12 July 2013

After last night’s silver medal-winning performance from Ojie Edoburun (coach: Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) in the 100m, GB & NI started off the morning session of day three of the World Youth Championships in similarly strong fashion. All four athletes in action secured their progress through to the next round, while Morgan Lake (Eldon Lake) produced two significant personal bests in her opening two events of the heptathlon.

Lake clocked 14.12 in the 100m hurdles win her heat, leaving her in eighth place overall after the first event with 961 points – 91 points behind Holland’s Inge Drost, who clocked 13.49.

In what is considered her best event, Lake had a long wait in the high jump before going on to clear a British Youth record and World Youth leading height of 1.90m. Lake whose jump would have won six out of the last seven individual high jump competitions at the IAAF World Youth Championships, will go into this evening’s session with a lead of 153 points.

An understandably delighted Lake, who leads the standings on 1106 points said: “That was definitely more than I ever hoped for out there. I’ve been going fine in training, but I didn’t know if I had it in my legs because I’d been out there for two hours. I felt like I was in a dream when I jumped 1.90m.

“I’m absolutely over the moon – 1.88m heads the rankings and I was hoping to get around that but four centimetres more, I’m delighted.

"I’m hoping to PB in the shot put this afternoon, and although the 200m races I’ve done haven’t been great, I’ll be looking for a PB there too, which would be a good day,” added Lake, whose clearance of 1.90m eclipsed the UK U17 record set by Debbie Mark 29 years ago by 1cm.

In the men’s 200m, Thomas Somers (Geoffrey Barraclough) lowered his personal best from 21.41 to 21.09, as he left his competitors trailing in his wake as he secured his place in tomorrow’s semi-final as the third fastest athlete. Somers was pleased with the execution of his race, and believes if his form continues in the same fashion, he can put himself in medal contention.

“I’m really happy – I felt good in the warm-up and good when I came out on the track. I’m glad I set my stall down in the first round. Usually the last section is the best part of my race, I just accelerated down the home straight and it was enough to take the victory.

“I’ll hopefully PB again and win the semi-final . I’m in great shape, so I’m hoping to compete for a medal. I’d like to run sub-21 seconds and hopefully I can pull that out in the semi-final and then again in the final.”

Running in lane one, Shannon Hylton (John Blackie) showed an immense amount of strength as she cruised through her first round of the 200m in 23.58 – the second fastest qualifier through to the semi-final. Hylton, who was just 0.04 off her personal best admitted that she felt comfortable during her race, but has now got her sights set on going even faster.

“I saw from the lane draw that I was in lane one and I’d see everyone else, but I just had to run my own race. The bend was quite sharp but I didn’t let that worry me.

“I am quite happy with the time because I knew I had to go out hard at the bend because my aim is always to be in front after that point. I was strolling down the home straight and felt good. I hope to qualify from the semi-final, run a better time and I’d love to PB here."

Both Harry Coppell (John Mitchell) and Adam Hague (Trevor Fox) secured the automatic qualification standard in the men’s pole vault, with Coppell only needing one jump and Hague four to advance to the final.

“I usually come in at 4.85m, and although the conditions weren’t the best, I knew that as long as I got that jump I’d be fine,” said Coppell.

“I’ll probably come in at the same height in the final and I’m probably going to have to do all the heights because it’s going to be particularly close with a few of the top ranked guys. If I could medal with 5.20m, I’d be really happy and that’s probably realistic.”

Hague added: “I feel really good that I’ve made the final, so I’m really pleased with it all. I came in safe to make sure I didn’t no height and then worked my way up to the automatic qualifying height.

I need to make a few adjustments to my run-up for the final and maybe move back to stronger poles and take it from there really. If I take off from stronger poles, I can go for bigger heights.”