14th July 2018

GREAT BRITAIN ADD TO WORLD JUNIORS MEDAL TALLY WITH WOMEN'S 4X100M BRONZE

Great Britain added another medal to their tally on the penultimate day of action at the World Junior Championships as the women’s 4x100m team clocked a season’s best 44.05s to take bronze.

The team of Kristal Awuah (coach: Matthew Thomas, club: Herne Hill Harriers), Georgina Adam (Denise Timmis, Lincoln Wellington), Alisha Rees (Leon Baptiste, Edinburgh AC) and Ebony Carr (Mike Leonard, Marshall Milton Keynes) produced an excellent run to take the bronze medal in the penultimate event on day five of the championships.

The medal is Great Britain’s sixth in total at the championships and their fifth in the space of two days.

After the race, Awuah said: “I feel amazing. To have an individual medal is brilliant but when you get one as part of a team the feeling is unbelievable. For it to all come together is amazing.”

“I’m over the moon because yesterday didn’t go to plan so I feel like I’ve done the team proud and pulled myself together to perform for the final,” Adam added.

Rees assessed: “Yesterday didn’t exactly go to plan but I love doing the relay with the girls because we always perform when it counts. Last year me and Ebony won a medal at the Europeans and now we’ve done it again but on the world stage.”

Carr, who led the team home again, said: “It was crazy to lead the team home once again. The girls put in such hard work and I felt like if I didn’t do what I needed to do I’d have let them down and I had that in the back of my mind.

“I ran like I’ve never run before and now we’re World Junior bronze medallists. It’s an amazing feeling.”

There will be two British athletes in the final of the men’s 800m tomorrow as Markhim Lonsdale (Keith Lonsdale, Crook & District) clocked a season’s best 1:47.60 to qualify as a fastest loser for the final, joining Alex Botterill (Andrew Henderson, City of York), who qualified from his heat automatically in 1:47.97, a shade outside his 1:47.95 personal best.

After finishing third and qualifying automatically, Botterill signalled his intent to go for gold tomorrow and feels that his performance shows he is in good form for a medal.

He said: “I was doubtful as to whether or not I’d make it after yesterday because it was scrappy. I’m really pleased and I’m couple of tenths outside my PB. It was cleaner and that was all I can say.

“I want to get the win. I know it’s going to be extremely tough and I might not. I’m not by any stretch saying put your bets on me but at the end of the day I’m not here to make up numbers, I’ve got to the final and not on a fastest loser basis.”

Lonsdale added: “I have no idea where that came from! I’m so buzzing. When I crossed the line I didn’t think I’d done it and I thought I’d just missed out but now I know I’m in the top eight in the world but we all want to win and medal. I now have to go for it.

“I’ve been having some banter with Alex at the hotel. Obviously we’re teammates but we’ve said if we get to the final we’re enemies but I’m so happy for him. We both want this so much and all our work has paid off.”

The British 4x400m relay team set a world junior lead of 3:07.17 in their heats as they automatically qualified for tomorrow’s final. The team of Alex Haydock-Wilson (Earl Herbert, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow), Joe Brier (Matt Elias, Swansea), Ellis Greatrex (Keith Holt, Birchfield Harriers) and Alex Knibbs (Nick Dakin, Amber Valley and Erewash) pulled out a monumental performance to take a new world lead and set a season’s best.

The USA later took the world lead back from the British team but the squad were happy to hold the title for a brief time, and to progress into tomorrow’s final.

“It fell so daunting,” said Greatrex. “We’ve not been able to come down to the track and watch everyone else compete because we’ve had to rest but to come out and perform how we did and to get the fastest 4X400m junior time in the world this year is completely amazing. Everyone ran really well and Alex got us in a good place.”

Haydock-Wilson is ecstatic on making the final and hopes for more of the same tomorrow, adding: “I knew the guys would be upset with me if I didn’t give them a big lead. I knew we’d have to put everything out on the track and we did, the adrenaline carried me so far. I’m glowing and we’re ready to go even quicker in the final.”

After clocking a national under-20 record yesterday in the men’s 400m hurdles, Alastair Chalmers (Dale Garland, Guernsey) could only manage a best of sixth in the final, crossing the line in 50.27s.

There was heartache for James Tomlinson (Paul Jensen, Pembrokeshire) who could not progress into the final of the men’s discus, heading out in the heats with a best of 54.95m, while Tom Mortimer (Christopher Brown, Stroud), finished 16th in the final of the men’s 5000m in 14:37.17.