ERME Valley Harriers athlete Will Battershill narrowly missed out on a personal best for the 3,000 metres at the City of Plymouth Evening Open Meet.
The 17-year-old, who is the UK’s top ranked under-20 at the 2,000m steeplechase, clocked eight minutes and 50.8 seconds for the seven-and-a-half lap event at Brickfields.
That was less than two tenths of a second off his previous best mark set last season.
Battershill has achieved the steeplechase qualifying time for this summer’s IAAF World Youth Championships in South America, but he will not find out until the end of this month if Great Britain will select him.
Fellow Erme Valley junior distance runner Owen Parkin did set a new personal best in the 5,000m on Wednesday night.
He clocked a time of 16.59.4 to finish second overall – first under-20 – behind team-mate Alistair Bristow, who came home in 16.37.5.
Parkin’s time has moved him up the UK’s under-17 rankings, with only 31 athletes in that age group so far clocking under 17 minutes.
Other impressive performance from Erme Valley athletes came from Olivia Travers in the under-13 girls’ 800m (2:48.2), Nathan Brown in the under-17 boys’ 800m (2:02.4), Brandon Whitford in the under-11 boys’ long jump (4.09 metres) and Will Bedford in the under-15 boys’ high jump (1.62m).
There was a dominant display from City of Plymouth’s under-15 javelin thrower Emma Liardet. The youngster was miles ahead of anyone else with a throw of 31.92m.
Team-mate Emily Bee also impressed with the under-15 girls’ long jump with a leap of 4.94 metres.
Once again there was an impressive turnout from under-eight (panthers) and under-11 athletes at Brickfields.
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