James clocked 6.72 seconds - one of his fastest ever 60m sprints, although it was inferior to his lifetime best set just seven days earlier of 6.69s.
It was a heat packed with drama with the front three automatically through to the final, and a desperate Pickering throwing himself at the line to edge out his rival. And behind them was the fast-fading Mark Lewis-Francis who pulled up short with what looked like quite a nasty groin injury.
"Craig rotated his right shoulder and that is the only reason he got the nod," said coach John Powell. "It's ironic because James has been under strict orders never to twist round on the line, as that was a major contributor to his serious hamstring tear last June."
Ellington now returns to winter training after a few days of low key recovery work, having completed what many coaches have described as a miraculous comeback from his injury in Geneva last year.
Meanwhile, another Trackspeed1 sprinter, Matt Threadgold, was competing in the British University Championships, in Sheffield. He was rounding off what had already been an outstandingly successful indoor season for him, with lifetime best times over 60m, 200m and his specialist distance of 400m.
In Sheffield he drew a nightmare lane two in the heats, and it looked as if it might be all over before it began, but incredibly he won the race in 22.47s to reach the semi-final.
In the semi, he drew lane four, and improved to 22.29s, but failed to qualify for the final in second place after a poor first bend left him too much to do.
Matt was far from done though, and subsequently put in an outstanding relay leg in the 4 x 200m final, taking Loughborough University to gold with an astonishing split time recorded as 20.1 seconds.
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| James Ellington (nearside) misses out on the Grand Prix 60m final by one hundredth of a second, in Birmingham, as captured by photo-finish technology. |
Ellington now returns to winter training after a few days of low key recovery work, having completed what many coaches have described as a miraculous comeback from his injury in Geneva last year.
Meanwhile, another Trackspeed1 sprinter, Matt Threadgold, was competing in the British University Championships, in Sheffield. He was rounding off what had already been an outstandingly successful indoor season for him, with lifetime best times over 60m, 200m and his specialist distance of 400m.
In Sheffield he drew a nightmare lane two in the heats, and it looked as if it might be all over before it began, but incredibly he won the race in 22.47s to reach the semi-final.
In the semi, he drew lane four, and improved to 22.29s, but failed to qualify for the final in second place after a poor first bend left him too much to do.
Matt was far from done though, and subsequently put in an outstanding relay leg in the 4 x 200m final, taking Loughborough University to gold with an astonishing split time recorded as 20.1 seconds.
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