21 June 2015

Morgan Lake (coach: Eldon Lake) equalled her British Junior high jump record of 1.94m as she kicked off proceedings on Sunday at the England Athletics U20 & U23 Championships in Bedford.

It was the third occasion the Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow athlete has cleared the height, the first coming at the IAAF World Junior Championships last year and then again at the Sainsbury’s British Indoor Championships in February. Lake, who failed her first two attempts at 1.94m, was successful on her final effort at the height to maintain her second place standing in the senior rankings in 2015.

Lake, who later won the U20 long jump in 6.18m said: “I’m really pleased with that today – I’ve had a few goes at it recently so it is great to get the British Junior record here. I was looking at the weather yesterday thinking ‘please don’t rain today’. Everyone was jumping well today and in good spirits – I love jumping in Bedford.”

Cheriece Hylton (John Blackie) was triumphant in a highly competitive U20 400m final running a personal best of 53.54 holding off Catherine Reid (Di Shimell), Lina Nielsen (Frank Adams) and Hannah Williams (Colin Gaynor) in a strong final 100m. Williams, who is the sister of European 200m silver medallist Jodie, ran a new lifetime best of 54.39 to set an IAAF World Youth qualifying standard.

Hylton said: “I was nervous before the race as I always put pressure on myself as I want to put on a show. There are so many good girls over 400m so I had to step up today and I’m so happy I did. It will be my first individual appearance at the major championships so to earn selection is amazing.

Cheriece’s twin sister Shannon was a winner in the U20 200m recording 23.22 (+2.7) to seal her berth in the team and said after the race: “It was a Happy Father’s Day present as well today. I’m glad we could both make him proud today.”

Callum Wilkinson (Mick Graham) was in fine form as the race walker took the U20 10km title and in doing so guaranteed selection for the European Junior Championships in Eskilistuna.

“I am delighted – I came here to get the win and I got pushed by Cameron (Corbishley) and Guy (Thomas). To go under the qualifier again is really good, but felt I could have gone a bit quicker, which is good building up to the race in Sweden,” explained Wilkinson, who ran 42:59 to dip under the qualifying standard for the second time.

“I came 12th in the European Cup, so better than that (at the European U20 Championships) would be good. It would be great to get to get top 10 and a PB in the event, that would be perfect.

“The top three were all sub-44 and that makes us the quickest junior men GB have ever had so to be able to go into races in that context is really good. We’re definitely on the rise and trying to get back to the sort of medal-winning performances we had in the 60s and the glory days of race walking.”

Other highlights in the U20 category included Bobby Clay (Peter Mullervy) who showed excellent front running form as she dominated the U20 women’s 1500m to win in 4:15.30 and Kyle Langford (George Harrison) won the U20 800m as he cruised down the home straight to regain the title he won last year clocking a time of 1:50.84.

Montel Nevers (Nigel Kesteven) won the U20 men’s triple jump with a leap of 15.83m to become another automatic qualifier for the European Juniors as did Amy Holder (Neville Thompson) in the U20 discus winning with 49.09m.

Shona Richards (Marina Armstrong) booked her place on the European U23 GB & NI team heading to Estonia next month after winning the 400m hurdles in 57.24. The 2014 World Junior silver medallist showed her promise recording another qualifying standard, which will see her go to Talinn as one of the leading medal contenders.

Yasmin Miller (Lloyd Cowan) produced a stunning display to capture the European U23 qualifying standard in the women’s U23 100m hurdles, beating European Indoor Pentathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Mike Holmes) who also threw 40.50m in the javelin. The Derby athlete ran 13.34 to Johnson Thompson’s 13.44 to cement her place on the plane for the European U23 Championships.

In the men’s equivalent, it was a fascinating tussle in the U23 110m hurdles final with World Junior bronze medallist David Omoregie (Benke Blomkvist) just edging out David King (James Hiller) on a dip finish. Omoregie took the plaudits crossing the line in 13.62 (+2.8), just one hundredth of a second ahead of King and has now secured an automatic spot on the GB & NI team for the European U23 Championships. 

Another notable performance included European U23 Cross Country gold medallist Rhona Auckland (Joyce Hogg) who transferred a strong season in the mud to the track, where she set a new championships best of 15:59.20 to win the 5000m. There was considerable daylight between the Banchory Stonehaven athlete and USA’s Bethan Knight and will now have her sights set on a strong performance in Tallin.

Tom Bosworth (Andi Drake) earlier confirmed his place in the GB & NI team by winning the 20k race walk trial event for the IAAF World Championships in Beijing recording a time of 1:25.28. The 25 year old went into the championships already with the qualifying standard, which he set in March at the Lugano Trophy in Switzerland. Welsh athlete Bethan Davies (Drake) went to third on the British all-time standings in the 20km walk finishing in a time of 1:36.39.70.

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