Action from the Manchester Great City Games

Some action from the Great City Games in Manchester last night. Thankfully, the rain stayed off long enough to get all the events pretty much completed and there were some good performances for an early season outdoor meet.

Britain’s Greg Rutherford returned from a 3 month training camp in Arizona to win the long jump with a Games record 8.20m.

Dafne Schippers won the women’s 100m in 10.94 well ahead of the rest of the field, while Kim Collins showed a clean pair of heels to the younger runners with a time 10.08 secs, with 60m world indoor champion Trayvon Bromell second, and Britons Chijindu Ujah and Richard Kilty third and fourth respectively.

Tiffany Porter won the 100m hurdles in 12.89 ahead of Lucy Hatton. Britain's David King clipped teh last hurdle and was unlucky to lose out to Ryan Wilson of the United States.

In the women's pole vault, America's Katie Nageotte won with a 4.50m vault.
 

 Lucy Bryan

 Chloe Henry from Belgium

Canada's Anicka Newell

 

 Sally Peake

America's Katie Nageotte

 Greg Rutherford

 Netherland's Ronald Hertog

 Greg Rutherford

 

 J J Jegede

 

Men's 100m T44  L to R: Michail Setis (Greece); Felix Streng (Germany); Jarryd Wallace (USA); Paul Peterson (USA)

 Women's 100m hurdles  L to R:  Isabelle Pedersen (Norway); Serita Solomon; Tiffany Porter; Lucy Hatton

 Men's 100m hurdles  L to R: Andreas Martinsen (Denmark); Ryan Wilson (USA); David King; Rene Mahlmann (Germany)

 

 Women's 100m  L to R: Laura Muller (Germany); Tianna Bartoletta (USA); Dafne Schippers (Netherlands); Cleo Vanburen (USA)

Men's 100m  L to R: Richard Kilty; Kim Collins (St Kitts & Nevis); Trayvon Bromell (USA); Chijindu Ujah

Richard Kilty missing World Indoors to prepare for Rio Olympics instead

Reigning World indoor champion Richard Kilty will not defend his 60m title in Portland, Oregon later this month and will instead choose to focus on the Rio Olympics.

Richard Kilty, Men's 60m heats, UK Indoor Athletic Championships, EIS Sheffield, Feb 2016

Falling foul of a false start in the final of the 60m, Kilty was disqualified from a shot at James Dasaolu who eventually won and earned a trip to Portland.  Initially UK Athletics were keen on him defending his title alongside Dasaolu, but Kilty has decided instead to start his outdoor training early.

"Whilst this has been a really tough decision, looking at the big picture it's the smart call," he tweeted.

"This year is all about the Olympics, so going into Portland short of races and taking a gamble that I could run myself into form makes no sense when I could start to focus on my outdoor season early."

"Individually I'm aiming for sub-10 and making the Olympic final in 2016,....as part of the GB 4x100m relay squad, we have a real shot at getting on the podium and are 100% focused on achieving success as a team."

Press Day at the Great CityGames Manchester 2015

The Great CityGames Manchester will once again bring world class athletics to the city's streets on Saturday 9th May2015.

The events will take place on a specially raised track (four lanes wide) on Deansgate and at a purpose built arena in Albert Square just outside the Town Hall.

Today was Press Day - the chance for a photo opportunity on the track with some of the athletes and then interviews at the local hotel base.

Non-one knew in advance who would be there from those athletes who were due to compete, so it was an amazing line-up of Jessica Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Haile Gebrselassie, Jo Pavey and Richard Kilty who were there for photos and who were then joined by Gemma Steel for the interviews.

Wow - talk about like being in a sweet shop...the chance to photograph such superstars at something less than the 25mph they usually zip by at...and then chat to them over coffee and biscuits.....unbelievable.

Some photos from the day...the clues for the names are mostly on the front of the vests!