Although these Championships are organised by England Athletics, the presence of a large contingent of Welsh and Scottish athletes mean that these are effectively the National Championships for the u15, u17 & u20 age-groups.
Seven club members entered these Championships and were awarded with some pretty impressive results across the two – very long! – days. Resulting in a haul of four medals (one Gold, one Silver and two Bronze).
On Day 1 pride of place went to Daniel Falode in the u17 Triple Jump. On his opening jump Daniel was well behind the board, but still managed to improve his PB to 14.51m. In the second round, he hit the board and bounced out to 15.03m – a mark that places him second on the UK all-time u17 indoor list.
Daniel was unable to get near this mark in subsequent rounds, and despite some spirited chasing of this distance by an athlete from Scunthorpe, was sufficient to win comfortably – indeed, the distance would have won the u20 title later that day! This has been an impressive indoor campaign from Daniel, considering he started the season with a best of 13.60m.
Cleo Agyepong had the longest day. Entered for two events the u15 60m at 10:15am and the Shot at 4:50pm! After running 8.60 in the first race of the weekend, I am delighted to say that Cleo’s (and her mum Jenny) patience was rewarded with a huge new PB in the Shot with 12.29m, which earned the silver medal.
The third medal of Day 1 went to Kacey Walters in the u15 High Jump. After her impressive early season performances, Kacey suffered a knee injury, which appeared to have ended her indoor season. However, a quicker than anticipated recovery, meant that she decided to compete, despite limited recent training. Understandably, not at her best she still was competitive enough to win the bronze medal with 1.59m.
The club had three entrants in the u20 60m – Brandon Mingeli, Luke Moore and Iyioluwa Adesan. Brandon won his heat and semi-final – both in 6.89 – but was unable to take his place in the final as he sustained a niggle. Luke and Iyioluwa both made the semi-finals due to PBs – 7.15 and 7.17 respectively.
On Day 2 the club’s sole competitor was Luke Okosieme in the u20 High Jump. After clearing 1.98m, Luke had three very close attempts at a PB equaling 2.02m. Which won the bronze medal on count-back.
Although the numbers of members competing this year was encouraging, it would be great to see more light blue vests entered in future years. As is it a wonderful experience – the venue is superb, crowds supportive, full on-line coverage by Vinco Sport, etc. Whilst the standards required to medal are undoubtedly high, it is far more “competitive” further down the field – reflected in the entry standards that are not that onerous.
And….you can tell everyone that you competed in the National Championships.