by Stuart WeirThis is the update on the Team GB team. We will do the same on the Team USA team as well.
Jess Judd, 5000m and 10,000m, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Beth Robbins, 200m, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
In this piece, Stuart Weir explains the Team GB athlete picks for Tokyo.
Team GB athletes named.
There are no real surprises in the GB team for the Tokyo Olympics. 72 athletes have been named.
Head coach, Christian Malcolm, said that he felt that the postponement of the Olympics by the year had helped a number of younger athletes to develop.
The one injury worry concerns reigning world champion in the heptathlon, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who has been named with the requirement that she prove her fitness as she returns from injury.
Malcolm described the women’s 100m as “incredibly competitive” adding that Dina Asher-Smith “has an aura and knows how to win. She always turns up”. Despite the fact that Sha’Carrie Richardson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had faster times than Dina, he felt that the British athlete would take confidence from having beaten both of them in the Gateshead Diamond League this year. The said that it reminded him of how his contemporary, Linford Christie, was not as fast on paper as some of his opponents but proved himself capable of beating them in key races.
He described the 800m runner, Keely Hodgkinson, as “fearless, relaxed and focused”.
The team is unbalanced in some ways:
While Britain had athletes with the Olympic standard who did not make the 100m team, there are only two athletes chosen for the 200m as no one else has the standard. (Jodie Williams has the standard for 200 and 400 but has opted for the 400).
Similarly, there were five athletes in the 800m final at the trials with the qualifying standard but only two who contested 1500 final could be selected.
Jess Judd and Eilish McColgan will run both 5,000m and 10,000m. As will Marc Scott. Laura Muir will go in the 800 and 1500.
Adam Gemili is the only entrant in the men’s 200m with Zharnel Hughes opting just to run 100m.
Daniel Rowden is chosen in the 800m on the basis of his third-place finish in the trials ahead of the more experienced Jamie Webb.
In similar circumstances, Jake Heyward is preferred to Charlie Da’Vall Grice in the 1500m.
While all three places are filled in the women’s 400m hurdles, there is no male contestant.
With a women’s and a mixed 4 by 400m relay, nine women have been named including four who will not run an individual 400 flat or hurdles.
Christian Malcolm said there was also the possibility of additional athletes being added to the team through World Athletics wildcard invitations but he was not in the position to name names.
