New stadium shines at chilly Stratford

The London Olympic stadium, all set to become the beating heart of the Games in 83 days’ time, opened formally yesterday when the Stratford arena hosted the British Universities Championships.

Conditions, however, were more akin to January and the mercury had dropped to 8C by the time the 100 metres finals were held. Little wonder that the former World Youth champion Harry Akines-Aryeetey of Loughborough could manage only 10.42secs in winning in from Bath’s Dan Talbot.

“AK” will have to run considerably faster than that even to earn the right to be in the same race as Usain Bolt in the summer. Aikines-Aryeetey was impressed by the new track: “Oh it’s fast,” he said. “It’s very, very fast. There’s no excuse not to run fast on it.” Asked if that meant triple Olympic champion Bolt could break his record in London, the 23-year-old added: “You’d imagine so.

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“If he’s in that shape and in that mood and there’s a bit of sunshine, I think the track is ready for that.”

Less daunted were the distance runners, with 21-year-old Edinburgh University maths student Emily Stewart breaking her Scottish rival Eilish McColgan’s championship record for the 2000m steeplechase by well over four seconds with a time of 6:37.49. But, after leading throughout, she was deprived of the title by Birchfield Harrier Pippa Woolven, who nipped past her in the final straight to win in 6:36.60.

“My water jumps were appalling,” said Stewart. “I’m looking forward to the 3k tomorrow – flat of course!”

McColgan, meanwhile, was comfortably qualifying for the 1500m final despite the cold. “It was a bit windy today – I wanted to stay in second position to stay out of trouble,” she said. But the Dundee student who spent months in rehab after suffering an ankle fracture last year, has no intention yet of abandoning her Olympic steeplechase ambitions.

Meanwhile, Kelly Sotherton’s hopes of qualifying for the Olympics suffered a major blow when she failed to finish the fourth event of a heptathlon in Italy yesterday.

Sotherton pulled up during the 200m, as she looked to achieve the ‘A’ qualifying standard of 6,150 points. It remains to be seen whether the Athens bronze medallist has suffered a serious injury, but time is running out for the 35-year-old, who initially retired from the heptathlon and switched to the 400m before returning to the heptathlon last year.