Harris claims Midlands Counties’ title and moves up to second in the UK rankings

CITY of Plymouth’s Sammie Harris won gold in the women’s under-20 100m hurdles at the Midlands Counties’ Championships and in doing so moved up to second in the UK rankings.

She also picked up a silver medal in the long jump with a season’s best performance.

Harris was in dominant form in the hurdles, clocking a legal time of 13.93 seconds to take victory ahead of Birchfield’s Anya Bates and Cannock’s Amy Pye.

The Plymouth athlete had twice run under 14 seconds before, including a 13.91 second effort on her debut over the distance, however, on both those occasions the wind had been over the legal limit.

But conditions were perfect at Nuneaton for her and her time has moved her up to second in the rankings behind Andover international Holly Mills.

Her run at the weekend will give her a massive confidence boost ahead of the England Under-20 Championships in Bedford this month, which will be acting as European trials.

In the long jump at Nuneaton, Harris jumped 5.69m to take silver behind new BUCS champion and last year’s English Schools’ senior champion Josie Oliarmyk.