MK athletes set to shine on UK stage
Aviva Euro Trials and UK Champs preview
Nine athletes from Milton Keynes are set for the biggest weekend of the season so far as they take part in the European Trials and UK Championships in Birmingham.
Craig Pickering (100/200m), Mervyn Luckwell (javelin), Hannah Douglas (400m hurdles), Chris Clarke (400m), Rachel Gibbens (pole vault), Greg Rutherford (long jump), Chloe Whalley (100m hurdles) and Joey Duck (200m) will all be hoping for a good show in the Trials for the chance to represent Great Britain in the European Championships in Barcelona next month. Marcin Fudalej (10,000m), who lives in Milton Keynes, will also be competing for Poland.
With the Olympic Games in London just two years away, the city athletes need to take advantage of every major championship event between now and 2012 to stake their claim for a place in the GB side to perform in front of a home crowd on the biggest stage of them all. The Trials will be a hard-fought event with the top athletes from around the country competing for places on the plane to Spain in July.
The city athletes will be looking to improve on their performances from last year's UK Championships, where Pickering was disqualified from the semi-final of the 60m event and Chris Clarke qualified for the 200m final but did not finish the race. The competition was a success for Gibbens though as she finished 9th in the pole vault.
Meanwhile British number one long jumper Rutherford, will be looking to recreate his fantastic performance in the last European Championships in Gothenburg in 2006, where as a 19-year-old, he jumped 8.13m to land the silver medal.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -6 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
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