The Emirates Arena in Glasgow will host an intriguing afternoon of Indoor Athletics at the British Athletics International meet on Saturday, including the much hyped contest between two of Britain’s most well-known athletes, Dai Greene and Andrew Osagie, over the unusual 600m distance.
The three-lap race will be a tactical affair, the question the athletes must ask themselves is, ‘do I go for it from the gun, or wind it up slowly for an intense final lap?’
Andrew Osagie goes into the meet on the back of a very successful 2012 season where he won Bronze at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul over 800m as well as reaching the Olympic final in the same discipline and setting a personal best in the process. He will drop down in distance to an event where his only previous attempt was outdoors in 2008, where he attained a time of 1:20.7.
Dai Greene meanwhile, agonizingly missed out on a medal at the Olympic Games in the 400m hurdles after injury disrupted his season earlier in the year. The Welshman will be hoping to impress the crowds on Saturday over this unusual distance, since the long hurdles events are not part of the indoor season. He has set a personal best of 1:18.8 over 600m indoors but that was nearly seven years ago.
Both Osagie and Greene have improved significantly as athletes since there last attempts at this distance and both will be looking to break the 28 year old British record of 1:17.6 held by Ikem Billy. Both should be capable of it but who will cross that line victorious?
Andrew Osagie will be encouraged by the fact that the world record over 600m indoor is held by a former 800m runner, the German, Nico Motchebon, who set the time of 1:15.12 in 1999.
If it is a fast race, you would favour Osagie to hold on over the longer distance, most particularly when you consider the pace of the London Olympic final when David Rudisha flew out to a world record and the field were dragged along. Even in a tactical encounter, the 800m runner would be favoured to attack at the right time.
Although, this is not to say that a 400m runner cannot challenge the record time. Although a hurdler, Greene has proved that he is an effective 400m runner as he has been part of the 4x400m relay for Britain on occasions. In 2011, Kevin Borlee, the Belgian 400m runner, attempted to break this record. He fell agonizingly short in a time of 1:15.65. The speed and endurance helped Borlee to nearly break the record and he is still 3rd on the all-time list. Greene has these same attributes and his strength could help him to break that British record.
Greene tweeted earlier this week: “Should be an exciting race, not exactly in my comfort zone 🙂 “
He probably isn’t but the challenge against a fellow GB athlete in front of a home crowd will definitely make it an enthralling encounter, for the athletes and the fans.
However, the American, Duane Solomon, who finished 4th in that World record breaking 800m final in London and the Russian, Ivan Tukhtachev, will both be hoping to spoil the party on Saturday afternoon and both will have their sights on the World Record.
Solomon tweeted last week: “Excellent practice today. Todays time trial was a huge success. Next weekends race will be epic cant wait!!#BangBang “
This only adds to the excitement of the prospect of this event on an excellent afternoon of athletics. The event will be screened on BBC1 from 1:30 till 4:30, and this race is scheduled for 16:07. It will be an intriguing contest and one which will hopefully see a couple of old records tumble.
