Perri Shakes-Drayton
World Indoor 4x400m relay champion Perri Shakes-Drayton (coach: Chris Zah) has confirmed her participation in both the Glasgow and Birmingham indoor legs of the 2013 British Athletics Series this winter, running her first ever individual 400m flat indoor races.
Shakes-Drayton will start her 2013 campaign at the British Athletics International Match in Glasgow’s brand new Emirates Arena on Saturday 26th January before lining up in Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena (NIA) for the British Athletics Grand Prix on Saturday 16th February.
The Olympic 400m hurdles semi-finalist will take to the track in the first international athletics event at the stunning 5,000 seater Emirates Arena, the successor to Kelvin Hall which hosted the International Match for 21 years, before heading to Birmingham three weeks later for what is regarded as the world’s best indoor athletics meet.
The 2010 European bronze medallist, who turns 24 today, has regularly competed in 4x400m relays indoors and memorably held off Olympic 400m champion Sanya Richards-Ross to anchor the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team to a gold medal at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul in March.
She has shown impressive 400m form outdoors in the past, including defeating Christine Ohuruogu to win the UK Championships and World Trials in 2011, and boasts an outdoor personal best of 51.26.
Although she has regularly competed indoors over 60m, 200m and 800m, the British Athletics International Match will be Shakes-Drayton’s first ever indoor individual 400m and the Londoner is hoping that making her debut at the state of the art arena will allow her to start the 2013 season with a bang.
“I’ve run a lot of relay legs indoors but competing in the individual 400m will be a new experience for me. Glasgow and Birmingham attract some of the best in the world so I can’t wait to get out and test myself in a really tough race.
“More than anything, these two races are a great chance to compete in front of some loud British crowds again. The Olympics showed how much this country loves athletics and our big indoor competitions are always special events, with packed arenas.
The 2009 European Under-23 champion showed her world-class talent by running a 400m hurdles personal best of 53.77 at Crystal Palace last July but was hampered by a hip injury in the Olympic semi-final a month later, narrowly failing to make the final.
The Londoner insists that the experience will drive her on to challenge for a medal at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow next August, with Glasgow 2014 also in mind.
“I showed in my other races last season that I was definitely capable of mixing it with the best in the world so I was disappointed not to get past the semi-finals at London 2012. It has only given me more motivation to perform even better in 2013.
“The British Athletics International Match will also give me the chance to get a look at Glasgow’s Commonwealth Park. Competing in my first ever Commonwealth Games in 2014 is another big target on my radar.”
Shakes-Drayton will be joining Olympic high jump bronze medallist Robbie Grabarz (Fayyaz Ahmed), World Indoor pole vault bronze medallist Holly Bleasdale (Dan Pfaff), World Indoor long jump bronze medallist Shara Proctor (Rana Reider) and Scotland’s three-time Olympian Lee McConnell (Rodger Harkins) in Glasgow.
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