England triumph at Loughborough International

The sun wasn’t the only thing shining as our England stars retained the team title at Loughborough International on Sunday.

With crowds of people on the banks of the Paula Radcliffe Stadium, it was the perfect conditions for athletes to run fast, throw far and jump to new heights.

Speed

Etienne Maughan was the first England athlete representing on the track (Bedford & County, Allen Adamson & Janice Kaufman) and certainly set the example for the rest of the team. Standing beside fellow BUCS, England and world medallists, Etienne held her own to storm past Marli Jessop (Harrow, Scott Grace) and take a brand-new PB of 13.54 adding to her BUCS gold earlier this month.

David Naylor (Crewe & Nantwich AC, Dom Bradley) came home in 8th place the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.02.

Over the 100m we had athletes in action in the para and able-bodied races. Sophie Hahn T38 demonstrated her dominance (Charnwood, Leon Baptiste) in this event finishing 1st with a new season’s best of 12.90. Joy Eze (Gateshead Harriers, Mike Donnelly) was up against tough competition in the 100m and came home in 11.66 as Commonwealth Youth Games star, Mabel Akande, took the title in a new PB of 11.52. Marcus Mclean claimed a new season’s best in the men’s 100m with 11.13.

Over the half lap, England’s Luke Dorrell stormed through to take victory in 21.15 with Brooke Ironside finishing in 3rd with 24.11 SB.

The two team captains of Hannah Kelly (Bolton United Harriers, Les Hall) and Lee Thompson (City of Sheffield & Dearne AC, John Henson) were fresh off the plane from the World Relays in the Bahamas and straight to representing England over the 400m and 4x400m relays. Hannah was pipped to the line to finish in 2nd behind Poppy Malik (Harrow, Grant Barker) in 54.05 as Lee secured a new season’s best of 47.03 to finish 3rd. Fast forward to the 4x400m relays and the team captains led both of their teams to victory! In the short relays, England’s men brought home a silver, with the women’s team unfortunately not getting the baton round safely on this occasion.

In the 400m hurdles, England’s Orla Brennan (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow, Mike Bennett) was the only athlete to dip under 60 seconds and take the win with 59.38 as Tyri Donovan (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow, Marina Armstrong) had a fantastic race to break 50 seconds (49.97), claiming 1st place.

Throws

In the women's hammer it was Charlotte Payne (Reading AC, Paul Dickenson) representing England. After throwing over 71.30m the day before, Charlotte was clearly in fantastic shape and threw 67.32m to win. Jake Norris (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow, Paul Dickenson) continued the winning streak, throwing 76.08m in the final round.

Lauren Farley (Blackheath & Bromley, Mark Chapman) is back after battling a challenging winter to throw a season’s best of 49.65m in the javelin to finish 5th. Youth Talent Programme athlete Ayesha Jones (Marshall Milton Keynes, Janina Pownall) was representing GB Juniors and did so in style as she threw a new lifetime best of 51.66m to achieve the World Junior standard. Charlie Evans (Banbury Harriers, Felicity Dawes) finished in 4th place for England with 68.90m.

Serena Vincent (City of Portsmouth AC, Mike Winch & Andrew Vincent) waited for the last round to throw a huge PB of 17.78m and take first, adding 50cm to her previous best. The bests didn’t stop there in the shot as Lawson Capes (Peterborough and Nene Valley, Lewis Capes) also added over 70cm to his to take 2nd place with 17.86m (this time representing his club). England’s Andrew Knight (Southampton AC, Dave Calloway) struggled to match the distances he’s thrown this season, finishing 4th with 16.62m.

Phoebe Dawson (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow, Paul Wilson) was representing England in the women’s discus finishing in second place with 52.47m with Greg Thompson (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, Neville Thompson) also taking silver with 56.67m.

Endurance

The English endurance charge was led by Bracknell’s Ricky Harvie as he dominated the 3000m steeplechase, finishing 11 seconds ahead of 2nd place (9:06.17). Alice Murray-Gourlay (Taunton, Charlotte Fisher) raced a brave race, getting out hard and running a season’s best of 10:59.98 for 4th.

Innes Fitzgerald (Exeter Harriers, Gavin Pavey) continued her fine form in the 3000m as she not only won and took a season’s best, but also achieved that all important mark for the World Under-20s later this year. Max Heyden (Belgrave) finished in 8:17.04 in challenging, hot conditions.

Brandon Ballard T20 (Huntingdonshire, Denise Korkmaz) had a close battle with Scottish Steven Bryce throughout the para 1500m before finishing in 2nd in 4:09.31.

Sam Charig (City of Portsmouth, Alex Budd/Craig Winrow) rose to the opportunity to race the mile, taking a new PB and 1st place in 4:09.25. Lauren Church (Reading AC, Mark Booth) battled hard, leading for most of the race before finishing 3rd in a respectable 4:44.58.

In the 800m it was podium spots for both of England’s representatives with Grace Vans Agnew (Brighton Phoenix, Dan Stepney) finishing in 2nd (2:05.27) and Jack Higgins (Tonbridge AC, Mark Hookway) coming home in 3rd (1:52.15).

Jumps

Alice Hopkins (Oxford City AC, Linford Christie) demonstrated her excellent composure and form, equalling her personal best in the women’s long jump to finish first (6.52m). Later in the day, Alex Farquharson (Birchfield Harriers, Aston Moore) continued to put England on top of the podium with a leap of 7.65m.

In the women’s triple jump, Lily Hulland (Thames Valley, Femi Akinsanya) was looking on top until NAL’s Adelaide Omitowoju (Harrow, Benjamin Davies) put three no jumps behind her to take the lead. It was still a fantastic season’s best for Lily in the 4th round of 13.06m to take second place. Daniel Akinradewo (Trafford AC, Tom Cullen) also posted a new season’s best of 14.80m to finish 3rd.

Trafford’s Halle Ferguson (Andrew Wood) had the heptathlon world champion to contend with in the women’s high jump. Holding a clean card until the 1.79m, this height got the better of the English athlete as she bowed out at this height. Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Liverpool Harriers, Aston Moore) took the title in this event. Thomas Hewes (Chelmsford AC, Grant Brown) was up for England in the men’s event. The indoor British Champion finished in 5th with 2.11m.

A new season’s best of 4.80m was achieved by Lazarus Benjamin (Sale Harriers Manchester, Matt Cullen, Andy Ashurst) in the men’s pole vault as England’s Jade Ive (Sutton & District, Brian Hooper) unfortunately didn’t manage to clear a height in the women’s event.

See the full results on the Roster Athletics app.