Birchfield’s Olympic silver medallist Germaine Mason soared into the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for next month’s World Championships with an outstanding display at Crystal Palace.
The high jumper finished second at the Aviva London Grand Prix on Saturday with a clearance at 2.31m that was not only his best height of the season but beyond the automatic qualifying requirement to make the trip to Berlin.
And with victory at the trials already under his belt and an inconsistent start to the season seemingly behind him, the 26-year-old is now certain to be included in the squad when it is announced tomorrow.
Which is only fair given the quality of his performance in the capital, which was only bettered by the Czech Republic’s Jarolslav Baba who won with 2.33m, and until the leading height included just one foul and five clearances.
“I did a season’s best and I felt really good,” Mason said.
“I got a little excited when the bar got up to 2.33m, I started rushing things and my whole technique got messed up.
“Each competition is getting better so hopefully by Berlin I will be on the right track.”
The same, however, cannot be said for Mason’s fellow Harrier Tom Parsons who is still 1cm short of the B standard and could do no better than 2.24m at the weekend.
Parsons has made the final at each of the last two global games but will be sweating on his place in the team having made alterations to his run up this summer.
Also uncertain of her place is hammer thrower Zoe Derham who has the B standard but has not been able to pass the 70m mark.
Meanwhile Ese Okoro ran a massive personal best of 59.49s to qualify for the 400m hurdles final at the European Junior Championships in Serbia.
The 19-year-old ran faster than ever before in finishing fourth in her heat in Novi Sad to go through as one of the quickest losers.
And while she couldn’t do it again in the final, she finished a respectable sixth to confirm her potential and build on the PB she recorded at the UK Championships two weeks ago.
Also in Serbia Birmingham University student Alison Leonard ended agonising outside of the medals with fourth place in the 800m final as Romania’s Mirela Lavric strolled to gold, with Leonard missing a medal by a single step.
