Gale crowned senior champ
TOM Gale crowned an almost perfect indoor season by winning the British Senior Championships title for the first time in his career.
The 21-year-old Team Bath AC international high jumper cleared 2.27m to win the gold medal in Glasgow to make it four wins from five competitions, an impressive run that also included a lifetime best and Olympic qualifying height of 2.33m which underlined his places as the UK’S number one high jumper.
But for Gale, who is a former winner of the Running Bath/chron athlete of the year competition, it was all about winning having claimed two bronzes last year at both the indoor and outdoor British Championships last year
“I’ve finally made it,” said a delighted Gale.
“It has taken me a few years to get there because I have had opportunities in the past, but last year I was ill for the indoors and had injury problems during the summer.
“So, this year it is nice to come away as number one.”
In 2019 Gale won two bronzes at the national championships, which was the first time he had made the podium at senior level having previously notched up four titles at England level for the under-23 and under-20 age group categories.
But now Gale’s sights are set firmly on the prize of taking part in the Tokyo Olympics later this year and, having already achieved the A qualifying standard set by British Athletics, the signs are looking very encouraging as a sparkling indoor season comes to a close.
“I’m very satisfied with how this season has gone and I am very excited about the summer,” added Gale.
“The big goal at the start of the year was to qualify for the Olympics. Now I think the big goal will be to try and get onto the podium.
“I know to do that I will have to jump higher and be more consistent but what I have learned this indoor season is that I have improved so much mentally.
“The challenge now is to see how far I can go.”
■ FURTHER south in Sheffield it was the England Athletics Indoor Age Group Championships and there were medals for Team Bath’s Jenna Blundell and Alice Wilson.
Blundell, who is now a student at Sheffield University, finished runnerup in the under-20 women’s 60m hurdles in a season’s best of 8.64secs to match the silver medal success at the same event last year.
“I am very pleased with that,” said Blundell.
“It has taken time for my sprint hurdles indoors to come together and for me to find my form and rhythm.
“But on the start-line last weekend I felt a lot sharper and I really enjoyed racing again.”
Blundell was shy of her lifetime best of 8.48secs which she set last year but she is not particularly concerned about that and is already focussing her energies on the outdoor season this summer.
“I have not raced so much indoors this winter so my races were far from perfect,” she added. “But I honestly feel I am on the right track for the summer season and it is all slowly coming together.
Wilson was using the event to prepare for the England Combined Events Championships in March and she showed that training under coach Julie Alexander is going well with a bronze medal in the under-15 girls’ long jump and a PB in the 60m hurdles.
“Alice was leading the long jump going into the last round when the two other girls overtook her and then she did a no jump which was only just over the board and I reckon as around 5.65m,” said Alexander.
“But overall it was a very mature performance and in the 60m hurdles she twice improved her personal best from 9.73secs last year to 9.65secs and then 9.48secs in the semi finals.”
It was the 14-year-old’s first national medal and augurs well for the multi events competition on March 15.
Also in Sheffield, fellow Team Bath athlete Femi Akinbobola ran an indoor personal best of 50.66secs to finish a creditable fourth in the under20 men’s 400m.
Last year, Akinbobola only ran the distance once indoors and clocked 52.93secs on his debut so this winter he has made massive improvement which suggest he can look at beating his lifetime best of 49.27secs this summer.
Also Jake Cover ran a PB in the under 20 men’s 60m hurdles and both Ben Game and Jonathan Evans took part.
■ IN stark contrast to the indoor scene, Team Bath AC tackled the English National Cross Country Championships on a muddy and sodden course around Wollaton Park, Nottingham, last weekend.
Highlight of the day was an excellent seventh place for Alex Parsons in the under-17 men’s race, a massive improvement on his 96th place at Leeds last year.
Highest place female was Freya Spruit with 62nd in the under-17 women’s race.
The senior men managed to finish 30th overall with Aidan Daniel leading the way in 170th place.
“It is the best result that I can remember over the last 15 years,” said coach and team manager Paul King.
■ ALONGSIDE Gale, University of Bath sports performance graduate David King successfully defended his 60m hurdles title, claiming gold in 7.78secs. Rosie Clarke, who studied accounting and finance at the university, won bronze in the 3,000m in 9mins 52.02secs.
Sport and exercise student Georgia Silcox was fifth in the women’s 60m hurdles in 8.54.
In Sheffield, Ben Sutton claimed the under-20 men’s long jump title with a 7.10m clearance.
■ The athletics coverage in the Chron is sponsored by Running Bath