For Queen and Country.

Just five days after reaching the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles at the European U20 Championships in Sweden, Jack Sumners was back in action, this time in the long jump. Jack, who is currently fifth in the UK U20 rankings, jumped 7.10m to finish second, just 13 centimetres off the winning jump.

Ollie Creswell, currently ranked seventh in the U20 age group in the 110m hurdles, was the first of three English athletes in Cardiff, finishing fourth in 14.69.

The Biennial European Athletics U20 Championships.

Report – Paul Bearman.

These Championships were held in Boras, Sweden and are for the very best European athletes who are 19 years of age or under.

Stratford AC’s UK U20 and U23 Shot gold medallist Lewis Byng and U20 110m Hurdles silver medallist Jack Sumners were selected on the strength of them meeting the stringent qualifying standards.

After the team travelled to Sweden prior to the competition for a couple of days to acclimatise to the hot conditions, Sumners lined up for his heat and after a nervous start he powered through the field to finish 2^nd in his heat equalling his PB of 13.66s and qualifying for the semifinal, stacked with some of Europe’s top young hurdlers.

With his nerves and apprehension under control, Jack lined up for the semifinal but things didn’t go quite according to plan and he finished outside of the top 8 in 11^th place overall from the 2 semi finals. His time of 13.87s was just one tenth of a second outside of qualifying for the final that was eventually won by GB’s Josh Zeller.

Sumners said afterwards “I’m disappointed because I thought I could qualify for the final but overall I’m happy with the way it went in my fist major competition for GB”.

Lewis Byng lined up alongside other huge athletes in the shot and in his heat threw 18.61m to qualify for the final. According to UKA’s statistician Ian Hodge, Lewis remarkably became Britain’s first EU20 finalist in the Men’s Shot since 1989, when Matt Simson took bronze.

There was no similar medal glory for Byng and after a steady series of throws he finished in 8^th place. With him being the youngest in the competition, the experience will definitely serve him well in his future career at this level of competition.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland topped the medal table and Scott Grace, GB’s joint team manager said afterwards “sometimes it is easy to forget how amazing it is to be selected to represent GB & NI at any event and the team all achieved this”.

He reiterated that “the champs provided a massive highlight in the athletes career so far and for some, things didn’t turn out as they hoped they would but that everyone should remember on how many people were born in the same years as the 69 strong team and that the athletes were the very best and good enough to be one of the few selected to represent their country”.

Monty 5k.

Report – David Jones.

Of the eight club members competing at the recent Monty 5, six set lifetime bests.

The Leamington-based 5km race, part of the Warwickshire Road Race League, is flat and fast. It starts with a lap and a half of the Leamington track then heads towards the town centre though Victoria Park before returning alongside the River Leam for a second lap. It ends on the track for an Olympic style finish with a lap of the track.

Pete Sugden was the first Stratford athlete to finish, placing 76th in a PB of 20:04. Although he narrowly missed out on breaking the 20-minute mark, his time was 21 seconds faster than last year.

He was followed by Luke Watkins, who was almost a minute quicker than last year, recording a PB of 21:29 in 106th place.

Annie Cox was next to finish for the club in yet another PB time of 21:55, almost three minutes quicker than when she last competed in this race in 2017. She finished in 115th place, just five seconds and three places ahead of Yvonne Gajny (118th, 22:00).

Dave Maundrell is in a fine vein of form and his PB time of 24:00 was more than a minute quicker than last year. Another athlete in fine form at the moment is Bev Brigden, whose PB of 25:23 was also just over a minute quicker than last year.

Ruth Calderbank is returning from a period of injury and as such she should be well pleased with her time of 26:53. Finally, Pippa Abrams was another athlete running a PB. Her time of 27:07 was 1:14 quicker than last year.

The race was won by Ian Allen in 16:24 and Natalie Bhangal was the first woman, clocking 18:35. 224 runners completed the race.

Caterham 10k.

Report – David Jones.

SUAAC International Masters athlete Phil Brennan ventured to deepest Surrey for one of the qualifiers for this winter’s England Masters cross country team.

The race started and finished on the richly historic Redhill Aerodrome. The course went through leafy rural lanes with constant undulations and a vicious hill just before the finish.

In unbroken sunshine, with above average heat and humidity, Phil finished in 79th place with a time of 51.03. He was 2nd in his age group. For trivia fans, the category winner was Peter Giles ex of King Crimson !

The race was won by John Herbert in 33.11