Keely Klassic – runblogrun

Although the Keely Klassic had some complications in its first year, Stuart Weir noted that it did a great job of attracting young people to the sport!

Keely Klassic

Imagine you had promoted a Taylor Swift concert, sold loads of tickets, and had a TV deal in place, and then 3 days before the event, the show star had to pull out due to illness.  That is what happened to the organizers of the Keely Klassic.  The event’s centerpiece was Keely’s attempt to break the longstanding world 800m short track record, set by Jolanda Ceplak of Slovenia on 3rd March 2002 – the day that Keely was born.   Then, Keely got injured.

There was no possibility of re-arranging, so the options were to go ahead with the event with the supporting acts only or cancel and lose a lot of money.  The only choice was to go ahead with the event with World Athletics Bronze status. To be fair, Keely was around and evident – chatting to athletes, interacting with spectators, and signing autographs.

The program started at 11:00 a.m. and continued until 4:30 p.m. A real bonus—and an important one for the athletes—was a chance to run on the track where the GB champs and selection trials for the European Indoors will be held next weekend.

The program’s highlight was the last race, the women’s 1500m won by Georgia Hunter Bell (Miss Bell is now Mrs Hunter), in a PR of 4:00.63.  She told AW, “There are so many young people here – and especially girls – who look up to what Keely has achieved. There seemed to be more fun and less pressure today, which was great.” Of her unsuccessful attempt at the GB national record, she said: “I’m proud about how I went for it, and it’s important to always try to shoot for it, so it gives me confidence that I can win races when it’s scrappy like in New York (Millrose Games) and also when I front run.”

Molly Caudery won the Pole Vault with 4.73, commenting: “I’m very excited for the season. I know I’m in excellent shape this year, so I am excited to see how it goes. I have Euro Indoors and World Indoors coming up, and World Outdoors will be in September, so it will be a long season. I think, technically, this was a really good competition. I competed two days ago and might have been a bit tired, so I started off a short run. Therefore, to…