PLYMOUTH sprinter Annabelle Fasuba claimed a third successive individual English Schools’ Track & Field title on Saturday as she won the intermediate girls’ 200m in Birmingham.
Fasuba, who had previously won the junior girls’ 100m and 200m titles, also helped Devon to mixed relay gold for a second year running at the Alexander Stadium at the weekend.
The 15-year-old Coombe Dean pupil clocked 23.98 seconds into a head wind to claim victory in the final, having eased through the heats with a 24.52 second run.
Also picking up further English Schools’ medals were Tavistock hammer throwers Hazel Stead and Tegan Brown.
Stead, who won the junior girls’ hammer title in 2024, claimed a silver medal this time around in the intermediate girls’ event with a throw of 52.34m.
The Tavistock College pupil could not have come closer to winning another title as she was just beaten by Kent’s Tilly Ryan by eight centimetres.
By finishing in the top two at intermediate level, both Fasuba and Stead are set to represent England Schools at the SIAB Track and Field Championships in Belfast this coming weekend.
Brown, who has won two English Schools’ titles at junior and intermediate level, claimed a bronze as a first-year in the senior girls’ event on Saturday.
The England junior international threw 50.72m in Birmingham to make the podium alongside North Yorkshire’s Ella McIntosh and Sussex’s Alice Howie.
Tavistock middle distance runner Freddie Whybrow (Mount Kelly) must have felt like one of the most unluckiest athletes in Birmingham after agonisingly missing out on the intermediate boys’ 1,500m final despite smashing his PB and running one of the quickest times in the UK this year.
Whybrow found himself in a stacked final heat where only the top four athletes reached the final, with no fastest loser spots.
But everyone in the last heat ran quicker than both the other two heats and just 0.51 of a second separated the top five.
On a photo finish Whybrow was deemed to have finished fifth, despite clocking 4:00.70, which was three seconds quicker than the final was won in.
Whybrow’s heat was won in 4:00.19, with the first heat won in 4:07.58 and the second heat run in 4:12.15.
Going into this weekend, only three under-16 boys had run quicker than Whybrow ran on Friday.
His Tavistock AC team-mate Thomas Hennessey (Tavistock College) also just missed out on making the final by finishing fifth in the slow tactical heat two with a 4:13.33 run.
But fellow Tavistock middle distance runner Luke Scott-Tucker (Mount Kelly) did reach the final of the intermediate boys’ 1,500m steeplechase final by running a big new PB. He clocked 4:26.78 to finish second in his heat before running 4:29.60 in the final, where he came seventh.
In the intermediate girls’ 800m, City of Plymouth’s Elsie Goodspeed (DHSG) was sixth in her heat in 2:13.61.
Club colleague David Oldfield (PHSG) ran a PB time of 10.93 to finish fourth in his heat of the senior boys’ 100m, while fellow PHSG and City of Plymouth athlete Temi Akinbami ran 26.30 seconds in the heats of the intermediate girls’ 200m.
Also on the track, Nelly Harvey (Ivybridge CC and City of Plymouth) ran 42.68 seconds in the heats of the junior girls’ 300m, while Tavistock College’s Oscar Mytton clocked 60.29 in the heats of the under-18 boys’ 400m hurdles and Erme Valley Harriers’ Isabella Trowell ran 66.75 seconds to finish fourth in the corresponding girls’ 400m hurdles event.]
Tavistock AC’s Evie Palmer (Mount Kelly) came 10th in the senior girls’ javelin with 35.28m, while representing Cornwall, Charlotte Doney came ninth in the senior girls’ discus with 32.31m and Isabelle Doney came 13th in the intermediate girls’ discus with 28.43m.
Meanwhile, Great Britain internationals Will Battershill and Poppy Tank were both in action over the weekend at the Watford Grand Prix.
Battershill was hoping to run the European Championships qualifying time of 8:20 minutes in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase but without any competition, he once again just missed the time, winning comfortably in 8:23.89.
He won the race by a massive 26 seconds, with Plymouth Harriers’ Jack Dee coming sixth with a new PB of 9:19.52.
Battershill, who came second and the recent UK Championships with a 8:22.97 run, will now be left hoping he can earn selection for Birmingham via the European ranking system.
“I am feeling gutted as this was the last chance for me to run the qualifying for the Euros,” said Battershill afterwards.
“Close again but I didn’t quite get there. Now I have to wait and see.”
Tank has already been selected to represent England in the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games this summer.
She warmed up for that event by running the 3,000m at Watford. She finished third in a new PB of 9:07.05.