20th June 2015

England Athletics U23 & U20 Championships: Day One Wrap-up

20 June 2015

Taylor Campbell (Paul Dickenson/Chris Black) broke his British junior hammer record twice on his way to victory at the England Athletics U23 and U20 Championships which got underway in Bedford today.  

The 18 year old threw 77.30m in the third round before going out to 78.74m with his last throw of the competition to secure automatic selection for the GB & NI team heading out to the European Junior Championships in Eskilstuna next month.

Campbell, who is ranked third in Europe said: “I can’t complain. I felt good last week when I set the record so I knew coming here I just had to get a good throw out to go further because the conditions and environment was much better. I knew it was on the cards, I just had to not mess it up.

“I missed out (on making the final) at the World Youths by a centimetre in 2013 and then an eighth place finish at the World Juniors. It’s good that in every competition I’m putting throws out there that could potentially medal. All my competitions bar one this year would have got me a medal at the World Juniors last summer and that’s the consistency I’m aiming for. It just feels good to be going there feeling confident.

“The rankings are usually nothing to go by because it depends what you do on the day. The rankings are good psychologically going into it, but I know as well as everyone else they have to perform in the competition itself.”

Ojie Edoburun (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) confirmed his place on the GB & NI team in Sweden clocking 10.33 (+0.3 m/s) to take the men’s U20 100m title in Bedford.

The Shaftesbury Barnet athlete said afterwards: “I’m very happy – training has been going really well recently and I was hoping for a faster time but the conditions today were really poor. It was about keeping my head and qualifying for the Europeans. The big test is always at the competitions and I’m really happy with the way I’ve executed my races today.  I feel like if I get it right at the Europeans it should be one to remember."

Edoburun finished strongly over the second half of the race to overhaul Joseph Dewar (Gladys Bird), Rechmial Miller (Ryan Freckleton) and U18 Toby Harries (Jon Bigg) who ran a PB of 10.57 in the final for fourth position, which was another IAAF World Youth qualifying standard for the Phoenix athlete.

Daryll Neita (Tawiah-Dodoo) took the title in the U20 women’s equivalent in 11.40 (+0.4) which was a personal best for the 18 year old ahead of Sutton & District’s Imani Lansiquot (Joseph Felix) in second.

In the earlier heats of the U20 100m, European youth number one Hannah Brier (Neal Merry) continued her fine start to the 2015 season extending her Welsh Junior record in the 100m to 11.44, which put her into fourth place in the UK senior rankings this year.

Alex George (Paul-de-Camps) claimed a dominant win in the U20 5000m recording a time of 14:18.73, narrowly outside his PB, to book his place on the team for the European Junior Championships after a strong last 600m.

The Arkansas-based athlete said: “I planned on going with 200m to go so when I had the lead with 600m to go, I ran without fear and got the win thankfully. It’s given me great confidence and hopefully I’ll get picked for the European Juniors now.”

George Evans (Duncan Flockhart) added one centimetre to his lifetime best in the discus, with the 17 year old throwing 61.25m, which takes him to number three in the world in the U18 age group. Trafford’s Naomi Ogbeta (Tom Cullen) continued her good form so far this season to jump 12.98m in the U20 long jump and improve her U18 best.

Josh Cox (Alan Watts) captured a local victory as the Bedford athlete won the U23 men’s 100m in 10.36 (+0.6) ahead of John Otugade (Tom McNab) and Roy Ejiakuekwu (Rana Reider) to send the home crowd into raptures. Lukesha Morris (Ryan Freckleton) won the women’s equivalent  in 11.74 (-0.8).

Reading’s Jonathan Davies (Rob McKim) won the U23 5000m after a final lap of 56.72 and Melissa Courtney (Mark Pauley) claimed victory in the women’s U231500m in 4:15.93 to complete the day of action at the Bedford International Stadium.

World Junior 400m hurdles silver medallist Shona Richards (Marina Armstrong) successfully navigated her way through the U23 400m hurdles heats clocking a comfortable 58.85, while Charlie Grice (Jon Bigg) and Theo Blundell (Eddie Cockayne) also came through their first round test in the U23 800m.

Full results can be found here: http://www.englandathletics.org/england-athletics/english-national-championships/2015-champs-results