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England Athletics Under 15, 17 and 20 indoor championships – 2024
Report – Paul Bearman
The England Athletics Open Under 15, 17 and 20 indoor championships held at Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport played hosts to the cream of the UK’s young athletics talent at the indoor national championship over two days.
Despite training going well in the winter it can’t compare to the intensity of competing on the national stage, although the weather has played havoc leading up to the championships thus limiting technical training in particular.
Meeting the qualifying standards is a feat on its own and U15 Alex Wood, who has reinvented himself in the longer 300m sprint this winter, had a tough task on his hands going into the competition as the 2nd fastest of the competitors on paper around one and half times of the 200m track.
Alex stepped into the bright lights of the arena that he familiarised himself with by travelling up and down the M1 with his dad to compete indoors in Open competitions on the undulating track with 2 tight bends and short straights and it paid dividends this weekend, although running in Opens can’t compare to the pressure of competing at this level.
The 300m start is on the banks on the bend and from lane 5 Alex had an impressive start to the competition winning his heat from gun to tape in 37.89s a new PB to qualify for the final.
The final on the following day had Alex in lane 6 with his main rival Sam Steadman from Colchester AC on his inside. We hatched the race plan that Alex would go off fast to try to get to the break point on the back strait first and he was neck and neck with Steadman who just edged in front and held that position until the finish with Alex finishing with a brilliant hard won silver medal in 37.72s another PB.
In an event stacked with seasoned top-class hurdlers, U20 Freddie Clemons, who is at university in Sheffield, has been slowly improving in his previous races this winter and he produced a season’s best of 8.54s finishing 6th in his heat and marginally just outside his PB but came away with a lot more confidence looking forward to the upcoming University championships.
Ruby Edwards was thrilled to qualify for the championships, but things didn’t go according to plan in her U17 Triple Jump and she bowed out of the competition with 3 no jumps. She said afterwards, “the venue and the atmosphere were great, but my competition didn’t work out this time. Three no jumps meant that I didn’t progress to the next round and I’m gutted because my second jump was just millimetres over. It’s back to training and I’m looking forward to the outdoor season now and hopeful that I have more luck”.
Alex’s silver medal was the obvious highlight from our athletes but from my perspective, with a very strong array of UK talent competing, all 3 of them coming away from the national championships with more experience and confidence is a major plus point. Roll on the BUCS champs next week with several of our Uni athletes competing.
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