10 July 2008

Day Three- Afternoon session

Full timetables and results can be found at the World Junior championships website

After the third day of the World Junior Championships the NU GB & NI youngsters experience top class international competition and feel the heat.

Daniel Gardener (Leeds) rounded off a gruelling two-day decathlon quest with consistent form throughout the last two events and a final placing on twelfth overall, a great world stage debut for the Yorkshire athlete.

Here’s how the afternoon unfolded:

Gardiner remained focussed going into the afternoon session of the decathlon, however the javelin proved to be his weakest event so far. His best throw of 45.59m, on his second attempt, left him in tenth place in his round.

In a high quality 200m semi-final sixteen year old Shaunna Thompson (Sale) gave it her all and narrowly missed out on an automatic qualification, finishing third in her heat. Her time of 23.85 failed to earn her a fastest loser place which went to runners up in the final heat, a quicker race.

A disappointed Richard Kilty’s (Gateshead Harriers) 21.56 performance in the men’s 200m semi-final wasn’t enough to take him through to the next round. Kilty, who finished seventh in his heat, will now focus on the men’s 4 x 100m relay who make their first appearance Friday 11 July.

He said: “I just didn’t have anything else left in the last 50m, I didn’t have the strength. I’m disappointed with it, I was running off the bend and I just couldn’t keep up with them.

“It’s below what I wanted out of the competition, I wanted to make the final, I’m very disappointed.”

Jordan McGrath (Birchfield Harriers) was a casualty of the American onslaught in the men’s 400m final. He crossed the line in seventh place, clocking 47.81. Winner Marcus Boyd (USA) set new World Junior Record of 45.53.

“It was just a bad race. I wasted so much energy down the back and then coming off the bend I just had nothing. I’ve learnt a lot, especially that at the world stage it’s tough! ”

McGrath still has the chance to take a medal home; he makes up one leg of the men’s 4 x 400m relay who have their first heats on Saturday 12 July.

In an extremely tactical and A-typical men’s 1500m final Dave Forrester (St Helens Sutton) was strong over the first two laps but was pushed and shoved towards the back as the pack broke on the first bend of the last lap. He finished the race in ninth place clocking 3:51.00.

He said: “I just didn’t have it, not today anyway, I tried to go with them when they broke but I couldn’t. I wanted to get into the final and do well, I tried my best. Its my first world championships and I got top ten.”

In the final event of the men’s decathlon Daniel Gardiner (Leeds) finished thirteenth in the 1500m with 4:53.26. His consistent fine form over the two days of gruelling competition paid off leaving him in a respectable twelfth place overall.

“It was about ten seconds off my personal best, so not bad. I went off fast because there were a lot of us and I think it burned me out a little bit. I just wasn’t feeling good the whole way round. It was a good paced race all the way and a lot of the guys got personal bests.

“It’s my first World Championships and I’m still in it next year, so hopefully I be able to cause some damage at the European Juniors.”