19th September 2016

WEEKEND UPDATE

European Clubs Junior Championships, Castellón, Spain, 17-18 Sep

It was a great weekend on the continent for Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers and Blackheath & Bromley Harriers AC as they represented Great Britain at the European Clubs Junior Championships in Spain.

Shaftesbury won the right to contest the men’s competition, and they put in an excellent showing to win the men’s competition from the traditionally strong Fenerbache Sport Club from Turkey.

In the women’s event, Blackheath just fell short of emulating the men, as they finished second behind Fenerbache, still a terrific performance in what was the best showing by a British team pairing at the championships for 20 years.

As you’d expect, the British youngsters dominated the sprints, Charmont Webster-Tape (Lorna Boothe) winning the women’s 100m in 11.87 (+1.5m/s), whilst Maya Bruney (David Bruney) and Gerald Matthew (Jane Dixon) won the 200m events in 24.04 (2.1) and 21.78 (0.7) respectively.

Omar Parsons (George Harrison) and Katy-Ann McDonald (Phillip Kissi) did the double in the 800m, as did Isabella Hilditch (John Blackie) and Jacob Spence (James Hillier) in the sprint hurdles, the latter clocking a personal best of 14.25 into a 1.4m/s headwind.

In the field George Evans (Colin McCulloch) did the shot-discus double, whilst Holly Mills (James Coney) won the long jump with a 5.83m effort.

The final event of the meeting saw the 4x400m men’s relay team from Shaftesbury & Barnet need a first place finish to secure gold – a feat they achieved in dramatic style following a superb performance from the quartet of Jack Fitzpatrick, Niall Carney (Joe Caines), Omar Parsons (George Harrison) and Matthew Pagan (Daniel Gilroy), with the teams posting of 3:17.92 a new U20 record for the club. Although Fenerbahce initially claimed the win, the Turkish team were disqualified moments after the race had finished, meaning the British men took the title by seven points.

The first and second place finishes for the men’s and women’s teams respectively ensures that both have earned a spot at the A group competition in 2017.

Results: http://www.european-athletics.org/competitions/eccc-track-and-field-junior/history/year=2016/results/index.html

 

Dam tot Damloop, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 18 Sep

Jonny Mellor (Steve Vernon) continued his return to racing with a tenth place finish in this 10 mile road race in the Dutch capital, clocking 48.17 behind a string of Africans.

Results: http://results.sporthive.com/events/6181850543435022336/races/391869