Dwain Chambers flies to European-leading 60m in 6.57; Williams claims women\’s 60m win

Great Britain’s 2010 World Indoor Championships and 2009 European indoor 60m gold medallist Dwain Chambers won the 60m at the Aviva Indoor UK Trials and Championships in Sheffield in a European-leading time of 6.57 on Saturday.

“I’m really, really pleased, it’s a great opportunity to be competing again,” said Chambers, who set the existing European record of 6.42 at the last European Athletics Indoor Championships in the Italian city of Torino.

“I’ve got a few more weeks to go until the Euros so I’m keen just to stay injury free for that and then get out there and do really well.”

Harry Aikines-Aryeetey took the silver medal in 6.64 while Craig Pickering was third in 6.67.

Teenage sprint sensation Jodie Williams claimed her first senior national title at the age of just 17 when she came home in front of all her older rivals to win the women’s 60m in a lifetime best of 7.24, the fastest time by a British athlete this year.

However, Williams was pushed all the way by Bernice Wilson, who finished second in a personal best of 7.25.

“I’m feeling brilliant, it was amazing,” said the 2010 World Junior Championships 100m winner.

“I couldn’t ask for more in my first senior race, I’m just so happy with how it turned out, especially with such a strong field today. I definitely think I can do something at the Europeans. I’m really excited,” she added.

In the men’s 60m hurdles, the 2010 European Athletics Championships 110m hurdles winner Andy Turner ran the third-fastest European time of the year when winning in 7.61.

“I’m disappointed, I expected to run a lot quicker than that today,” reflected Turner.

“Training is suggesting I should be running a lot quicker but I’m just not executing correctly what I’m supposed to be doing in a race. I’ve made a lot of changes, especially to my start, but I fully expected to break my personal best (7.55 set in 2007) today but it’s always nice to be crowned national indoor champion.”

Defending champion Gianni Frankis finished second in 7.75.

In-form Helen Clitheroe, the fastest European this year over 3000m with 8:52.31, was just a little shy of the mark which she ran in Glasgow last month when she won in 8:55.26.

“I’m really pleased with that, especially as I kept the training at a reasonable level this week knowing that I’ve got a meeting in Birmingham next wee, where there’s a real opportunity to run in a faster paced race,” said Clitheroe.

“It was a little bit of a risk, and I didn’t run as fast as I did in Glasgow, but there wasn’t too much of a difference in terms of time and it was great to have a good race with Gemma (Turtle). She was clipping my heels all the way round so I was really happy with the way I fought back.” Turtle finished second with 8:57.24.

The top field event performance came from the 2010 Commonwealth Games pole vault bronze medallist Max Eaves, who exceeded his personal best on three occasions to take the victory and his first UK title with a clearance at 5.61m.

“I’m really pleased; it was such an adrenalin rush. I didn’t really expect that,” commented the delighted Eaves.

“Coming back from the Commonwealths I had a break, then I put loads of training in and changed what I wanted to do and got ahead of where I wanted to be at this moment in time. All us Brits are doing well, but I’m still chasing Steve Lewis so I need to keep on working.”

Luke Cutts took the silver medal with 5.51m while Lewis was third after clearing the same height but having more failures.

Jessica Ennis, the reigning world and European heptathlon champion, won the women’s high jump with 1.88m.

“I got a little bit of tightness in my ankle so I stopped at 1.88m. I was alright jumping on it, it wasn’t my take off leg, but I could just feel it towards the end and it was getting a bit tighter so I thought that there was no point pushing on and injuring myself,” explained Ennis.

“At this stage I’m happy with the way everything is going; I’ve covered all the (pentathlon) events going into the Europeans bar the 800m and I just want to stay injury free,” she added.