CITY of Plymouth’s David King claimed a podium finish and his club colleague Poppy Tank set a new PB at the IFAM Outdoor Meeting in Belgium on Sunday.
There was also another solid performance from Will Battershill, while Henry Curtis earned some international experience at the World Tour Bronze event.
King showed great consistency to run 13.53 seconds in both the heats and the final of the men’s 110m hurdles.
He was just beaten by home athletes Michael Obasuyi and Elie Bacari for the title, but he did finish ahead of 2016 Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega.
His City of Plymouth team-mate Curtis came fifth in his 110m hurdles heat in a time of 15.30 seconds. Youngster Curtis also ran the 100m, clocking 11.23 seconds.
British champion Tank smashed her 3,000m steeplechase PB by seven seconds as she finished 11th in a 27-strong heat.
Tank clocked 9:53.05 minutes to go under 10 minutes for the first time, which moves her up to 21st in the UK all-time rankings and up to fourth in this year’s list.
“Glad to be making progress,” she said afterwards. “A long way off what I know I’m going to run by the end of the season, but I’m proud of myself for continuing to show up.”
Fellow British steeplechase champion Battershill enjoyed a good battle with his Great Britain rivals Mark Pearce and Phil Norman in the men’s race.
Pearce took the race win in 8:20.83, with Battershill finishing seventh in 8:25.33 and fellow Devonian Norman taking eighth in 8:25.37.
All three athletes and Zac Seddon have the European Championship qualifying time, but there are only three places up for grabs in the Great Britain team.
Meanwhile, City of Plymouth youngster Adam Dingley lowered his under-18 110m hurdles PB with 13.73 second run at the Bruce Longden Coaching Foundation Hurdles Festival at Chelmsford at the weekend.
Dingley finished second and clocked 13.94 seconds in his first run, before claiming victory in round two with his 13.73 second effort, which keeps him ranked inside Europe’s top five in the under-18 age group.
His club team-mate Nicolas Maczugowski and Poppy Northcott also competed at the Essex hurdles event.
Maczugowski continued his consistent season by clocking 54.31 seconds to take second in the under-20 400m hurdles. That was his second fastest run over the distance.
Northcott, meanwhile, came fifth overall and fourth in her heat of the women’s under-20 400m hurdles in 66.66 second.
Full round-up and pictures of the Devon Open Meeting at Brickfields to follow.