WITH nothing to lose and infinite potential returns, Callum Hawkins coasted through his marathon debut in Frankfurt yesterday like a seasoned veteran, the 23-year-old from Paisley finishing 12th in two hours, 12 minutes and 17 seconds. Vitally, it was 103 seconds inside the qualifying standard for next summer’s Olympics, enough to place the Great Britain internationalist second in the current rankings. It pushed him to the brink but it was worth the pain.
“I knew it would hurt at one stage but it hurt pretty much all the way through,” he said. “But actually it went almost to the plan we had. The pacemaker was due to go through halfway at 66.20 and went through it in 6.22 so you can’t ask for much more than that. He got me to 30k on the right pace and that kind of thing helps. I am really chuffed with the time.”
With Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma and Gulume Tollesa claiming the Frankfurt titles, Hawkins could hardly regret what is the seventh-quickest ever outing by a Scot. Now, it becomes a waiting game with the British squad not confirmed until after London in April. Others will aim to chase him down, including potentially his elder sibling Derek.
“We’d love to both be at the Olympics for GB in the marathon and it would be pretty special as brothers,” Callum said. “We’ll have to wait and see a bit longer before we know if that can happen.”
Meanwhile Jo Butterfield believes there are further gains to be found despite the mammoth mark of 21.44 metres that secured gold in the F51 club throw for the Glaswegian at the IPC world championships in Doha. “I knew the throw was there,” the 36-year-old asserted. “It’s been going really well in training – I was a bit nervous and threw a couple of loose ones but I just had to execute it.”
Libby Clegg’s streak of misfortune continued when she was forced out of the T12 200m final after pulling up injured in the warm-up while Sammi Kinghorn was sixth in the T53 400m final with the 19-year-old Borderer left to target the 800m today. “It is very tactical but hopefully I can get in there and qualify,” the 200m bronze medallist said.
Georgie Hermitage added to GB&NI’s golden haul last night with victory in the T37 400m final in a world record of 1:02.01.
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