Mark
Lewis Francis, commanding win in Loughborough
Matthew
Brown for IAAF
18 May 2002 – Loughborough, UK - World and European junior champion Mark
Lewis-Francis put his troubled indoor season behind him on a wet and windy
afternoon at the Aqua Pura International meeting at Loughborough University,
British athletics’ traditional curtain raiser to the outdoor season.
Running for England in the six-way match against Scotland, Wales, Great Britain Juniors, British Universities and Loughborough University, he won the men’s 100m in commanding fashion, confirming that he will be a serious contender for senior medals at this summer’s Commonwealth Games and European Championships.
The man who’s been described as a teenage sprinting sensation since he burst onto the scene at this meeting two years ago, aged 17, equalled his personal best of 10.10 with the aid of a +2 m/s wind, despite pulling up slightly towards the end with a troubled right hamstring. Lewis-Francis for once got a good start and powered away from his opponents, including Scotland’s Ian Mackie and Britain’s Marlon Devonish, who was running here as a guest. He finished 0.28 seconds ahead of the man in second place, Daniel Plummer, who clocked the same time as Devonish, in third, and Mackie.
It was an impressive return to form for the 19 year-old, who was disqualified for two false starts at his last meeting in Britain, the Norwich Union Indoor International at Glasgow in March. That race came just a week after he finished second at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna, and followed the shame of being arrested for driving offences by police at the airport when he returned to Britain.
“After the indoor season I had to come out here and prove a point,” said Lewis-Francis, while receiving treatment on his right hamstring which had tightened towards the end of the race. “I was aiming for a gold medal at the European indoors, but Jason [Gardener] came back from injury and messed up my plans a bit. That last competition [in Glasgow] was one too many. I had a lot in my head.”
The Birmingham man’s time here equalled the personal best he set in the B race at the British Grand Prix in London in August 2000 when he ran faster than the winner of the A race, USA’s world champion Maurice Greene. But in many ways this was an even more impressive performance given the cold conditions and the fact that it is so early in the season. Lewis-Francis went on in 2000 to win the world junior championships in Chile, and feels confident that his early form heralds further successes this year.
“I was not even looking to run fast yet, so this was surprising,” said the man who has been British junior male athlete of the year for the past two years. “But there’s a lot more to come yet. I am looking forward to the season, definitely.”
Lewis-Francis has once run faster – when he clocked what at first appeared to be a scintillating world junior record to win his quarter-final at the World Championships in Edmonton last year. However, the teenager was devastated when he learned later that day that his 9.97 would not stand because the wind gauge had not been functioning properly.
Among the interested observers at Loughborough were two of Lewis-Francis’s closest rivals for medals this summer – former world 100m bronze medallist Dwain Chambers, and reigning European 100m champion and Olympic 200m silver medallist Darren Campbell, who later teamed up for England in the 4x100m relay. Those two plus European Indoor champion Jason Gardener will be battling with the teenager for England’s three Commonwealth Games places when the Commonwealth trials take in Manchester on 15-16 June.
Lewis-Francis had been training in Tallahassee before he came to Loughborough. And it was in that same Florida venue where the latest star of UK athletics came to prominence a few weeks ago. Chris Tomlinson came to Loughborough on a wave of media attention after breaking the 34 year-old British long jump record, held since 1968 by Lynn ‘the leap’ Davies. Tomlinson, who broke both wrists in a weight training accident in the winter, leapt 8.27m in Florida, just four centimetres further than Davies’ record.
The 20 year-old did not have it all his own way here, however, and had to produce a jump only 10cm short of his new record just to win the competition. Tomlinson was in third place with 7.98m before his final attempt, trailing former European Junior champion Nathan Morgan and world youth triple jump champion Jonathan Moore, who both exceeded eight metres, Moore for the first time.
But Tomlinson, trained by Peter Stanley, the man who has guided triple jumper Jonathan Edwards to glory, leapt to 8.17m to take first place ahead of Morgan’s 8.11m and Moore’s new British junior record of 8.03m. British officials are hoping that the 20 year-old Tomlinson, who announced last week that he will also begin training with Edwards this summer, could spearhead a revival in British long jumping in the way that Edwards has done with the triple jump.
“It was good to prove to other people the 8.27m wasn’t a fluke,” he said. “Having three British athletes over eight metres shows that the event can go from strength to strength. Hopefully we can push each other to the 8.50s, that’s real jumping.”
While Tomlinson said, “I wouldn’t consider myself world class yet”, he admitted that his goals for the season have altered since he has hit such good form. Whereas he started the season hoping merely to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and European championships, now he believes he has an outside chance of a medal. “That would give my confidence a real boost ahead of the World Indoor Championships next year,” he said.
Among the other leading performances was a world’s best time for the women’s 3000 metres from England’s Jo Pavey, who led from start to finish to clock 8:54.79. “It’s just so lovely to be running in May,” said Pavey. “I’m usually injured at this time of year.” Pavey will now have her sights set on a medal over 5000m at the Commonwealth Games, where she will hope to line up in England colours alongside Paula Radcliffe. “A medal would be lovely,” she said.
Britain’s World Championship 400m hurdles finallist Chris Rawlinson also showed impressive form, but in his less preferred event of 400m. Rawlinson won the flat race in 46.13, a new personal best, ahead of European junior 400m champion Tim Benjamin. “It is a great start to the season to run a pb, especially on my home track,” said the Loughborough student. “Hopefully, that looks good for the hurdles. A medal has to be a real possibility in both the Commonwealths and the Europeans.”
However, Rawlinson criticised British athletics officials for holding two sets of trials this year, one for each championship. “I could have spent the time training, so it’s a bit of a waste of a weekend for me,” he said. “You’d think UK Athletics and the other bodies could have got together and thought about the athletes.”
