Highlights from the England Athletics Under-17 and Under-15 Championships

Joel Pascall-Menzie was among the double gold medal winners at the England Athletics Under-17 and Under-15 Championships in Bedford.

Most track finals were on Sunday but the 100m races came to a conclusion late on Saturday afternoon. The pick of the winners was top-ranked under-17 Pascall-Menzie, who ran 10.46 (+1.4m/sec) in the final after earlier breaking the championship best with a windy 10.39 (+4.7m/sec) in his semi-final.

His credentials for athlete of the meeting were enhanced by another championship best in the 200m, as he clocked 21.05 (+1.9m/sec) to complete the double and improve on the 21.12 CBP which had been set by Jono Efoloko in 2015.

One of the other best performances was by under-15 300m winner Nandy Kihuyu, whose 39.38 puts her fourth on the UK all-time list.

A 20-year-old championship record fell to Basildon’s Joseph Harding with a windy 12.48 (+3.1m/sec) in the under-17 100m hurdles.

The walks had begun the Sunday programme where the pick was under-15 winner Christian Hopper.

Field eventers stole the show on the opening day.

Nana Gyedu maintained her 2019 unbeaten streak in the under-17 shot with a personal best of 15.77m to defeat Ireland’s European bronze medallist Ciara Sheehy.

National heptathlon champion Abigail Pawlett improved her long jump best to take the under-17 title with a 6.09m leap, while Connor McNally also set a PB with 6.44m to take the under-15 event.

Pawlett also won the under-17 80m hurdles the following day, clocking 11.08 (+2.2m/sec).

In what looks to be a new event for her this year, Halle Ferguson leapt a UK under-15 best of 11.91m (-0.9m/sec) to win the triple jump on Saturday before completing a double with success in the high jump on Sunday, clearing 1.69m.

There was a Scottish under-17 pole vault record for Reuben Nairne as he recorded a vault of 4.72m.

Results can be found here.

See the September 5 edition of AW magazine for full coverage.