SOME of the region’s top young athletes made their mark at the England Athletics Championships at the weekend in Birmingham, which were doubling up as the British Athletics Under-20 European trials.
City of Plymouth’s Ethan Glyde/Skidmore won the silver medal in the under-20 high jump.
The Commonwealth Youth Games champion leaped 2.06m in a competition where just he and champion Otis Poole jumped over two metres.
Tavistock’s Phoebe Milburn came fourth overall and second English athlete in the under-20 hammer throw. Milburn threw a season’s best effort of 49.80m to win the English silver medal. Her team-mate Louisa Hess was 16th overall in the same event with 38.40m.
City of Plymouth’s Rory Summers claimed an English bronze medal and he came fifth overall in a strong under-20 men’s 400m event, where he had to negotiate three rounds.
Summers showed consistent form through the rounds, clocking 49.06 in the heats, 49.04 in the semis and 49.14 in the final.
His club team-mate Nicolas Maczugowski was also fifth in the under-20 men’s 400m hurdles with a time of 54.40 seconds.
Fellow City of Plymouth athlete Adam Dingley set a new PB to reach the final of the under-20 110m hurdles. He clocked 14.14 seconds in the heats before finishing seventh in an incredibly fast final, which saw the top three all PB and run under 13.60 seconds.
In the senior men’s 110m hurdles, Henry Curtis equalled his PB of 14.87 seconds, but just missed out on the final.
Tavistock athlete Joely Bytheway ran 63.18 seconds in the heats of the senior women’s 400m hurdles, while City of Plymouth’s Joshua Blake clocked 1:54.57 in the heats of the men’s 800m.
In the senior men’s 400m, City of Plymouth’s Jacob Lamboll reached the semi-finals, where he ran 48.74 seconds, but he missed out on the final, while club colleague Tyler Johnson ran 50.05 in the heats.
Many of the region’s top athletes will again be in action this coming weekend at the UK Championships, which are also in Birmingham.
Meanwhile, a bit further afield, Tavistock Run Project’s Oliver Smart reached the final of the men’s 5000m at the World University Games in Bocham, Germany.
Smart eased his way into the final with a comfortable 14:10.95 run, which was well inside his PB of 13:45.18.
However, the final proved to be a real tactical affair and came down to a late burn up with the top 14 all separated by just over four seconds.
France’s Arthur Gervais won in 15:02.00, with Great Britain’s David Mullarkey second in 15:02.39 and Smart was 14th in 15:06.37.
At the BMC Meeting at Exeter on Tuesday evening, City of Plymouth runner Lewis Cotterill won the 800m in 1:52.19, while there was a host of PBs in the 1,500m.
Plymouth Harriers’ Jack Dee went under the four-minute barrier for the metric mile for the first time, clocking 3:56.07 in a quick men’s A race.
There was also a PB for City of Plymouth under-15 athlete Finley Eales, who ran 4:28.93. Another PB went to his younger club colleague Lucas Sweeney, who was first under-13 with a 4:48.92 run, while fellow City of Plymouth athlete Holly Reed ran a season’s best time of 4:44.62.