Iffley Road hosted a BMC Grand Prix meeting on 23 July. A top quality event was assured with a comeback sub-4 minute mile by Andy Baddeley and an Olympic qualifying mark in the Women’s 800 A race.
Baddeley, who was UK’s top-ranked 1500m runner for the period 2006-08, has had his recent career blighted by injury and ill health. At Iffley Road the Harrow AC athlete posted serious intentions of a revival in recording a time of 3:59.46.
Sarah McDonald (Birchfield), a member of Bud Baldaro’s Birmingham-based squad, ran a superb 2:01.10 for the 800. This places her 7th in the UK rankings and was inside the Olympic qualifying standard.
The U17 Women’s Frank Horwill Mile trophy went to Khahisa Mhlanga (Chelmsford) in 4: 57.14. Mhlanga had followed up her victories over Oxfordshire’s Emily Thompson at the ESAA and SIAB meetings with a fine gold medal in the European Youth Olympics in Georgia the previous weekend. The U17 Men’s Peter Coe Mile was won by Hamza Kadir (Shaftesbury Barnet), in 4:18.07.
Co-hosts Oxford University were rewarded when OUAC President Hugo Fleming registered a pb of 1:52.87 in winning the Men’s D 800 race. Four other University athletes ran sub-2 minutes: Caspar Eliot (1:54.31), Tom Frith (1:56.79), Hugh Baker (1:56.89), and Mike Chandler (1:59.02).
Further local interest was provided by vets Les Newell (OCAC) and James Bolton (Woodstock/Abingdon) who recorded 4:36.77 and 4:40.23 respectively in the Men’s D Mile race.