16 February 2009

There were several encouraging performances at the Aviva England Athletics U20/U17 Championships in Birmingham at the weekend. In the sprints, Jack Meredith (Liverpool Harriers & AC) and Jodie Williams (Herts Phoenix) produced outstanding performances.

Meredith took the men’s U20 60m hurdles title in swift 7.76secs, setting a brand new Championship Best Performance in the process.  Williams won the U17 women’s 60m in a searing 7.53secs, just 0.02 shy of Sale Harriers’ Commonwealth Youth champion Shauna Thompson’s UK record set last year.

In the field, there was also some impressive stuff in the shot circle, with Shaunagh Brown (Blackheath & Bromley) winning the women’s U20 title with a new PB of 14.51m and in the men’s U20 event, Curtis Griffiths-Parker (Cambridge Harriers) won with a creditable 18.51m. 

Overseas, Jo Jackson’s new 5km record lasted less than a week as she improved a further 15 seconds of the new record she set in Brisbane last week of 21.01.24. Jackson moved British Women’s walking into new territory as she smashed through the 21 minute barrier in recording 20.46.58 to win the New South Wales Open at Olympic Park, Sydney. She was comfortably ahead of Cheryl Webb in second with  21.19.19.