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British Championships Weekend Round – Up Featuring The Welsh Throws Open and Mini Menai T&F Competition
07/09/2020 00:00, In Blog /
British Championships
Day One –
To start off the day, Welsh thrower Tom Hewson picked up the first medal by a Welsh athlete on the weekend by taking the bronze in the Javelin in 68.49 SB.
“It’s been good, better than I have ever thrown in Manchester before, so I’m pleased. It’s my first ever senior medal at a British champs. It’s a little windy, a head wind which developed into a cross wind in the later throws overall, but it was manageable.
It’s been very strange. I had a couple month of no training and then back to it gradually, with both throwing and gym sessions. Hopefully I’ll be back full throwing very soon.
This will be my last and only comp of the season this year. I’m not too fussed about this year. I will go again in January looking to get the standard for commonwealth 2022, that’s what I’m aiming for next year.”
Tom Hewson.
Rebecca Chapman’s steady return to form continued Friday night at the Muller British Athletics Championships where the long jumper won a bronze medal in 6.14 (-0.6), finishing behind Britain’s top female jumpers Abigail Irozuru and champion Jazmin Sawyers. Fellow Welsh athlete Sarah Abrams finished fifth with 6.07m in the fourth round.
On the track, sprinters Jeremiah Azu, Joshua Brown, Dewi Hammond and Dan Beasley advanced to the semi-finals of the 100m. Azu made the final and came 5th producing a SB of 10.51.
World Para Athletics shot put champion Sabrina Fortune came 5th in the women’s shot put final with a season’s best effort of 13.45m.
Bronwen Owen and Jenny Nesbitt competed in the 5000m. Both athletes put on brave performances with Owen coming 8th in a new PB of 16:04.12 and Nesbitt coming 9th in a SB of 16:10.13.
In the 400m Rhiannon Linnington-Payne booked her place in Saturday’s 400m final by finishing fourth in her heat in a season’s best time of 54.85. The Swansea Harrier Joe Brier also his spot in the men’s 400m final by finishing second in his heat with 47.18. In the same race the youngster Steffan Dylan Jones missed out in in qualifying for the final but made it up by running a new life time best of 47.97.
Unfortunately in the 400mh Dai Greene had to withdrawal from the men’s 400m hurdles heats. However, Lauren Williams finished 3rd in her heat in 59.47 qualifying for the women’s 400mh final on Saturday.
Beth Kidger booked her place in the women’s 1500m final as one of the fastest runners-up when she placed fifth in her heat in 4:19.27 and James Heneghan qualified for the finals on Saturday after finishing fifth in his heat, clocking 3:49.00.
To close off the evening, we finish the day how we started with Verity Ockenden winning silver medal late in the evening with a SB of 15:41.19 in the 5000m final.
“Funnily enough within lockdown I have been able to get into the best shape of my life, so I knew I could run well and hopefully get a PB. It turned into a tactical race which I was comfortable with until the last kilometre where it was always going to be hard because you have athletes with such class. I couldn’t quite keep up with Jess but, I really enjoyed it and the atmosphere was actually great.”
Verity Ockenden.
Day Two –
On day two of the championships we again started the weekend off with another medal coming from 2018 Commonwealth medallist Bethan Davies in the 5000m walk. Bethan came 2nd securing the silver medal with a SB of 23:46.04. Unfortunately after a dominate performance Heather Lewis was DQ’d in the final 100m for the event.
“I came here ready to get experience of a new environment. I decided to have a break about 6 weeks ago, I am only a couple of weeks into what would be winter training, so I am happy to get through the race.
With the wet conditions it is difficult on your technique and I am really sad to see Heather (Lewis) get disqualified so close to the end if the race.
I am really happy to come here, soak up the environment and come away with a silver medal. My training started quite well during lockdown but I got to the point where I thought I would play the long game. I was finding it difficult to train with no races on the horizon, so I had a break and thought about building up for the start of next year. It is a really tough environment at the moment but, it is just nice to be here.
Even though it is a very strange version of the British Championships it is still a fantastic place to be and I am really happy I made the trip up this morning.”
Bethan Davies.
