England U20/23 Championships – Bedford 25/26 July

A number of Edinburgh athletes headed south at the weekend for the England U20/23 Championships and European Trials in Bedford. Weather on the Saturday was good – warm with the wind behind the sprinters; on Sunday the wind had switched round and the temperature soared to 31 degrees.

 Top performances by club athletes came from our jumpers and in particular Emma Nuttall who won the U20 High Jump with a height of 1.82m and guaranteed her place in the UK team for the European Junior Championships.
Alan Hamilton won the U20 Long Jump with a great pb of 7.45m – this equalled the qualifying distance for the European Juniors but unfortunately the wind was just over the allowable limit.
Allan Smith (member of EAC but 1st claim Shaftesbury) was another successful jumper, winning the U20 High Jump with 2.05m.
In the U20 women’s Long Jump Faye Nicholson was 4th with a legal pb of 5.78m.
In the U23 events  Sarah Warnock was 7th in the Long Jump with 5.52m and Emma Lowry was 7th in the High Jump with 1.64m.

 Our throwers were also successful winning medals. Kimberley Reed (still an U17) was 3rd in the U20 Hammer with a throw of 53.53m just 32cm behind the silver medal.
In the U23 throws Hannah Evenden had a busy couple of days, taking silver in the Discus with a throw of 44.73m and bronze in the shot with 13.22m; in the Hammer she was 6th with 52.05m.

Top performance in the middle distance events came in the U23 800m with Lynsey Sharp guaranteeing her place in the UK team for the U23 European Championships; it was an emphatic win by 2.6 seconds in a time of 2.06.06.
Emily Dudgeon had a good run in the U20 800m finishing 5th in 2.12.25 her best for almost 2 years and close to her pb.

 In the sprints Tom Holligan reached the final of the U20 100m, finishing 6th in 10.67. In the semi-final Tom recorded a non wind-assisted time of 10.68 which was a Commonwealth Youth Games qualifying time; he has now attained the standard in both the 100m and 200m.
Toby Harris ran well in his 400m Hurdles heat, qualifying in a time of 56.49 and improved that to 55.98 for 7th place in the final.
Jay Younger, just back from injury, did well to get through the heats and reach the semi finals of the U20 400m but was unable to go further.

Overall club athletes won 4 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.

Full results are available on
http://www.englandathletics.org/page.asp?section=607&sectionTitle=England+Athletics+Championships