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Some top class athletics in Loughborough took place at the weekend as athletes from teams representing England, Scotland, Wales Loughborough Students, and GB Juniors did battle on a sweltering Sunday.

The scorching conditions proved conducive to fast times in the sprints and the sun-soaked crowd were not let-down in the distance races either.  There were some scintillating performances on the track: One of the day’s highlights on the track was Jodie Williams’ gasp of disbelief as she crossed the finish line to complete the 200m in 22.79 – a PB and top of the UK U17 rankings.  That marked a fantastic series of 200m races with 8 top ten best times of 2010. It was an easy 400m win for Perri Shakes Drayton (fastest in UK this year) [pictured top].

The warm sunny conditions were perfect for spectators and athletes alike on sunday and produced two fine performances for England in the female middle distance races.  The first from Hannah England [pictured above] in the 800m where she produced an excellent surge down the home straight to win a hard fought race in the fastest time this year outside of 2.02.31 to beat Charlene Thomas on the line. 

Faye Fullerton [pictured right] , who did a podcast with us last week, had an equally hard fought win in 9.12.42  in the 3000m.  Jenny Harris, National Coach Mentor - Youth Development (Endurance) said, "Faye has recently recovered from achilles tendonitis, and was stepping down in distance from her recent 10km title and had only been on track for training 5 times before Sunday, so this made her win even more remarkable, and augers well for the Commonwealth Games."

The women's 100m lived up to expectations with Joice Maduaka dipping Turner on the line to win by three hundredths.  Joice made it a solid double to come 3rd in the 200m.  For the men England’s Rion Pierre clocked 10.but it was a good win by James Dassalou in 10.06.  In the sprint hurdles, the crowd was treated to performances by our top two heptathletes Jessica Ennis and Louise Hazel.  They stormed in for 1st (12.86) and 2nd with England’s Zarah Hohn clocking 13.50 for 3rd (1st in the match) in a very competitive race.  There was a great run by Rick Yates 51.08 for 2nd in the 400m Hurdles to Nathan Woodward’s 1st 50.90.  

One of the highlights on the field was the women’s high jump which took place right in front of the bulk of the crowd with Jess Ennis attempting a new British Record height of 1m96 but had to settle for 1m93.  She went on to compete in the javelin for her trio of the day.  It was a good win for Tom Parsons [pictured left] who cleared 2m24 to gain maximum points for England.


Nadia Williams won the women’s triple with 13m15 into a headwind in the 3rd round.  Laura Samuel (Coach: Glenys Morton) placed second with 12m73 although she has 13m32 to be ratified as a new UK junior record at Loughborough last month.  England’s Nick Thomas [pictured left] triple jumped 16m19 although Tosin Oke jumped a further 34cm as a guest to win.  Also guesting, Kola Adedoyin, coached by Frank Attoh, did a PB of 15m93 and qualified for World Juniors in Moncton.  John Crotty (coach to 4th placed Ben Williams and England Athletics NCM for LJ) commented, “It’s an encouraging return after many injuries for Phyllis Agbo (Coach: Darrell Bunn) recording 6m22; she goes to Gotzis this weekend with some confidence, at least in the long jump.”  The men’s event was a close contest with JJ Jegede (Coach: Michael Afflaka) and Matt Burton (Coach: Guy Spencer) both recording 7.59 (an outdoor season’s best for both), JJ winning on countback, both doing outdoor season’s bests.  England’s Ezekiel Ewulo was 8cm shy to come 3rd.

A very competitive Pole Vault competition littered with PBs saw Sally Scott (LSAC) breaking the British Junior record with her 4m10 jump only to have Holly Bleasdale continuing and making a 20cm improvement on her PB. She was jumping for the GB Juniors team on the day, but cleared the English Commonwealth Games qualifying height.  Steve Rippon - National Event Coach for Pole Vault - commented, “I hope both girls make the Commonwealth team with Kate Dennison.”  England’s Rachel Gibbons equalled her PB to jump 4m on her second attempt.  Luke Cutts jumped 5m20 to win the men’s event on countback and said he lost his rhythm waiting for the bar to go to 5m40. 

Throwing legend Bob Weir told us on the day that England hammer thrower Amir Williamson is in good shape so to expect a good throw from him – he threw just short of 68m.  Eden Francis threw 16.24 to win the women's shot and was second in the women's discus with 55.38.  There was a great javelin win for England's Matt Hunt with 71.52 – over a metre better than Scotland’s Campbell, and for England’s Katy Watts who won the women’s match.  England website blogger Zoë Derham (coach: Lorraine Shaw was 3rd in the hammer - with the top 3 all throwing 65m+.

The day was rounded off with the relays - the England 4x400m Relay team of Hannah Douglas, Ese Okoro, Kelley Massey, and Perri Shakes Drayton rounded off the women’s with a victory over the other teams,  and the men's 4x 100m relay team (Rion Pierre, James Ellington, Jeffrey Lawal-Balogun, Mark Lewis-Francis) finished the day with their win [Celebrating Mark pictured right].

Tim Newenham, England Athletics’ National Coach Mentor for Javelin said of the day, “It had a great team feel with people genuinely working together to give the athletes the best opportunity to really go out there, seize the opportunity and compete!”