Michael Rimmer selected for Euro champs

Feb 21 2013 by Our Correspondent, Ormskirk Advertiser

MICHAEL RIMMER has celebrated the strangest victory of his life, with selection for the Great Britain and Northern Ireland squad for next month's European Indoor Championships in Sweden.

The Liverpool Pembroke and Sefton star was in third place just yards from the finish line of the British Grand Prix in Birmingham last weekend.

But an accidental stumble saw him trip race leader Abubaker Kak from Sudan, while Rimmer crashed over the finish line himself – in first place!

The Southport athlete, who suffered a disappointing Olympic Games at London 2012, recorded a personal best time of 1:46.55 while another Brit, Mukhtar Mohammed, took third.

With domestic rival Andrew Osagie finishing fourth, Michael moved to the top of the UK 800 metre rankings for 2013.

And he joined Mohammed and Joe Thomas as the 800m selections for Stockholm in the Championships which run March 1-3.

In the 3,000 metres in Birmingham Jonny Mellor (Liverpool Harriers) had the near impossible task of taking on the unsurprising winner Mo Farah (7:42.00).

Despite this challenge Jonny recorded a season’s best 8:00.77, which was a big improvement on last week’s UK Championships in Sheffield.

Mellor commented: “I’m a little disappointed with my run following injury over Christmas and illness last week, but it’s a starting block for the summer ahead. The hard work starts now.

“It was a great honour to share the track with double Olympic champion Mo Farah. It’s always a fantastic experience racing against someone you look up to and hopefully it will benefit and inspire me moving forwards.”

Olympic heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Liverpool Harriers) took part in her first British Grand Prix in the 60 metre hurdles and finished eighth (8.60).

Considering Katarina, who has only just turned 20, is a multi-eventer this was a great performance against world class event specialists, and one step on the road to Rio.

l Liverpool Harriers ladies team consisting of Sophie Whiteside (9:47.90), Maria Barrett (9:53.83) and Sarah Jarvis (10:38:50) placed second in the Armagh International 3k road race, Northern Ireland.

Sophie Whiteside was understandably very happy with her performance: “I was aiming for sub 10 minutes, so I was pleased to run 9:47 and finish in the top 10 and help Liverpool Harriers to second place overall,” she said. In the mens 5k road race Liverpool Harriers Adam Peers (15:05.00), Ricky Challinor (15:17.78), and James McNally (15:47.72) all recorded impressive times.