.m. Saturday The Zharnel Hughes world medalist faces the British champion of last year, Louie Hinchliffe and Eugene Amo-Dadzie, who ran 9.99 seconds this summer.
200m female, final 3:39 p.m. Sunday The former world champion Dina Asher-Smith remains the woman to beat, but will expect a difficult challenge by Amy Hunt and Daryll Neita.
400m female, final 4 p.m. Sunday The world indoor world champion, Amber Anning, looks like an above class, with Yemi Mary John, Laviai Nielsen and Victoria Ohuruogu who should fight behind.
800m male, final 4:13 p.m. Sunday Perhaps the weekend race with five men with the qualification standard, led by the Olympic finalist Max Burgin.
