Katarina Johnson-Thompson concluded a successful British Indoor Championships in Sheffield by claiming a second gold of the weekend in the long jump event.
Fresh from breaking a British record in the high jump on Saturday, the 21-year-old jumped a personal best 6.75m to take the title ahead of Jazmin Sawyers and Kelly Proper.
It was the second world indoor qualifying standard met by Johnson-Thompson in as many days and while surprised by her distance, the heptathlete admitted she was feeling in great shape ahead of the remainder of the indoor season, starting with the Dutch Championship next week.
“It was definitely the best I could have imagined. I didn’t sleep last night so I feel really tired and didn’t expect to come out and do that,” she said.
“I skipped the hurdles because I wanted to be really cautious for next weekend, I really want to qualify for the World Indoor Championships in the pentathlon.
“It gives me great confidence, even if I can’t get to that standard I know I can get close to it and that’s what it’s about in pentathlon; being consistent.”
London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz made it back-to-back titles in the high jump after clearing 2.24m while pole vaulter Luke Cutts continued his recent good form to take the title by 25cm.
The Sheffield jumper is currently ranked second in the world this year in his event, and cleared 5.60m, although it was 23cm behind the British Indoor record he set in France last month.
While the remaining jump event saw Laura Samuel take the triple jump title by posting a winning distance of 13.32m.
There was plenty of drama on the track with Nigel Levine winning a fourth successive 400m title after Luke Lennon-Ford was disqualified for a lane infringement while Andrew Osagie also suffered the same fate in the men’s 800m, with Mukhtar Mohammed taking the win in 51.61seconds.
In the women’s races, Margaret Adeoye set a season’s best of 52.77secs for the 400m title with Laura Muir crowned the 800m champion.
The race had seen four-times champion Jenny Meadows make her return from a 12-month injury but she faded on the final lap, finishing fourth behind Muir’s 2:06.24mins, a time within the World Indoor qualifying standard.
“I’m really happy. Jenny is an amazing athlete and she’s very experienced so I knew I’d have to be at my best and run well tactically,” she said.
“I didn’t know what Jenny was going to do but I wanted to be in contention going into the last lap and then kick away. It’s really nice to have the time and to win and properly secure my place. It’s a relief to have my place secured and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Elsewhere Lee Emmanuel and Charlene Thomas took the men’s 1,500m and women’s 3,000m titles respectively with Chris Clarke and Dina Asher Smith securing gold in the men and women’s 200m.
And the first victory of the day went to Zane Duquemin who won the men’s shot put with a season’s best throw of 18.31m for his first British title.
© Sportsbeat 2014