Trouble finds O’Hare as he misses target

Capital middle distance hope Chris O’Hare is in a quandary today following his 1500 metres race at the Grand Prix meeting at the Alexander Stadium, 
Birmingham yesterday.

Capital middle distance hope Chris O’Hare is in a quandary today following his 1500 metres race at the Grand Prix meeting at the Alexander Stadium, 
Birmingham yesterday.

The 22-year-old Edinburgh AC runner saw off all his 
leading British rivals in a non-scoring event for Diamond League points, but he could finish only eighth in 3mins 38.54 secs, just outside his best for the season and not even a B standard for the World Championships in Moscow next month. The only silver lining was that it was at least a Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games 
standard.

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The winner was Ethiopian Aman Wote in 3:35.99, with two Moroccans and two Frenchmen also in the leading pack and O’Hare unable to make much impression in the final dash to the line after suffering at least two collisions during the earlier laps.

“I purposely sat off the pace to stay out of trouble, but trouble found me anyway so I’m not sure what the situation is now,” said the Tulsa University sports scholar. “I’m not very happy – my one purpose was to come here and run fast and I didn’t do that.”

“I needed the B standard (3:37.0) and I missed that. It was pretty rubbish.”

“I don’t want to make excuses about it, but it wasn’t where I wanted to be. I’d done so much hard work and was then hampered by a hamstring issue, so was back to square one. It’s frustrating to be so close yet so far away.”

O’Hare now has to decide whether to look for another race in the next week or so – and for that he will almost certainly need some help from British Athletics, who did him no favours for last year’s European Championships – or stake everything on the British Championships and World Trials at Birmingham on July 13 and 14.

If he chooses the latter, there is the distinct danger that no-one will set a fast pace in that race which he could end up winning without the qualifying time.

Eilidh Child (Pitreavie) improved her Scottish record for the 400m hurdles for the third time this season, clipping 0.2 secs off the mark she set in Gateshead the previous weekend with a time of 54.22 secs.

Almost matching strides with her England rival Perri Shakes-Drayton (53.83) for much of the race before giving best just before the line, Child believes there is still more to come: “My hurdling was untidier than last week,” she said.

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Highlight of the Scottish results from elsewhere was Glasgow’s Jax Thoirs’ Scottish pole vault record of 5.50 metres in Sommero, Finland, and Child’s clubmate Ryan Oswald’s 
season-leading 100 metres 
time of 10.44 secs in 
Gothenburg.

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