3rd August 2017
Medals rain in for British team at inaugural World Para Athletics Junior Champs
The British team began their campaign at the inaugural World Para Athletics Junior Championships today in wonderful style, winning seven medals including four golds for Amy Carr (coach: Rick Betts), Karim Chan (Femi Akinsanya), Esme O’Connell (Ian Roberts) and Eve Dann (Roger Sexton).
For Chan, it continues to great success of the long jumpers at the senior championships last month, as he sealed the T20 long jump U18 title with a 6.16m jump, a personal best. Improving his previous best by 2cm, the Peterborough athlete won by over 10cm from silver medallist Henrique de Oliveira Dias Gustavo.
The jumping success continued in the women’s equivalent, with O’Connell winning the title in sensational form. Her opening round leap of 4.31m was the margin of victory the Dacorum & Tring athlete needed to take her first gold medal in a British vest.
No sooner had two gold medal been won in the field, there was success on the track for T36 athlete Dann in the mixed classification T35-38 200m U18. The Northern Irish athlete was in the second of two heats, with the results been decided on timings overall. And it was a lifetime best which earned the title, powering around the bend before moving through confidently to clock a time of 32.04.
In the same race, T35 athlete Daphne Schrager (Alan Richardson / Rob Ellchuk) was seventh overall, knocking seven tenths off her previous all-time best, recording 34.84.
There was still time for more British gold medal on the track as Carr (T37) sprinted to the T35-38 200m U20 in 30.97, completing a memorable first day for the team in Switzerland.
There was a silver medal for Jack Agnew (Heather Ardis) in the T51/54 400m U20, after a pushing to a heat win in 52.68. As the final results were cumulated on points, the T54 athlete moved into silver as American Isiah Rigo, a T52 athlete, claimed the gold. The Northern Irish athlete begins a busy campaign in Switzerland where he still has four events to come.
In the women’s U18 equivalent, Weir Archer Academy’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper (Jenny Archer) was fifth in a time of 1:05.76.
Bronze was the medal earned by Simran Kaur (Nick Harris) in the women’s T42/47 200m U18, taking a significant proportion off her previous best time, building upon a marvellous start to cross the line in 28.83 (-1.0). The same medal was won by Amar Aichoun (Jeffrey Lawal-Balogun) in the men’s T35-38 200m U20 in 24.75, a fantastic achievement from the Thames Valley athlete.
Sheffield & Dearne’s Jayden Saberton (Lee Walker) was narrowly outside the podium places with a fourth place finish but he was another athlete to seal a lifetime best in Nottwil, recording 25.78 (-1.1), improving from 25.84. The competition was won by Saudi Arabia’s Ali Alnakhli in 25.07.
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