WILL BATTERSHILL and David King both won medals at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester at the weekend, which were doubling up as the Olympic trials.
Former Ivybridge Community College pupil Battershill, a product of Erme Valley Harriers, ran a personal best time of 8:21.83 to finish second in the fastest-ever 3,000m steeplechase the championships had ever seen.
Battershill, who had won the title last year, was one of four British athletes attempting to achieve the tough Olympic qualifying standard.
He, fellow Devonian Phil Norman, Zac Seddon and Mark Pearce all teamed up to work together to make sure the race was fast and given them all a chance of reaching Paris.
And, despite poor weather, it so nearly worked as North Devon’s Norman took victory in 8:18.65, which was agonisingly just 0.15 of a second off the UKA Athletic’s Olympic B standard.
That was the quickest run by a British athlete for more than 30 years.
Battershill’s time of 8:21.83, which moves him up to 11th in the UK all-time list, was also inside the previous championships best and stadium record.
Third place went to Seddon, who was nearly six seconds behind Battershill in 8:27.32.
City of Plymouth athlete King, who has won three previous British outdoor titles, took bronze in a competitive 110m hurdles final in Manchester.
King, who recently ran 13.45 seconds in Finland, beat his big rival Tade Ojora, but was edged out by Blackheath’s Daniel Goriola and Basildon’s Sam Bennett.
Goriola won in a PB time of 13.55 seconds, with Bennett’s second in 13.56 and King third in 13.65.
King, who did make the last Olympic Games, had won his heat where he found himself lining up next to fellow City of Plymouth product Henry Curtis, who ran 15.03 seconds. Another Devon youngster, Joshua Taylor, also competed in the 110m hurdles. He clocked 14.54 seconds on his senior debut at the event.
City of Plymouth’s 2023 British champion Poppy Tank ran her second fastest time of her 3,000m steeplechase career, but she had to settle for sixth place in a highly-competitive race where six runners went under 10 minutes.
In terrible weather, Tank clocked 9:58.45, which was more than four seconds quicker than she had run the year before to win the title.
The race was won by Elizabeth Bird in a championship record time of 9:29.67 as she booked her place at the Olympic Games.
City of Plymouth youngsters Nubia Evans-Shields and Hanna Ulvede both gained valuable experience at the championships.
Evans-Shields, just 17 and making her debut at the championships, came 11th in the women’s discus event, which was hit by wet weather, while Ulvede finished sixth in her heat of the women’s 400m hurdles with a 61.77 second run.
Meanwhile, Cornwall’s Molly Caudery booked her place at the Olympic Games by winning the pole vault with 4.83m, which came just a week after she broke the British record and set a world-lead height of 4.92m.
Fellow Cornish athlete Patrick Swan was also a medallist. He took silver in the men’s shot with 17.83m.
Exeter’s Finley McLear secured bronze in the men’s 800m which saw British stars Josh Kerr and Elliot Giles fall in the closing stages.
Fellow Exeter athlete Innes Fitzgerald clocked a PB time of 15:26.76 to finish ninth in the women’s 3,000m, which was more than 30 seconds inside the UKA World Junior Championships qualifying standard.