New British record at Age Group Combined Events
The EIS in Sheffield welcomed the under 17 men and women to compete in the 2017 England Athletics indoor combined events championships.
The men competed in the first day of their heptathlon and 49 women took on a one day pentathlon which culminated in a new British Record for Pippa Earley (Club: Kingston AC & Poly Harriers, Coach: John Shepherd).
Under 17 women's pentathlon
With four pools in the field events and 8 races for each track event this was a packed day for athletes and officials. But the excitement held throughout and the audience were rewarded with witnessing a new British record!
With four athletes of the 47 going sub-nine seconds in the first 60m hurdles event, Pippa Earley, Grace Morgan (Club: Cardiff Archers, Coach: Nigel Lewis, Venus Morgan (Club: Kingston Upon Hull AC, Coach:Bob Schofield) and Kiera Bainsfair (Club: Basildon AC, Coach: Bob Corbett) had a great start to their day. The high jump then saw a big change in the leaders, with Amaya Scott (Club: Southampton AC, Coach: Andy Fisher) moving from 13th to 1st position after clearing 1.70m in the high jump - not a best for her but well above most of her contemporaries and enough to move her up to 3rd in the national high jump rankings. Danielle Hopkins (Club: Worcester AC, Coach: Deidre Elmhirst) and Mia Chantree (Club: Chelmsford AC, Coach: Steve Mitchell) each cleared 1.67 and moved up to 3rd and 7th respectively in this competition.
The shot put saw Amaya hold onto her lead with a 13m+ put but Pippa Earley was just 9 points behind In the event and in second overall going into the long jump where she finally gained more cumulative points than Amaya. Indeed all three of her jumps were further than anyone else's; it was now a possibility that Pippa could break the British Record as she only needed 2:25 in the final event - well within her 800m capability. And she proved her ability at the event - with a time of 2.18.52 - six seconds ahead of the rest of her race to take her final score to a record breaking 3,952.
Amaya Scott just hung on for silver and went to 6th on the All Time list. Kiera Bainsfair ran a great first 800m of her season and the time of 2:24.78 pulled her up to earn a bronze medal. Jess Hopkins (Club: Chelmsford AC, Coach: Steve Mitchell) was just behind her overall with a solid day of performances and took 4th.
Click here for full overall and individual results
Under 17 men's heptathlon
In the men's U17 heptathlon, it was a blistering start for Theo Adesina (Club: Thurrock Harriers, Coach: Karl Sumun) in the 60m with the fastest time of the day and 0.11 seconds off his previous PB. This set him up well for the long jump where he leapt 6.73m in the first round, showing he meant business once more. This was the second furthest jump in the UK this year, but after Theo passed his second attempt, Joel McFarlane (Club: Arbroath & District AC, Coach: Ian McFarlane) came back with a tremendous 6.90m. jump. It was some long jump competition shaping up, Not to be outdone, Theo responded with 6.91m to win this nailbiting event and hold onto his lead. Harri Wheeler Sexton (Club: Cardiff AAC, Coach: Steve Boyles/Fran Baker) came a very creditable 3rd with a new PB of 6.45m.
In the shot put, Evan Campbell (Club: Jersey Spartan AC, Coach: Karen Le Mottee) wasted no time in making his mark with a massive Personal Best of 13.46m and no one could match that distance. This moved him up from 10th position to 5th in the overall competition and spurred on, he also cleared 6cm over his previous PB in the high jump to finish in bronze medal position at the end of day 1.
Joel McFarlane gained 1.6m in the shot put over Theo which proved vital in the points situation. Joel also matched his high jump PB from last week's Scottish National Combined Events championships (which he won) to consolidate his lead at the end of Day 1.
Just outside the current medal positions - Robbie Farquhar (Club: Aberdeen AAC, Coach: Kenny Lyon), Cameron Darkin-Price (Club: Charnwood AC), and Harri Wheeler Sexton are separated by less than 30 points. Tomorrow should pr ove just as exciting as today!
Click here for Day 1 overall and individual results
Click here for Day 2 report and results
Photo by David Griffiths.