England U17/U15 Championships, Combined Events, Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, 15 & 16 August

While Jessica Ennis was winning her first global title in Berlin, Germany at the IAAF World Championships, our next generation of aspirants were competing at the same time in Birmingham in the national age-group championships.

U17 Women Heptathlon
Becky Curtis-Harris (Basingstoke & Mid Hants) took the title with 4600 points to lead the Pof10 rankings with Katy Marchant (Leeds City) taking the silver medal with a new pb of 4541 points which puts her second on the rankings. The bronze medal went to Eleanor Workman (Banchory Stonehaven) 4390 points. 

U17 Men Decathlon
Michael Downe (Arbroath) claimed the gold medal with 6420 points from Deo Milandu (City of Stoke) 6278 points and Joseph Hutchinson (Team Bath) 6148 points. 

U15 Girls Pentathlon
Hayley McLean (Chelmsford AC) claimed the title with 3143 points which was just short of her pb. The silver medal went to Hannah Dunderdale (Lincoln Wellington) 2975 points which added 117 points to her pb and the bronze medal was claimed by Nikita Campbell-Smith (Birchfield) 2969 points who added 43 points to her pb.

U15 Boys Pentathlon
Feron Sayers (Wolverhampton & Bilston) won the title with 3024 points to go top of the Pof10 rankings. Jacob Paul (Epsom & Ewell) claimed the silver medal with 2930 points which was a mere 23 points short of his pb. The bronze medal went to Joshua Olawore (Havering Mayesbrook) 2757 points who added 186 points to his lifetime best.

New York City Half Marathon, Central Park, New York, USA, 16 August
Paula Radcliffe returned to racing to test her fitness for the World Championships marathon in a week’s time. In an unusual step she scored a good victory in a time of 69:45 which was just two seconds outside the course-record and finished ahead of a quality field with Mimutu Danska, Ethiopia taking the runners-up spot and Catherine Ndereba, Kenya finishing in third. Radcliffe will now decide over the next few days if she will actually be on the start-line in Berlin. She said: "I guess I see how I recover over the next few days, it’s a bit tough, but I would say it was more likely than it was last week. I will be flying to Germany this evening and I feel this race will have done me good to go out and run competitively again, but I have to decide if I have the required strength to go out in Berlin and compete against a high quality field.”

British Milers Club Nike Grand Prix Final, Cardiff
Victories in personal best times in both the 800m A races were the highlights of the BMC Nike Grand Prix Final in Cardiff on Saturday. Claire Gibson (Kilbarchan) held off GB & NI international Hannah England (Oxford City) to win the women’s race by 0.33secs in 2:01.34 to cap a fine, progressive year.

Andrew Osagie (Harrow AC) won the men’s race in 1:47.15, overcoming Darren St Clair (Enfield & Haringey) who set a searing early pace. Other highlights included an exciting men’s 1500m A race won by Australia’s Nick Bromley who just overcame the front running Nick McCormick to win in 3:41.15 and a PB from former world cross country champion Benita Johnson (Australia) in winning the women’s 500m in 16:24.20.