25 May 2010

The Aviva Great Britain & Northern Ireland team celebrated a successful European Youth Olympic Trials campaign as they left the Russian capital with a medal haul of three gold, three silver and two bronze.

The trials, which were the qualifying competition for the Youth Olympic Games which is due to take place in Singapore in August, highlighted an emerging crop of talented young British athletes.

Highlights included:

Themba Luhana ran a superb 100m hurdles heat to qualify fastest for the final in a new personal best of 13.85. He then went one better  in the final, reducing that mark down to 13.69 to take gold.

Zak Seddon showed his class by dominating the 2000m Steeple Chase final to take gold and set a personalbest of 5:57.50, three seconds clear of his nearest rival.

David Bolarinwa won GB & NI’s first medal on the opening day, running an impressive race to take gold in a seasons best of 10.68. He booked his slot in the team for Singapore with this effort and later added silver to his medal tally in the 200m capping off a great weekend for the South London athlete. 

After running within 100^th of a second off her personal best in her heat (11.62), Annie Tagoe took silver in the girls 100m with a time of 11.88 to secure her place on the plane to Singapore.

Charlie Grice followed a confident run in the heat of the 1000m with another strong performance to take the silver in the final and now has his sights very much set on taking gold in Singapore.

Georgia Peel beat team mate Katie Snowden for the ticket to Singapore. Both girls confidently made the final of the girls 1000m and ran well but Peel took bronze in a time of 2:42.24 to Snowden’s 2:46.68 in sixth position.

Sophie McKinna surprised herself in the final of the girls shot put, setting a new personal best of 14.66m and booking her place in the team for Singapore. She showed determination in the final round to reclaim the bronze medal after losing the edge briefly in the penultimate round.

Victoria Ohuruogu’s fourth place in the girls 400m was enough to secure a place in the team for Singapore. She recorded a new personal best of 54.17.

Abigayle Fitzpatrick was in the fortunate position going into the final of the girls 400m hurdles knowing she has already booked her place for Singapore. Due to the rule that only one participant per country per event can compete in the Singapore finals, Abigayle finished eighth but still qualified as 6 athletes make it through.

Katie Byres overcame tricky wet conditions to jump 3.80m in the final of the pole vault and finish in sixth position to qualify for Singapore. The competition was temporarily suspended for 30 minutes when a thunderstorm hit and made qualifying all the more challenging.

Hammer throwers Louisa James and Andrew Elkins ensured both girls and boys hammer would be represented in Singapore by finishing eighth and ninth respectively. James achieved 52.41m while Elkins threw 66.85m.

Freya Jones was delighted with her fifth place finish in the javelin final to secure her spot on the team. Jones, who needed only one throw to make the final, recorded a best of 47.90.  

Team Leader Jo Jennings commented “This was a great performance from a very young and enthusiastic team. We knew that those selected would contest for places for Singapore but to come away from Moscow with 13 athletes making the team is very satisfying for all involved.

“This unique system of qualification via continental trials so early in the season threw up many challenges for athletes and their coaches. Those who made the team for Singapore should feel very proud of their achievements and will learn from this whole experience.

"We aim to support all those going to Singapore as much as possible over the next few months in their preparations for such a significant event”.

Full results can be found here http://www.eyot.rusathletics.com/eng/results/