GB & NI JUNIORS ON SONG IN MANNHEIM

The Great Britain and Northern Ireland juniors produced some fine displays on the final day of action at the Mannheim International in Germany.

The 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams were in superb form as athletes on the pathway, as part of the British Athletics Futures Relay programme, reaped the rewards of their hard work to set some impressive times.

The quartet of Renee Regis (Tamunonengiye-Ofori Ossai, BFT Track Academy), Nia Wedderburn-Goodison (Ryan Freckleton, Harrow), Sophie Walton (Trevor Williams, Horwich) and Success Eduan (Anita Richardson, Sale Harriers Manchester) dipped under 44 seconds to win the women’s 4x100m relay in style.

Regis and Eduan came into the team after Saturday’s team posted a time of 44.25. On Sunday, the team exchanged the baton well and four excellent legs led to the 43.97 time to win by a big margin from Switzerland.

Rusciano Thomas-Riley (Ronnie Williams, Coventry), Sean Anyaogu (Tamunonengiye-Ofori Ossai, BFT Track Academy), Brook Cronin (Andrew Kennard, Walton) and Emmanuel Duruiheoma (Leon Baptiste, Shaftesbury Barnet) delivered a quality performance on their way to second in the men’s 4x100m. Their time of 44.06 was only bettered by Switzerland who achieved a national record of 39.99.

With Anyaogu and Duruiheoma switching legs on Sunday, the team improved from the time of 40.20 set on Saturday, to produce one of their fastest ever times.

The men’s 4x400m relay team set a meeting record of 3:07.69 on their way to victory. After some PB performances in the individual 400m yesterday, the athletes took that form into the relays and showcased their ability amongst a strong field.

Alex Houchin (Mike Bennett, Worcester) led off before handing to Charlie Carvell (Stewart Marshall, Telford). Sam Lunt (Andrew Fraser, Wirral) – who dipped under 47 seconds for the first time yesterday – took on the baton and passed on to Jake Minshull (Coventry) in a good position. Minshull completed the job to rewrite the event’s history books.

In the final race of the day, the British women’s 4x400m relay team enjoyed a battle with the Germans, but were just edged into second with a time of 3:35.60 to Germany’s 3:35.17.

Charlotte Kelsey (Glynn Williams, Middlesbrough) started off the race on leg one handing to 400m hurdler Emily Newnham (Nick Dakin, Shaftesbury Barnet) to attack leg two. Fresh from a 400m PB on Saturday, Ashley Nemits (Trevor Painter, Wigan & District) took on the race on leg three, with Jessica Astill (Paul Keeble, Stevenage & North Herts) bringing the baton home.

In the individual events, there were significant personal bests for Brook Cronin (Andrew Kennard, Walton) and Rusciano Thomas-Riley (Ronnie Williams, Coventry) in the men’s 200m as they finished as the fastest pair from the heats.

Cronin dipped under 21 seconds for the first time in his career, stopping the clock at 20.98 (0.7). His previous best stood at 21.34.

Thomas-Riley meanwhile was close to the sub 21 time, as he ran 21.03 (-1.5), however, it was an improvement on his 21.21 from Nuneaton earlier this year.

The strong headwinds impacted the women’s 200m races. Sophie Walton (Trevor Williams, Horwich) ran a time of 24.01 (-1.5) for fourth in her race, while Faith Akinbileje (John Blackie, Blackheath & Bromley) battled against the conditions to clock 24.20 (-2.3) to be sixth fastest once all the heats were amalgamated.

European U18 champion Mia McIntosh (Jake Awe, Harrow) ran a wind-assisted 13.33 (2.5) in the 100m hurdles after earlier clocking a wind legal 13.49 (1.3) in the heats.

In the field, Kimani Jack (Julian Reid, Shaftesbury Barnet) placed third overall in the men’s high jump after a best clearance of 2.07m. After going over first time at the opening two heights of 1.95m and 2.00m, he fouled his first attempt at 2.04m before sailing over at the second time of asking. The same result occurred at the 2.07m height, but three failures at 2.10m brought his competition to an end.

Sammy Ball (Michael Dyer, Reading) jumped 6.91m in the long jump to finish ninth. After red flags on his first two jumps, he got a mark in on the third attempt. However, with only the top eight progressing to three further jumps, his series ended after three jumps.

Results