20 April 2011

Will Smith (coach: Jenny Archer) took his individual medal tally to four with two gold medals on day three of the IWAS World Junior Championships in Dubai, UAE (17-21 April) to take the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland medal total to 34.

Building on his T54 100m gold and 1500m silver, City of Norwich athlete Smith, who was a four-time silver medallist 12 months ago, topped the podium on two further occasions yesterday with victory in the T54 under-20 200m (28.82) and was awarded equal first in the under-16/18 800m (1:54.96).

IPC World Championships senior bronze medallist Kyron Duke (coach: Anthony Hughes) secured his first ever global gold with victory in the F40 under-23 javelin (32.85m) while Ola Abidogun (coach: Steve Thomas) – who defended his title – and Jenny McLoughlin (coach: Darrell Maynard) made it gold medal doubles in this Championship with victories in the T46 and T37 under-23 200m in times of 23.33 and 30.81 respectively.

There were also wins for Aled Davies, the IPC World Championships discus silver medallist and defending IWAS World Junior Champion, who took gold in the F42 under-23 shot putt in a lifetime best performance (14.19m) and Vicky Silk (coach: Anthony Hughes), who improved on her day two silver with F40 under-23 discus gold (19.93m) to defeat shot putt gold medallist Holly Neill (coach: Andrew Roda) into second (18.62).

On the track, Sally Brown (coach: Philip Tweedy), the T46 under-20 100m silver medallist, raced to victory in the under-23 200m (26.43) while T34 Hannah Cockroft (coach: Peter Eriksson) – who once again had to compete against T53 athletes – took her second and third medals of the Championships with gold in the under-23 200m (34.33) and silver in the 800m (2:16.30).

Day two bronze medallist Dan Lucker (coach: Jenny Archer) added a further two medals to his overall tally with double silver in the T54 under-20 200m (29.22) and under-23 800m (1:59.54), while F34 discus silver medallist Jonathan Adams (coach: Malcolm Wallace) secured his second runner-up spot of the competition in the under-20 shot putt (8.20m).

Completing the group of medal winning athletes on day three, T37 1500m champion Dean Miller (coach: Bud Baldaro) finished third in the T37 800m (2:12.65) while Owain Taylor (coach: Anthony Hughes) made it two medals from two events with bronze in the F57 under-20 shot putt (9.70m) to add to his javelin silver on day two.

Concluding the action, F37 discus silver medallist Joshua Bain (coach: Paul Welch) was fourth in the under-20 javelin in a new PB of 29.61m; Matthew Hickling (coach: Paul Moseley), bronze medallist in the combined T34/T53 100m, was fourth in the 200m (34.70); Joshua Morgan (coach: Anthony Hughes) was fourth in the F46 under-23 shot putt (9.19m) and Louis Speight (coach: Andrew Henderson) was fifth in the T34 under-23 200m (37.86m).