National U/20 and U/23 Championships and World Junior Trials

At this weekend's National U/20 and U/23 Championships, which for the U/20 age group incorporated the trials for the World Junior Championships, there were gold medal winning performances for Ronnie Sparke and Anthony Oshodi.

U/20 Cross Country International, Ronnie Sparke, who after initially focussing on 5000m for this track season, but then adjusted his plans towards the 1500m, saw those plans bring just reward as he won the national U/20 1500m title on Sunday at Bedford.

 Ronnie clocked 3m50.38 secs, but despite his fine personal best at Watford last weekend of 3m46.6 secs, is still shy of the UKA selection guideline for the world championships of 3m44secs. Anthony Oshodi took the U/20 shot title with a distance of 17.39m, but like Ronnie, and despite his personal best at last weekend's Southern Championships of 18.68m, he too is shy of the section guideline of 19m.

There was also a silver medal, for Chris Linque, in the U/23 shot where he again edged his personal best forward with a distance of 14.38m for his 2nd place. Chris also placed 4th in the U/23 discus with 45.48m, behind Devon Douglas who in 3rd picked up a bronze medal with 45.83m. Peter Clarke, just missed a medal in the U/20 hammer, as he placed 4th with a season's best of 61.21m, whilst in the women's U/23 hammer, Sarah Smith was also 4th with 48.47m. Tom Richards was 8th in the U/20 javelin with 50.71m. However there was another medal in the Field, in the women's U/23 long jump, where Kim Murray recorded a leap of 5.93m (+1.3) for her 2nd place.

On the track, Junior Ejehu closed fast in the final of the U/20 100m as he placed 4th, in a personal best of 10.64 secs (+0.6), having recorded windy times of 10.59 secs (+3.6) and 10.61 secs (+5.1), in qualifying. The following day in the 200m, Junior just missed out on a spot in the final, as he placed 5th in his semi-final with 21.89 secs (+1.3) after a 21.57 secs w (+3.0) heat. Sam Watts, did, however qualify for the 200m final, placing 4th in his semi with 21.63 secs (0.0) but in so doing was forced to ease up over the last 10m to protect a tightened hamstring, and the subsequent medical advice prevented him from contesting the final. Over 400m in particularly windy conditions on the Saturday, Austin Joseph moved through to the semi-finals of the U/20 event with a 49.76 secs heat, but failed to qualify for the final, recording 50.80 secs in his semi-final. Paul Scanlan recorded 50.61 secs in his heat, but did not qualify, and on the Sunday placed 4th in his 200m heat with 22.35 secs w (+2.5), but missed out on a semi-final place. In the middle distance events, behind Ronnie Sparke in the U/20 1500m, Alex Cornwell placed 9th with 3m57.12 secs, and in the U/23 800m, Olie Heeks was 5th in 1m53.28 secs, whilst in the U/20 event, Omar Mansour recorded 1m57,57 secs in his heat, but did not progress.

There was a 400m U/20 gold medal for HCA member Nathan Wake with 47.37 secs, and another HCA member, Emily Moss was 7th in the U/23 400mH with 63.88 secs.

Full results here