British athlete shows he’s the complete sprinter by taking UK indoor titles at 60m and 200m.
After winning gold in his specialist 60m distance at the UK Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Saturday, Jeremiah Azu returned to the Utilita Arena on Sunday (Feb 15) to add the 200m crown to his trophy cabinet.
Drawn on the outside lane, Azu looked smooth down the back straight before running a strong final bend and then holding off Lee Thompson, in lane three, in the home straight with 20.77 to Thompson’s 21.34.
Azu is keen to start doubling up more outdoors so this was a practise run at tackling multiple heats and finals in a two day period.
“It’s about time that I became a sprinter and cover the 60m, 100m and the 200m,” the world indoor 60m champion said. “The 200m indoors is mainly for the training, there is a level of speed that you get in competition that you won’t get in training. We have more time between each race in the 60m yesterday than the 200m today, which is a bit crazy but exciting.
“It’s an honour to win medals nationally and race the best in the UK that are around at the time. Heading into Poland (World Indoors) I feel like I am in a good place, yesterday was solid three good rounds. The three rounds today had to be measured. I want to start doubling up outdoors, so this weekend was an experiment to see if I can handle the load.”
Lewis Davey was similarly in command in the 400m as he took victory in 46.45.
Davey hasn’t been seen much indoors in recent seasons due to some niggles and also preferring to focus on the outdoor season in Paris Olympic year. But he enjoyed his racing on ‘the boards’ this weekend.
“The harder I work, the more consistent I am and I am able to bring performances like that. I just hope it is going to get better and better,” he said.
“I feel like I have got faster, but I have bullet-proofed my body as well. I can run at faster speeds, and my body has been able to control it better.”