13 July 2009

Tom Parsons, the high jumper who claimed a creditable eighth place in last year’s Olympic final in Beijing, could finish only third in the Aviva World Trials and UK Championships in Birmingham at the weekend and has still to qualify for next month’s World Championships in Berlin.

After a promising campaign last season, in which he also set a personal best of 2.30m to take victory in the UKA event, it has been a frustrating year so far for the 25-year-old Birchfield Harrier, who jumped the same height (2.24m) as Germaine Mason and Samson Oni on Saturday, but was placed third on count-back.

Parsons has to jump the ‘A’ standard mark of 2.31m to all but guarantee a spot in the British term for Berlin, although the ‘B’ standard height of 2.28m may just be good enough. His best leap of the season was the 2.27m he cleared to win the Midlands Open Championship late last month.

“I’ve got a few technical problems at the moment,” admitted Parsons. “I haven’t had the most consistent of seasons so far, partly because of a heel injury that I suffered in January, which affected my training and meant I missed the whole of the indoor season.

“I am in good shape physically and I am a lot stronger and faster than I was before. It has been more a question of learning to jump with a ‘new body’ and working out the dimensions of my run-up. I am getting too close to the bar and not creating the room that I need to do what I want to do. Subsequently, I’m not attacking in the way in which I should. So there’s plenty for me to work on in training, including making my run-up wider.

“I have got to jump the B standard to put myself in the selectors’ thoughts, while attaining the A standard should guarantee my selection. There is a chance I may compete at a meeting in Belgium this Wednesday while there is also the Birmingham Games this Saturday and the Grand Prix meeting at Crystal Palace the following week. So I have some opportunities to sort things out. I thought I had turned a corner after winning the Midlands Open, but things were not great at the World Trials.”