Awde lays down major marker for Olympic decathlon selection

By Sportsbeat staff

BRITISH decathlete Daniel Awde has broken the 8,000 points barrier for the first-time in his career to secure the Olympic B qualifying standard.

Awde, who finished 21st in Beijing four years ago, needed to better 7,950 points in Tenerife to stand a chance of making Team GB this summer.

And he achieved this to move behind two-time Olympic champion Daley Thompson, Dean Macey and Alex Kruger to fourth on the all-time British list.

The news a major boost to British multi-eventing on a day that Jess Ennis broke the British heptathlon record, Kelly Sotherton retired and Ashley Bryant narrowly failed to achieve the B standard in Gotzis.

Elsewhere, Greg Rutherford and Goldie Sayers both claimed victories at the Meeting International Mohammed VI in Morocco.

Rutherford won the long jump with a best effort of 8.17 metres ahead of Russia's Aleksandr Menkov and British team-mate and training partner Chris Tomlinson, who leapt 8.01m.

Sayers won the women's javelin with a throw of 62.35 metres but world champion Dai Greene was second behind Olympic champion Felix Sanchez in the 400m hurdles. 

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