CITY of Plymouth’s Annabelle Fasuba claimed a sprint double at the English Athletics U17 & U15 Age Group Championships in Birmingham over the weekend.
Fasuba won both the under-15 girls’ 100m and 200m titles at the top event for junior athletes.
There was also a medal for Tavistock AC’s Caleb Gifford-Groves in the under-17 boys’ 800m.
But it was Fasuba who stole the show at the Alexander Stadium with her two gold medals and a championship record.
The 14-year-old retained her 100m title in sensational style by running 11.73 seconds to take gold and break the previous record.
Araya Williams took second place in 11.85 seconds, with Honor Oteng third in 12.02 seconds.
Fasuba then came back on the Sunday to win the 200m – a distance where she had finished third last season.
But this year it has become her main event and she had won the English Schools’ title over that distance last month and equalled Katharine Merry’s British record of 23.72 seconds.
She did not quite have to run that fast to take gold on Sunday, winning in 24.05 seconds, with Williams taking silver again in 24.23 seconds and Joy Larinde third in 24.93 seconds.
Afterwards Fasuba said: “I’m really pleased with that. I think everything went well and my reactions were really good.”
He sealed automatic qualification for the final with a 1:58.63 heat race.
The final proved to be a tactical event with all the athletes running a slow opening lap before burning it up over the final 400m and Gifford-Groves was able to hang on to take third in 1:59.85. Tynedale’s Magnus Riddell, a 1:50 runner, won in 1:58.22, with Burton’s Henry Hemmings second in 1:58.84.
Gifford-Groves’ Tavistock middle-distance team-mate Freddie Whybrow finished ninth in the under-15 boys’ 1,500m in a time of 4:23.02.
Erme Valley Harriers’ Isabella Trowell also claimed a ninth-place finish. That came in the under-17 girls’ heptathlon, where she set a new PB of 4,123 points.
Trowell ran 12.72 seconds in the 80m hurdles, which was a PB, then equalled her high jump PB of1.44m and then setting a new best of 9.55m in the shot. She closed the first day with a 27.73 second run in the 200m.
On the second day, Trowell leaped 4.93m in the long jump, threw a PB of 29.47m in the javelin and then ran 2:29.33 in the 800m.
Tavistock’s Evie Palmer came 10th in the under-17 girls’ javelin with 33.13m, while Charlotte Doney came 10th in the under-17 girls’ discus with 30.02m.
In the under-17 girls’ hammer, Isabelle Doney threw 40.44m to finish 11th, while her sister Charlotte came 16th with 37.68m.