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Under 17 indoor Heptathlon British Record smashed in Sheffield!

It was all change for Day 2 of the Under 17 men's indoor heptathlon.

With athletes' strengths and weaknesses dramatically changing the positions after day 2's sprint hurdles, pole vault and 1000m, it was an exciting spectacle in Sheffield.

Meanwhile, our Under 15 athletes were making their mark in the one day indoor pentathlon on Sunday.

Click here for Day 1 report

Under 17 Men's heptathlon

Freddie Reilly (Club: Stevenage and North Herts, Coach: Norma Harris) once again showed his sprinting speed in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.59 - just ahead of the overnight podium positioned athletes Theo Adesina (Club: Thurrock Harriers, Coach: Karl Sumun) and Philip Kastner (Club: Walton AC, Coach: Andrew Kennard), although overnight second Scott Brindley clocked the fasted race of the day with 8.49. The hurdles didn't really change the order of the top ten however, apart from Freddie jumping up three positions.

The technicalities of the pole vault however were a different story and big changes in the points order were made. U17 Scottish PV Champion Scott Brindley (Club: North Ayrshire Athletic Club, Coach: Mark Stringer) vaulted a new PB of 4m36 taking him to the top of the national rankings for that event, and to the top of the heptathlon scoreboard with one event to go. English U17 champion Dylan Baines (Club: Stevenage & North Herts AC, Coach: Norma Harris) moved from 11th to the bronze medal position after straight clearances all the way up to 4m26 and Pedro Gleadall (Club: Blackheath and Bromley Harriers AC, Coach: Neil Gleadall) finally made it to a podium position after a 4m16 clearance. Yesterday's leader throughout all the events and the morning's 60H Theo Adesina no heighted at the lowest starting height, putting the medals out of reach for him. Freddie vaulted sensibly but he couldn't close the gap enough, even knocking 8 seconds off his 1000m PB with 2:46.58.

Rory Howorth (Club: Team Bath Athletic Club, Coach: Julie Alexander) was lying in 5th after a 25cm improvement on his pole vault PB. Needing 525 points more than Scott to take gold it was Mission Impossible; however he stormed home in a new PB of 2.36.22 - over 16 seconds quicker than Stuart Bladon (Club: Team Kennet Triathlon & AC, Coach: Nicholas Bull) behind him - which rewarded him with the silver medal. Pedro Gleadall had built up enough of a points head to safely make it through to the bronze medal position.

It was a new British record in for the U17 indoor heptathlon, and the first time any Brit has gone over 5000 points. Showing the combined events athletes are moving from strength to strength, it was also the second year in a row that the CBP was bettered.

U17M Medallists

1 Scott Brindley (5,086 points)
2 Rory Howorth (4,738 points)
3 Pedro Gleadall (4,655 points)

Under 15 Girls' Pentathlon

The England Athletics indoor long jump champion, indoor high jump bronze medallist and 300m 6th all-time fastest Ella Rush (Club: Amber Valley and Erewash AC, Coach: Michael Baker) looked like a favourite for the indoor pentathlon title which had 52 athletes entered.

Ella was 4th fastest in the first event of the day, that being won by Birchfield's Sophia Deans (Club: Birchfield Harriers, Coach: Sharon Morris) in 9.38.. However, those points were soon pulled back with a 5m37 long jump in the first round. Only three other athletes broke the 5 metre barrier; Rhiana Burrell (Club: Birchfield Harriers, Coach: Pam Rayment) and Lucy Robinson (Club: Macclesfield Harriers & AC, Coach: Joe Frost) in Pool A, and Carys Poole (Club: Swansea Harriers, Coach: Steve Ingram) in Pool B. Carys therefore maintained her silver position after the first 2 events, Lucy moved up from 9th to 3rd, and Rhiana leapt a huge 10 places to sit in 7th while Sophia wasn't able to convert her hurdling speed into the horizontal jump distance.

Next up was the shot put; Erin Lobley's (Club: Hallamshire Harriers Sheffield, Coach: Paul Ttereve) win here with 11m66 brought the Scottish indoor pentathlon champion into contention with the second highest points at this stage of the competition. Rhiana and Katie Burr (Club: Victoria Park City of Glasgow, Coach: Iain Burr) both moved well up the rankings and into podium contention with shot puts of 10m81 and 10m64 respectively but Ella's long jump lead still kept her in top spot on points.

With the four high jump pools well-seeded on expected high jump performances, despite there being four pools of girls there was a good competition throughout. In Pool A which contained the top scorers every centimetre counted. Rhiana was the only one to clear 1m59 which closed the points difference between her, Ella and Erin, and took her further clear of Lucy and Katie who were snapping at her heels.

Race 9 saw the fastest time from Lucy Chalmers of 2.24.67 which moved her from 8th position to 5th overall. But it was race 10 which held the top 5 scorers and just 160 points separating them which would likely decide the medals. Those points represented a difference of 14 seconds. Well below her PB time set earlier this year, Ella was easily able to hold onto gold but behind her was the battle for the other podium places. Erin in 2nd position did not start and the other three competitors took the race right to the line. Rhiana, Katie and Lucy finished the 800m in that order, and the medals reflected the same order, Rhiana's overall score rose to 3223 to take silver and Lucy finished just three points behind Katie who snatched the bronze.

U15G Medallists

1 Ella Rush (3,346 points)
2 Rhiana Burrell (3,223 points)
3 Katie Burr (3,143 points)

Under 15 Boys' Pentathlon

Oliver D'Rozario (Club: Taunton AC, Coach: Steve Shaw / Adam Carrow) had a great day; despite missing out on the fastest 60m hurdles time of the day by one hundredth of a second to Joe Purbrick (Club: Huntingdonshire AC, Coach: Richard Phelan), he then went on to win the long jump by 20cm and those 42 points ensured he stayed on top after a huge PB of 9m87 in his last shot put attempt against Sammy Ball's (Club: Reading AC, Coach: Mike Dyer) 10m20 and Adam Farrow's (Club: Stratford Upon Avon AC, Coach: Paul Bearman) 10.42.

Adam then went on to challenge Oliver throughout the high jump with a more comfortable journey to his final 1m74 clearance; Oliver had taken three attempts on the two previous heights and totalled 20 attempts in total compared with Adam's 12. The high jump competition also brought out the best in Luke Ball (Club: Yate & District AC, Coach: Jeremy Dale) who cleared a PB height of 1m71 finishing just 25 points behind Adam before the 800m start.

Despite a PB in his hurdles at the start of the day, an exciting battle between the top six competitors in the final 800m race of the day wasn't quite enough to get Adam onto the podium following his first indoor pentathlon. In fact all 6 competitors in the race ran a time that was faster than their outdoor PB (most had not run an indoor 800m before) - Luke took 6 seconds off his PB in that race and finished 5th.

The top three competitors had shuffled the podium places throughout the day, with Sammy finally pulling ahead on points to Joe after his high jump and then the fastest 800m of the event to secure the silver medal - all the more commendable since Sammy is still in his first year as an Under 15 athlete. Joe took bronze, just 58 points behind for his first national combined events championships.

U15B Medallists

1 Oliver D'Rozario (Club: Taunton AC, Coach: Steve Shaw/Adam Carrow) 2,820 points
2 Sammy Ball (Club: Reading AC, Coach: Mike Dyer) 2,684 points
3 Joe Purbrick (Club: Huntingdonshire AC, Coach: Richard Phelan) 2,626 points