13 March 2017 

Rachel Wallader (coach: Richard Woodhall) and Sophie McKinna (Mike Winch) led the way for the British Athletics team in sunny Gran Canaria last weekend, as they finished fourth and fifth in the senior women’s Shot Put with season’s bests of 17.43m and 17.03m respectively.

For Wallader, that was the second best throw of her life, whilst McKinna’s third round throw of 17.03m was also just 11cm shy of her personal best.

In the men’s event Scott Lincoln (Paul Wilson) also threw a 19.00m season’s best to finish fifth in the B event, whilst Adele Nicoll (Vladimir Zinchenko) was just outside her lifetime best, a 16.2m put good for third in the U23 women’s event.

In the long throws, Harry Hughes (Michael McNeill) produced a personal best when it mattered most to bag fourth in the U23 javelin, his fourth round effort of 76.59m over a metre further than he’s ever thrown before and the best by a Brit for some three years. Rachel Hunter (Henry Hunter) launched the hammer to 64.21m for fifth in the women’s B event, whilst Amy Holder (Neville Thompson) was seventh in the U23 women’s discus with a season’s best of 52.94m.

Olympian Chris Bennett (Mick Jones) was disappointed to finish ninth in the hammer, his 70.65m a season’s best, with Chris Shorthouse (John Pearson) sixth in the B event with 67.22m. In the U23 hammer Taylor Campbell (Pearson) was a very solid fourth, but frustrated with his 67.51m performance.

British Athletics team captain Zane Duquemin (John Hillier) threw 58.44m for fifth in the B section of the men’s Discus, whilst compatriot Alan Toward (Nick Ridgeon) was two places further back with a mark of 55.16m.