 Aikines-Aryeetey finished fifth in the Aviva Grand Prix 60m final |
Harry Aikines-Aryeetey has been chosen as Dwain Chambers' sprint team-mate for the World Indoor Championships in Doha. The 21-year-old sealed the last Great Britain squad place with a time of 6.55 seconds to finish second in the trials at Sheffield earlier this month. He saw off competition from Scot Nick Smith, who ran 6.60 to finish third at the Aviva Grand Prix on Saturday. Britain's chief medal hopes are runner Jenny Meadows, triple-jumper Phillips Idowu and pentathlete Jessica Ennis. UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee stated that the 37-strong squad is a testimony to the growing strength of British athletics and suggested a healthy medal haul is within their grasp in the Doha Championships, which run from 12-14 March. "The team is slightly bigger than I would have anticipated at the start of the winter season which positively shows the depth of the pool of athletes we have," he said.  | 606: DEBATE |
"This competition gives athletes an opportunity to gain championship experience on a global level, the endurance athletes especially have taken this chance with lots of new faces in those disciplines. "We have names which will make the podium if they perform to potential and there is always room for outsiders." Despite Smith's impressive run at the Aviva GP in Birmingham - which was a new national record - former world junior 100m and 200m gold medallist Aikines-Areetey was always favourite to claim the remaining 60m sprint place because of his personal-best performance at the English Institute of Sport on 13 February. Chambers sealed his place in Doha by earning victory with a world-leading time of 6.50 seconds in Sheffield. Defending triple-jump champion Idowu, 31, has had an indifferent season but recorded a season's best of 17.25 metres in Birmingham. Meadows, currently second in the 800m rankings, is slightly slower on paper than Russian Yevgeniya Zinurova but demonstrated her speed last weekend by breaking Kelly Holmes' UK record with a time of one minute 59.11 seconds. Ennis has missed her last two competitions with a foot injury but has been in superb form this season and is strong favourite for the pentathlon title.
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