The women’s Javelin throw was the next event to take place at the championships where we not only gained another medal but also a new Welsh U20 record by Bethany Moule. Moule won bronze in 51.27 breaking the old record by Bethan Rees of 51.18 who came 4th behind Moule with 49.32.
“It was a good competition, started out strong improving each round until round three, but it felt nice. Still a lot to work on but I’m happy. The conditions weren’t too bad, the track was quite slippy but the wind was nice not too strong.
It’s my first British medal and the first time I have compete in Manchester, so very very nice. To be able to maintain a focus, with everything being so uncertain. It has definitely helped me with preparation.”
Bethany Moule.
The 200m was up next, where we had 2014 Commonwealth Games finalist Hannah Brier take to the start line. Hannah battled a strong headwind to running 25.14 finish 4th in her heat qualifying for the final but unfortunately had to pull out due to an ongoing hamstring niggle.
Remi Adebiyi had good run in the mens 3000m SC where he placed 6th with a SB run of 9:18.63.
Lauren Williams returned to the track for the 400mh finals where she had a strong performance coming 5th in 1:00.05.
In the mens 100m Ambulant final, Rhys Jones came 5th in a SB performance of 12.23.
There was another incredible performance in the women’s 3000m SC final where Lauren Cooper just missed out on a medal and Welsh record by 2 seconds running 10:27.57 PB. In the men’s 5000m Jake Smith also came close to getting a medal coming 4th in 13:47.91 PB and in the Shot Put Gareth Winter also came 4th with 15.92 SB.
In the final event where a Welsh athlete featured, Jake Henehgan came 12th in the 1500m final with 3:54.46.
Full results can be found here: https://www.uka.org.uk/results/20200904_Manchester/timetable/index/
Welsh Throws Open
On Sunday 6th August, Swansea hosted the next throws open. In the Hammer throw the top 3 performances of the day came from Toby Conibear (U20M) throwing 55.80, Lara Moffat (U17W) throwing 55.30 and Hannah Gellatly throwing 42.84.
Next up was the Discus, with the top 3 performances coming from Harrison Walsh (SM) throwing 55.47 PB, Harri Davies (U20M) 45.65 and Joshua Schrijver throwing 44.61.
The Javelin was the next event and taking the top 3 performances were Morgan Batten (U17M) throwing 47.04, Curtis Matthews (SM) throwing 47.04 and George Snaith throwing 46.93.
The final event of the day was the Shot put where the top 3 performances were Patrick Morgan (U17M) throwing 13.37, Oscar Dun (U17M) throwing 13.01 and Amelia Fettis (U17W) throwing 11.19.
Full results can be found here: https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2020/GBR/wathrows2/event/
Mini Menai T&F Competition
In Menai, there were some good performances in the sprints starting with the U17m 100m. The top 3 performances of the day came from Zak Wall running 11.3, Savage Finley running 11.4, and Aeden Wiltshire running 12.3. Next up was the U20m 100m, where the top 3 performances came from; Zachary Price running 10.8, Steffan Dylan Jones running 11.0, fresh off his PB over 400m at the British Championships, and Cai Lewis Jones running 11.4.
The U17w 100m the top 3 performances came from Teleri Sion Lewis Jones running 12.5, Ela Oliver running 12.6 and Skye Warrington running 13.9.
In the U20m 400m, Jack Davies had the fastest time of the day with 51.1, Alex Roberts was 2nd in 51.4 and Cai Morgan Roberts was 3rd in 52.1.
The U17w 300m had some good times with Chole Griffith running 44.5, Non Elen Redvers Jones running 46.2 and Katherine Blackwell running 47.5.
The U17m 200m was the next event on track with Savage Finley running 23.1, Owen Parry running 25.0 and Joel Whale running 25.1.
Steffan Dyan Jones had a busy as he competed again in the U20m 200m running 22.0, Zachary Price came 2nd in 22.1 and Jack Davies cam 3rd in 23.4.
And finally in the last event of the day the U17w had their 200m where Teleri Sion Lewis Jones won in 25.9, Ela Oliver came 2nd in 26.2 and Zara Evans came 3rd in 27.6.
Full results can be found here: https://data.opentrack.run/en-gb/x/2020/GBR/menop/event/