Trio of Rio 2016 hopefuls looking to sparkle at Rome Diamond League
University of Bath-based athletes Eilidh Doyle, Sophie Kamlish and Andrew Pozzi will be looking to sparkle tonight (Thursday) when they compete in the Rome Diamond League.
Doyle lines up in a strong women’s 400m hurdles field at 7.04pm BST – she is currently ranked joint-first with Jamaica’s Janeive Russell in the 2016 Diamond League rankings after winning in Doha last month.
Joining Doyle – coached by Malcolm Arnold – at the Stadio Olimpico is training partner Pozzi in the men’s 110m hurdles at 8.05pm BST. He ran a personal best of 13.32 in Loughborough last week to set the Rio 2016 Olympic qualification standard.
Completing the University of Bath representation is Kamlish, pictured, who competes in the only Paralympic race of the evening – the women’s 100m at 9.03pm BST.
“Luckily enough I have been invited to take part and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Kamlish, a lower-leg amputee who competes in the T44 classification.
“I’ve taken part in the Birmingham Diamond League before but this is the first one abroad. There should be a big crowd and the race is at 10pm, which will be the latest I have ever run so that will also be something new. It should be fun.”
Kamlish – part of Rob Ellchuk’s training group at the Sports Training Village – heads to Rome on the back of an encouraging start to the Rio Paralympic season.
After winning a silver medal at the Fazaa IPC Grand Prix in Dubai in March, Kamlish ran her quickest time of the year so far – 13.54 – at the Loughborough International last week.
She then jumped on a plane to Paris to compete in the Charlety Open, where she won bronze in a multi-classification 100m final.
“I was pretty pleased with my time at Loughborough considering I had the worst start in my entire life, it was terrible!” laughed the London 2012 Paralympian.
“I got to compete in a heat and a final in Paris and they were good times too, so that was quite promising. In both those races, two different T37 athletes broke the world record – one after the other – so that was exciting.”
Read more about Kamlish’s progress towards the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games – now just 97 days away – in the latest Bath Chronicle column focusing on athletes and staff at the University of Bath in the build-up to Brazil.
