PLYMOUTH’S Annabelle Fasuba set two new records on her way to double success at the South West Schools’ Track & Field Championships at Exeter on Saturday.
The two-times English Schools’ champion broke the 100m and 200m championship records in the intermediate girls’ category.
Representing Devon, she clocked 11.68 seconds in the final to take gold in the 100m event before running another legal season’s best time of 23.95 seconds to win the 200m event.
Her 200m time has extended her lead at the top of the under-16 UK rankings in an event she will compete in at the English Schools’ Championships next month.
There were also titles at Exeter for Tavistock throwers Charlotte Pestridge, Hazel Stead, Isabelle Doney, Tegan Brown and George Brown, as well as middle distance star Freddie Whybrow and Erme Valley’s multi-eventer Isabella Trowell.
Last year’s English Schools’ intermediate girls’ hammer champion Tegan Brown (Tavistock College) won the South West senior girls’ 4kg title on Saturday with a throw of 47.53m.
Devon and Tavistock College’s Stead, who won an English Schools’ title in 2024, claimed a comprehensive victory in the intermediate girls’ 3kg category at the weekend with a throw of 52.81m. She also won a bronze in the discus.
The intermediate discus was won by Tavistock AC’s Isabelle Doney, representing Cornwall, who threw 30.00m.
Tavistock’s George Brown took victory in the intermediate hammer event with 46.07m, while club colleague Pestridge (DHSG) convincingly won the junior girls’ title with a throw of 36.73m.
Club colleague Whybrow (Mount Kelly) powered to gold in the intermediate boys’ 1,500m with a PB time of 4:02.47 minutes. His Tavistock AC team-mate Thomas Hennessey (Tavistock College) claimed the bronze medal in 4:12.54.
Erme Valley Harriers’ Trowell was first under-18 in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:10.23. She also took a silver medal in the 100m hurdles in 15.51 seconds.
City of Plymouth’s Robyn Summers was second under-18 in the 400m hurdles with 1:12.89.
There were also silver medals at the championships for Nelly Harvey, Elsie Goodspeed, Nia Harradine-Cole, Charlotte Doney, Tilly Day, Eldon Young and Josh Bloxham.
Harvey (City of Plymouth AC and Ivybridge College) came second in the junior girls’ 300m in a PB time of 42.33 seconds.
Goodspeed (City of Plymouth AC and DHSG) also set a new PB in the intermediate girls’ 800m, clocking a quick 2:12.47 as she enjoyed a good battle for the title with Dorset’s Jemima Chetwood.
City of Plymouth’s Harradine-Cole claimed silver in the senior girls’ 400m in 57.25 seconds, while club colleague Bloxham secured the same colour medal in the boys’ one lap event in 50.53 seconds.
Tavistock AC’s Charlotte Doney, representing Cornwall, was second in the senior girls’ discus with 35.55m.
City of Plymouth’s Day claimed silver in the under-14 girls’ 75m hurdles in 13.45 seconds, with Tavistock AC’s Young finishing second in the intermediate boys’ 3,000m in 9:18.35.
Another Tavistock middle distance athlete, Luke Scott-Tucker (Mount Kelly) won bronze in a top-class intermediate boys’ 1,500m steeplechase, where the top four athletes all ran the English Schools’ standard and made the UK’s top five.
Scott-Tucker clocked 4:35.95 minutes in a race won by Somerset’s Owen Gagg in 4:32.60.
There was also a bronze medal for City of Plymouth sprinter David Oldfield (PHS), who took third place in the senior boys’ 200m. He clocked 22.40 seconds in the heats and 22.53 seconds in the final. He also came fourth in the 100m in 11.12 seconds.
Both Devon and Cornwall have named their teams for next month’s English Schools’ Championships in Birmingham.
The Devon team includes Nelly Harvey, Charlotte Pestridge, Annabelle Fasuba, Temi Akinbami, Elsie Goodspeed, Hazel Stead, Nia Harradine-Cole, Evie Palmer, Tegan Brown, Isabella Trowell, Freddie Whybrow, Thomas Hennessey, Luke Scott-Tucker, Oscar Mytton and David Oldfield, while Charlotte and Isabelle Doney have been named in the Cornwall team.
Meanwhile, former English Schools’ champion Will Battershill won another medal at the UK Championships at the weekend.
The former Ivybridge Community College pupil and Erme Valley Harrier came second in a strong 3,000m steeplechase final in a season’s best time of 8:22.97.
He was just beaten by Shaftesbury’s Imroth Kristian, who broke the championship record with a 8:18.97.
Frustratingly for Battershill his time on Sunday was just outside the qualifying mark for the European Championships and Commonwealth Games, although he does still have a couple of weeks to try and achieve the European time.
In the discus event at the UK Championships, City of Plymouth’s Nubia Evans-Shields finished sixth with a throw of 46.39m.
Evans-Shields has thrown 51.56m this season in America, which ranks her fifth in the country and second under-23 athlete.
Elsewhere at the championships in Birmingham, Tavistock athlete Joely Bytheway, competing for Thames Valley, came 17th in the heats on the 400m hurdles with a PB time of 1:02.14, while Nicolas Maczugowski finished 18th in the heats of the men’s 400m hurdles with a time of 53.43 seconds and City of Plymouth’s Kinga Kudzia was 21st in the women’s 100m with 11.84 seconds.
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