28th September 2020
WEEKEND UPDATE - 28/09/2020
SM 10km, Belp, Switzerland, 27 September
In her first race since the Houston Half Marathon back in January, Steph Twell (coach: self; club Aldershot, Farnham & District) clocked 33:38 over 10km to take third place in the senior women’s race. The effort moves her up to eight on the British rankings for 2020.
England Throws Camp September Invitational Throws Series, Moulton, 26 September
Lewis Byng (Stuart Carlaw; Stratford-upon-Avon) made it three British Under-20 shot put records in the space of three weeks and became the first British junior athlete to break 20.00m with the six kilogram implement as he unleashed a 20.26m British record in Moulton.
The Northamptonshire circle has been kind to Byng, having secured him back-to-back consecutive British records last week and a fortnight ago respectively, but a 53cm improvement on his most recent attempt firmly cements his place atop the British rankings.
His enormous effort places him sixth in the world this year for the event and moves him inside the top 100 for the Under-20 shot put on the World Athletics all-time list, placing 70th.
Track is Back ft Lesley Mallows 800m, Coventry, 27 September
Athletics competition returned to the new Warwick University track as wheelchair racers and Race Runners filled the programme of events.
Multiple global medallist Kare Adenegan (Job King; Coventry – T34) competed over three distances in the twilight part of the season. She secured a personal best over the 1500m, taking almost a second off her previous fastest, to record a time of 3:55.12. Melanie Woods (Red Star – T54) narrowly followed in a time of 3:55.16 which improved her lifetime best by 10 seconds.
Over the 100m Adenegan came out on top as she posted a time of 18.21 (-0.6), while Woods crossed the line first over 400m clocking 1:00.38 to Kare’s 1:02.23.
In the men’s wheelchair races, Danny Sidbury (Christine Parsloe; Sutton & District – T54) won the 100m 400m and 1500m, posting times of 15.20 (+0.6), 49.36 and 3:06.88.
World silver medallists Ellie Simpson (Jessica Davidson; Sheffield & Dearne – RR2) and Rafi Solaiman (Philip Fleetwood; Sheffield & Dearne – RR3) were in action in the race running events. Simpson won the 100m in 19.56. Meanwhile, Solaiman doubled up over the short sprint and the 400m, recording times of 17.81 (+0.7) and 1:17.70.
In the ambulant discus, Harrison Walsh (Swansea) continued his fine 2020 season with a best of 51.81 metres coming on his final attempt. He threw a personal best of 55.47m earlier this month and another effort over 50 metres will give him a lot of confidence heading into the winter months.
Hochdorfer Mehrkampfmeisterschaften, Hochdorf, Switzerland, 26-27 September
Ollie Thorner (Toby Stevenson; Yeovil) the training partner of European Indoor heptathlon silver medallist Tim Duckworth, notched three personal bests as he took victory in the junior men’s decathlon in Switzerland.
All his lifetime improvements came on the second day of competition, having notched season’s bests in the 100m and long jump of 11.25s and 6.72m (0.1), adding to his 12.00m shot, 1.94m high jump effort and 50.24s 400m clocking.
In the first event of day two, the 110m hurdles, Thorner recorded a 14.93s (-0.5) effort in his first race over senior height hurdles, backing it up by putting 1.25m onto his discus PB in event seven. A 4.40m pole vault clearance followed in the pole vault, before a one metre improvement to 45.87m in the javelin and a 4:30.78 1500m effort helped the Somerset man claim top spot overall with a season’s best 7215 points.
Wanda Diamond League, Doha, Qatar, 25 September
Elliot Giles (Jon Bigg; Birchfield) was the standout British performer in Qatar as he moved up to 14th on the British all-time 800m rankings with a 1:44.56 effort that took another tenth off his personal best and cemented his place at third in the British rankings for 2020.
A gutsy run from Giles had him chasing down Ferguson Rotich (KEN) as the athletes entered 300m to go and as the distance to the line got shorter, so did the gap between Giles and the Kenyan. The Birchfield man had to settle for second place in the race, with Guy Learmonth (Justin Rinaldi; Lasswade) sixth in 1:46.25.
Our full report from Friday night’s action is available here.