Rate it!

1 votes

Andi Jones insists he has a point to prove at this weekend's World Half Marathon Championships after failing to make the grade for August's World Championships in Berlin.

The marathon runner, who finished as the top Brit in April's London Marathon in 13th place, failed to clock the required A standard of 2:12 hours, ensuring he was left at home during the World Championships.

That, coupled with Mara Yamauchi's injury and Paula Radcliffe's lack of fitness ensured there were no British representatives in either marathon in Berlin.

While Radcliffe remains the women's world record holder and Yamauchi excelled before injury struck, finishing second in the London Marathon, the men have not fared so well in recent times and have not climbed onto the Olympic podium since Charlie Spedding captured bronze at Los Angeles 1984.

But Jones has called on the boo boys to keep quiet.

"The support is great at all the big races [at home]. I think some of the criticism we've [male long distance running] had this year has been a bit unfair," said Jones, who will compete against the likes of Zersenay Tadese of Ethopia, who is bidding for a fourth straight crown in Birmingham.

"A lot of people have had their say when it's perhaps not been warranted and this is a good opportunity to show people what I'm made of.

"There's a busy 12 months ahead and I want to start with a PB and then get a PB at next year's London Marathon.

"I'm looking for a PB - the course is fast and I want to go sub 64 minutes. The course suits my style of running and there's one or two little climbs which will make it interesting."

UKA have relaxed their marathon qualifying standards for 2010 from 2:12 to 2:18 in the hope that they can qualify more athletes for next year's European Championships in Barcelona.

And Jones believes that will be a great fillip to GB's long-distance runners.

"The qualifying standard went up to 2:18 hours for next year and I've got that comfortably - but sometimes the pressure of having to run the times can be a good thing," he added.

"The pressure is still there though and I want to run as fast as possible. I think there are quite a few British long-distance runners who will break 2:18 next year and we can start moving forward.

"Once you've made that breakthrough you can start pushing down to 2:16 or 2:17. But it's going to be a long time before we can have someone who can challenge on a World Championship level."

More than the Games / Eurosport