On the final day of the Sainsbury’ UK championships and British Trials at Birmingham Charlie Grice (Brighton Phoenix) allowed his rivals to play into his hands in the final of the 1,500m.
Grice was determined to retain his title and, knowing his powerful finish, they seemed quite content to present the title to him on a plate. Jogging through the early stages at a pace that would not win most County championships Grice was able to surge into the lead down the back straight and they wallowed in his wake as he steamed for the finish. Even local rival Lee Emanuel (Hastings) who several times has managed to hold him off in close finishes could not take him on from behind and, although he was the only runner in the field who has achieved the qualifying standard this season, he faded down the home straight to finish 10th.
Grice finished half-a-second clear in 3:50.66s and must now find a fast race to crack the standard time of 3:36.20s to book his trip to Beijing and the World Championships.
Adam Clarke (Hastings) the third Sussex runner in the final finished in seventh place in 3:52.22s.
Anna Short (Brighton & Hove) who had run so well to reach the semi-final of the 100m had another brilliant run to clock 12.08s into a 1.6m wind but failed to make the final finishing seventh.
Louisa James from Hastings just failed to crack the sixty metre mark in the hammer throw finishing sixth with 59.64m but Sussex domiciled Jade Lally (Shaftesbury/Barnet) won the discus throw with a fine effort of 57.37m.