TAVISTOCK AC hammer thrower Tegan Brown set a new personal best to claim the England Athletics’ U17 Championships title in Birmingham at the weekend.
Brown, in her first year at under-17 level, threw 52.61m to top the podium at the Alexander Stadium in a high-class competition where the top five throwers all topped the 50m-mark.
It was the second time in her young career that she has won a national event, having triumphed in last year’s English Schools’ Championships at the younger age group.
Also on the podium in Birmingham was City of Plymouth youngster Annabelle Fasuba.
The English Schools’ junior girls’ 100m champion, claimed medals in the under-15 100m and 200m.
She was third overall in both events, and second English-based athlete.
It was tough going for the young sprinters at the weekend as they had to take part in three races in a day for each event.
On the Saturday, Fasuba won both her 100m heat and semi-final, where she equalled her PB of 12.03 seconds, but in the final she just could not go quite as fast, clocking 12.15 seconds to finish behind Croydon’s Shivelle Marshall, who won in a speedy 11.97 seconds, and Cardiff’s Aliyah Afolabi, who ran 12.10 seconds. Both those athletes are a year older than Fasuba.
In the 200m on the Sunday, Fasuba got faster through the rounds before running 24.55 seconds in the final. Welsh international Afolabi took victory in that event with a 24.21 second run, with Middlesbrough’s Whitney Ofor second in 24.50 seconds. Those three were well ahead of the rest of the field and again Fasuba was the only first-year under-15 athlete on the podium.
English Schools’ junior girls’ hammer champion Hazel Stead of Tavistock AC finished fourth overall and third English athlete in the under-15 hammer event with a throw of 43.26m.
Also in the hammer at Birmingham, Tavistock’s Owen Fileman finished eighth in the under-17 boys’ event with 47.86m.
Club team-mate Caleb Gifford-Groves reached the final of the under-17 boys’ 800m. He clocked 1:58.12 minutes in the heats to book his spot in the showpiece event, where he finished eighth.
City of Plymouth’s Nia Harradine-Cole’s ran a PB of 41.48 seconds to reach the semi-finals of the under-17 300m.