GREAT Britain internationals Will Battershill and Poppy Tank claimed notable wins at high-profile events last weekend.
Battershill set a world lead in the rarely run one-mile steeplechase event at the Bannister Miles in Oxford.
The former Ivybridge Community College pupil and Erme Valley Harriers’ athlete ran a speedy 4:20.40 to beat his international team rival Mark Pearce to victory.
That time was more than five seconds quicker than when he last run the one-mile steeplechase event at the same competition two years ago.
Battershill has his eyes on trying to represent Great Britain at the European Championships in Birmingham.
“The time I need is sub 8:20 and I’ve never done that in my career, but it’s about time I just go and do it,” said Battershill, whose PB is 8:21.83.
“I’ve known I can do it for a couple of years, but it is just about getting it done now.”
In the same steeplechase race on Monday, Plymouth Harriers’ Jack Dee finished fourth in 4:50.86.
Tank, meanwhile, claimed victory at the Ipswich Twilight 5k race in a new personal best time of 15.37 minutes.
She held off the challenge of fellow Great Britain cross country international Amelia Quirk for the win.
Tank, who is training for the 10,000m, described her PB as ‘unexpected’.
She added: “I’ve always preferred pure racing over time trialling and am a believer that times often come when you focus on competing, which I love.”
A number of Plymouth area athletes were competing for their universities over the bank holiday weekend at the BUCS Championships in Cardiff.
Rory Summers and Ethan Glyde, both representing Loughborough University, return with medals.
Summers was part of his university’s gold medal winning 4x400m relay team.
He did just miss out on reaching the individual 400m final. He finished third in his semi-final in 48.98 seconds, but it just was not quite enough to make a strong final.
Glyde, who has swapped America for Loughborough, took silver in the men’s high jump with a height of 2.06m.
Nicolas Maczugowski, who is a student in Coventry, reached the final of the men’s 400m hurdles. He clocked 54.39 seconds in his heat and then finished fifth in the final in a time of 54.59 seconds.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, Hanna Ulvede ran 64.45 seconds.
Fellow City of Plymouth athlete Joshua Blake, competing for Marjon, was the fastest qualifier in the men’s 800m heats with a speedy 1:51.86, which was just 0.01 of a second of his PB.
However, he could not quite repeat that time in the semi-finals, running 1:53.90, which was not quite enough to make it into a high-quality final.
Tavistock’s Phoebe Milburn finished seventh in the women’s hammer throw with 47.36m. She was the highest performing under-20 athlete in the final.
Plymouth’s Kinga Kudzia, representing Cardiff Met, clocked 12.19 seconds to rank eighth in the heats of the women’s 100m. She did run slightly quicker in the semis, clocking 12.18 seconds, but it was not enough to make the final.
Erme Valley Harriers’ Matthew Gilvear ran 15.24.24 to finish 15th in his heat of the men’s 5,000m.
There were some impressive performances from Armada athletes at the opening South West League meeting of the season at Exeter on Sunday.
Tavistock’s Thomas Hennessey smashed his PB and moved to third in the under-16 boys’ 1,500m UK rankings with a winning time of 4:10.31.
There was an equally good under-16 girls’ 1,500m where North Devon’s Isla Bater and City of Plymouth’s Elsie Goodspeed continued their good rivalry.
A few days earlier at the same venue the pair had run 2:09.15 and 2:13.14 to finish first and second in the 800m at the BMC meeting.
Bater again gained victory on Sunday, clocking a UK top-four time of 4:32.71, with Goodspeed smashing her PB by more than eight seconds to run 4:45.14, which ranks her 21st in the UK.
Another City of Plymouth athlete, Lucas Sweeney, also impressed over the 1,500m. He won the under-14 boys’ event in 4:44.95.
Tavistock’s Tegan Brown set a new season’s best by one centimetre to win the under-18 girls’ hammer with a throw of 57.51m, which keeps her in the country’s top three.
City of Plymouth’s Emily Bee opened her outdoor season in impressive fashion by clocking 13.98 seconds to win the women’s 100m hurdles.
Rory Price also triumphed over the barriers in the under-16 boys’ 100m hurdles in 15.49 seconds.
In the 100m flat races, there were victories for Millie Easton in the under-12 girls’ competition with a 13.82 second run; Daisy Wrigley in the under-14 girls’ event with 13.29 seconds; Temi Akinbami in the under-16 girls’ race in 12.85 seconds and Joe Wake in the under-18 boys’ age group with an 11.44 second run.
Jade Kinsey took top honours in the senior women’s 400m in 59.12 seconds and also ran 26.16 seconds to take second in the 200m.
Joe Bacon triumphed in the men’s 400m in 49.77 seconds, Charlotte Doney won the under-18 girls’ high jump and Katelyn Milburn took victory in the women’s triple jump.
In the under-12 girls’ age group, Evie Bolt won both the 800m and the long jump, while Shara Ingleby threw 7.66m to win the shot.
Full results can be found HERE.