Hazel's final effort to reach Olympics
LOUSIE HAZEL will be aiming to earn a place in the British squad for the Beijing Olympics when she competes in Hexham next weekend. The 22-year-old March heptathlete came well short of the Olympic qualifying standards when she represented Britain in Holla
LOUSIE HAZEL will be aiming to earn a place in the British squad for the Beijing Olympics when she competes in Hexham next weekend.
The 22-year-old March heptathlete came well short of the Olympic qualifying standards when she represented Britain in Holland at the weekend after her preparations were interrupted by a bout of illness.
Competing in the European Cup of Combined Events, in Hengelo, she finished in 25th position and scored 4,991 points.
She needed 6,000 points to qualify for next month's Beijing Games.
Hazel, who competed in the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, said: "I had a bit of a nightmare in Holland.
"I wasn't feeling at all well when I arrived and my stomach reacted badly to the antibiotics.
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"I was considering going to hospital but decided against it and my stomach settled down by the time the competition started, but these were awful preparations and I was well short of my best.
"I'm also recovering from a thigh injury and didn't feel quite right."
Hazel failed to achieve any personal bests, recording 14.03secs in the 100m hurdles, 1.54m in the high jump, 11.28m in the shot putt, 25.38secs in the 200m, 5.71m in the long jump, 37.95m in the javelin and 2.48.62 in the 800m.
She said: "Considering the fact that I hit the second hurdle and nearly fell over my time wasn't too bad, and I also banged my head on the bar during the high jump.
"I'm resting up now and working on a couple of technical things. It will be difficult for me to achieve the 6,000 points needed next weekend with the way things have been going for me recently, but I'm going to give it everything I've got and hope I can pull something out of the bag.
