Mike Strange reports on another weekend of Indoor Track & Field competition.
Müller Indoor Grand Prix, Birmingham
B&W had just one Athlete performing at this prestigious international event, our great Under 23 T46 Disability Athlete Simran Kaur. Running in her B&W vest, live on the BBC, in the mixed ambulant 60m race, Simran ran just short of her season’s best with an excellent time of 8.80 secs. Well done on such a prestigious stage Simran.
Växjö Indoor Throw competition, Sweden
A notable performance earlier in the week (12 Feb) was an ‘Indoor’ Javelin throw for Sophie Hamilton - yes indoors! U20 thrower Sophie, coached by Ken Holmes, was invited to throw as a GB Athlete in Vaxjo, Sweden and reacted to the new Indoor environment with a throw of 42.57m, and set an indoor club record for this rarely contested event. Congratulations Sophie.
South-west Junior Indoor Championships, Cardiff
In Cardiff for the re-arranged South-west age championships, B&W came away with a heap of medals and PB’s. It was great to see athletes and supporters together in the grandstands all fervently supporting each and every athlete.
Nyree Perry, U17, has been succeeding with good performances recently, just a smidge away from her dominating best. However, she broke through from 3.15m clearances to push through successive first time clearances up to 3.40m where she finally fouled out. Nyree’s gold medal triumph of 3.30m takes her back to third ranked in the UK and sets her up for a great season.
Ella Bowell, U17, has been absent from training since Christmas with illness so was delighted with her very good gold medal in the long jump, with a 5.34m leap. To prove her return to health Ella then dominated her 60m dash with an outstanding PB of 7.87s to improve her PB significantly and take gold again.
A fourth gold medal was won by young U13 thrower Leyna Garrett, who followed in her brother Owens footsteps a couple of weeks ago to take gold with a throw of 5.02m. Welcome to the fold Leyna, you will certainly be a major asset to the B&W Young Athletes team this year.
Following the successes of our field competitors, we move onto the magnificent hurdle squad.
Mayalee Osola was desolate last week at the National Championships where she hit the first hurdle and lay on the track as the other athletes ran on to glory. This week Mayalee ran a little more reservedly and was pipped on the line by a Welsh athlete, but she still took gold in the U17 60m hurdles South-west championships with a time of 9.06s - competition is back to normal for Mayalee. Mayalee was backed by team mate Tamara Jackson, who stormed to a significant PB with a 9.32s clocking to take the bronze. Like Mayalee, Tamara's run came after also being impeded by clipping a hurdle in the English championships, so a great return for both - what a difference a week makes.
Our Under 17 women’s hurdle authority was reinforced by two other prominent competitors. First Nyah Reuter stormed to a PB of 9.94s, then Rivie Baters matched that with another 9.94s PB clocking, this time against the big hitters in the ‘A’ race. I say PB but of course this is the first time either athlete has run this race so even better that they did so well.
In the U17 Men’s race at 60m hurdles new acquisition George Isgrove confirmed his emergence as a great prospect winning a silver medal just 1 hundredth of a second off his best set last week with an 8.66s clocking. George was contesting for the gold up to just over halfway but then lost impetus in the last metres to take the silver.
The Under 15 Boys race saw two of our emerging talents race against each other for the first time. Tommy Mattis-King, an athlete with a prestigious athletic parentage emerged the narrow victor and silver medallist with 10.32s time, beating young Dan Webb, who clocked 10.62s for his 60m hurdles debut. Good hurdling from both. Most of the hurdles athletes went on later in the afternoon to sprint at 60m, all doing well.
Ryan Brady (the only one not a hurdler) was supreme in his 60m dash winning clearly in 7.29s, a time that conforms to consistency as Ryan has now clocked 7.28s or 7.29s on six occasions this winter. Time for a breakthrough Ryan, but the gold award for winning was more than consolation for that consistency. George Isgrove took the bronze medal in this competition with a PB of 7.56s.
The 60m Under 15 Boys race proved to be a contest between ‘rookies’ Owen Garrett, Tommy Mattis-King and Dan Webb and although Welsh Athletics have not published this result, we believe the finishing order was as listed above.
Ella Bowell won the U17 age group with a formidable 7.87s clocking, and was closely followed by Tamara Jackson who missed her PB by two hundredths of a second to win her heat magnificently in 7.92s and take the silver medal. A pity the two were set in different races or they could have spurred both to even faster performances. In the medallists' wake Mayalee Osola clocked 8.23s, Rivie Bates 8.49s and Nyah Reuter 8.50s, all excellent times. The Under 15 competition saw Ruby Woodman race to an 8.49s PB clocking, just short of a medal.
Our lone distance runner, Under 13 800m athlete Mairi Carver-Brown won the 800m gold medal with a fine run of 2:37.91.
Over in the USA, Tia Jackson, who is currently suffering some injury set-backs, returned with a fine Long Jump performance when she cleared a close to her best 5.80m in Virginia Beach, VA. It’s good to see that Tia is back to competing and hopefully firing on all cylinders.
There was also the British Universities Championships this weekend at Sheffield and the 2022 City of Birmingham Games, but unfortunately results were not to hand before going to press. These events will be covered next week when we also have the British Championships at Birmingham.
Mike Strange 21/02/2022