Webb’s full-time move is
paying off immediately
J
AMIE WEBB officially became
a full-time athlete last
Friday and wasted no time
by smashing his 800m PB
at the Diamond League in London
the following day, writes Jason
Henderson.
The 25-year-old enjoyed his
final day as a teacher and took to
the track at the London Stadium
wearing new adidas kit after signing
a three-year deal with the shoe
company. His best time of 1:45.
was then slashed to 1:44.52 as he
moved to No.10 on the UK all-time
rankings and, to his satisfaction
and amusement ahead of Curtis
Robb, the world and Olympic finalist
in 1992-93, as the Liverpool Harriers
club record-holder.
Webb won silver at the European
Indoor Championships in Glasgow
earlier this year but looks to have
moved up to a new level this
summer under the joint coachingof his father Adrian and former GB
international Matt Yates.
“Matt is really analytical and
breaks everything down and maybe
overthinks things a little bit, which
is brilliant,” says Webb. “And my dad
under-thinks things possibly – and
he wouldn’t mind me saying that.
So it’s a good combination. Matt
writes the schedules, sends them
to myself and my dad. We thensit down and chat about it and we
tweak it and send it back to Matt
and then Matt confirms it.”
Webb and his team have already
tweaked a few things this year. He
says he is 3kg heavier than last
year and is lifting more in the
weights room but doing one less
weights session per week, which is
making his legs fresher for running
sessions.He says he has always been
aerobically strong, but is now also
one second quicker over 200m
than he was previously. Weights
aside, this might be linked to him
shortening the length of his hill
reps in recent months.
On his move to being full-time
generally, he said: “I’ve got the
chance to restructure my whole life
and improve my nutrition, do a bit
more yoga, focus more on recovery
and quality sleep, etc. From now
on I hope to have some spare time
after running rather than trying to
do running in my spare time.
“Now is the perfect time for me
to do it full time. A lot of people do
it before university and don’t know
what to do with themselves but
I’m 25 and I was also a late starter
in athletics and didn’t really start
training until I was 18.”
Looking ahead, Webb now
wants to run well at the Diamond
League in Birmingham and British
Championships in August before
trying to make the final in Doha.
But his real goal? “I want to get into
the 1:43s and into the medals for
Tokyo,” he says.MIDDLE-DISTANCE
MAN GOES ALL IN
AHEAD OF TOKYO
OLYMPICS
DIGEST THE LATEST FROM THE WORLD OF ATHLETICS
FIONA MAY won the 1987 European junior long
jump gold for Britain and now, 22 years later,
her daughter Larissa Iapichino has taken the
same title in Borås aged just 17.
May was born in Slough, raised in Derby
and went to university in Leeds, but in 1994
she married the Italian pole vaulter Gianni
Iapichino and moved to Florence.
Larissa has inherited her parents’ talent
and took the title last weekend in 6.58m.
She still has some way to match her mum’s
best, though, as May jumped 7.11m and won
world titles in 1995 and 2001 plus two Olympic
silver medals.Jumping in mum’s footsteps
GETTY IMAGES FOR EUROPEAN ATHLETICSJames Webb: European indoor silver medallist at 800m
GETTY IMAGES FOR EUROPEAN ATHLETICS
Larissa Iapichino: European
under-20 long jump winner