11 July 2013

In the evening session of day two of the IAAF World Youth Championships, GB & NI recorded no fewer than seven personal bests as Ojie Edoburun (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) recorded the team’s first medal in Donetsk.

Edoburun, who automatically qualified from the earlier semi-final in a personal best time of 10.55 ran an impressive 10.35 to clinch the silver medal. The 17 year old ran the same time as eventual winner Youxue Mo of China and were only separated by a margin of 0.002.

“I’m ecstatic; to think this time last year I was struggling to make the national championships, so to run 10.35 I’m so happy.

“I always envisaged myself winning to make my dream to come true, so I’m a bit disappointed. However, I came into this ranked seventh or eighth and I’ve come out joint first, so it’s a really good confidence boost moving forwards.

“I have to thank the GB staff, coaches, family, friends, college team, training partners, Ryan Freckleton, Jonas and all the guys that have been with me since the beginning.”

Edoburun’s training partner Reuben Arthur (Tawiah-Dodoo)narrowly missed out on a place in the 100m final after finishing fourth in his semi-final heat and believes that competing at the IAAF World Youth Championships will help him with his transition to a senior athlete.

“The race panned out quite well – the main action is going to happen in the middle lanes because of the previous round. Going from lane seven is always difficult, so to equal my PB shows I’m doing something right.

“The experience so far has been really good, I’ve learnt a lot and I’m very grateful for that. It’s quite difficult when you’re used to running all your rounds on the same day, but if you want to progress to the next level of athletics, you’ve got to get used to different situations and this is the exact replica of what it’s going to be like at senior level. Hopefully I can progress and develop in this setup and become a good senior athlete.”

In the women’s 400m, Sabrina Bakare (Jane Dixon) showed once again why she will be one of the podium contenders going into tomorrow’s final. The 17 year old, showed another accomplished display as she qualified fastest from the semi-finals in a personal best time of 53.25, and is hoping to replicate her winning record in the RSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium.

In the women’s 400m, Sabrina Bakare (Jane Dixon) showed once again why she will be one of the podium contenders going into tomorrow’s final. The 17 year old, showed another accomplished display as she qualified fastest from the semi-finals in a personal best time of 53.25, and is hoping to replicate her winning record in the RSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium.

“I’ve just got to think the final is another race, run as hard as I can again. The track is really nice, so I may as well make use of it. But I want to carry on the trend I’ve been doing through the heats and the semis and hopefully I can do the same in the final. Tonight I’m just going to recover and hopefully the same result will come out tomorrow.”

After victory in last night’s 800m heats, Kyle Langford (George Harrison) finished the semi-final in a personal best time of 1:48.85. Despite securing a berth in Saturday’s final, the 17 year old admitted that he didn’t feel like his performance did him justice.

“That whole race I felt poor, I didn’t have a good night’s sleep last night and I know I can go faster than that. It’s still a PB, but I’m hoping for better.

If it comes to the final and I have good recovery, I can definitely go faster, but it’s easier said than done. All this is a learning curve as I’ve had not many competitions like this – it’s very intense over a short period of time.”

After securing a place in the shot put final earlier today, Adele Nicoll (Andy Brittain) came within 7cm of her personal best to finish in 11th place. Despite admitting she would have liked to have gone a bit further in the competition, the 16 year old is taking a number of positives away from the experience.

“I suppose on the startlist I’ve done better than I should have, but I would have liked to have made the top eight and got another three throws. I can’t complain with 11th and I did better in the final than I did in the qualifying in the morning, which is surprising, because it wears you out.

“I loved it out there and the atmosphere was great – I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I think it’s so important to develop as an athlete and to get this experience when you’re young. I’ve had an amazing time and I’ve learnt a lot from it.

In the women’s 100m hurdles semi-finals both Moesha Howard (Julie Pratt) and Shirin Irving (Neil Dodson) set personal bests on their way to a fourth and fifth place finish respectively.

Howard improved her personal best from 13.74 to 13.66 in a race won by World Youth leader and eventual winner Yanique Thompson (13.10) missing out on a place in the final by just 0.04. In a heat of five personal bests, Howard was pleased with her improvement from the first round.

“My start wasn’t great, but I put a lot of work in the middle and I put what I could into the race. It’s not a great PB, but from my race yesterday, it’s a great improvement. I’ve got into the zone now where I don’t think about what anyone else is doing, because getting the standards to get in this team was hard enough.

“It wasn’t the time I was hoping for, but a lot of people are running well and you can see that with all the PBs in the three semi-finals. The qualification is tough with the top two and two fastest losers qualifying, so everyone had to put work in today.”

Irving, who set a new personal best of 13.71 was delighted with her performance in Donetsk.

“I took the race as if it was a final and I’m really happy with that. It was a PB and you can’t get much better than that.

“It can only get better from here – the World Juniors are next year, so that’s going to be my next aim. I’m really pleased I did this championships – it’s been a great experience. If someone told me I’d PB and compete for my country six months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.”