Sprinters blitz personal bests
TEAM Bath AC’S young sprint aces have been hitting red-hot form across the country.
At Yate, Joe Carter scorched to a double personal best with sizzling times over 100m and 200m competing as a higher claim athlete for Bristol & West AC in their National Athletics League Premier West match.
Carter recorded lifetime best times of 10.84secs for the 100m and 21.79secs for the 200m. Both times were wind-assisted with following speeds of 2.9 and 2.7mps respectively, just above the legal limit of 2.0mps, but they still represent impressive performances for the junior athlete.
“Joe is going in the right direction,” said coach Julie Alexander.
“It is the first time in his young career that he has been able to string together a series of races.
“In the past he simply ran too fast for his body and always broke down injured. Now he is a lot stronger and is reaping the benefits with some terrific times.”
Last year Carter’s bests stood at 11.11secs for 100m and 22.55secs for the 200m so he has certainly made good strides this summer.
Clubmate Eleni Francis has also made significant progress and last weekend she was invited to take part in the England Athletics Under 17/15 Championships at the Sportcity Stadium, in Manchester.
Despite the terrible weather conditions – cold and wet – Francis ran a PB of 26.07secs in the heats of the 200m, clipping 0.13secs off her best to go fourth on the South West Rankings for under 17 women.
In addition, Francis finished fourth in her 100m heat in 12.85secs, missing a place in the semi-final by 0.07secs. Interestingly her bests a year ago stood at 26.72secs for the 200m and 13.12 in the 100m. Also in Manchester, Team Bath’s Charlie Staddon finished sixth in the under 17 men’s 400m in a time of 61.11secs, his third fastest of the season.
■ BACK at Yate, Bradford-on-avon junior international and former Running Bath/chron performance of the month winner Jenna Blundell also took advantage of the favourable wind conditions and the new super-fast track to clock a PB of 13.18secs to win the 100m hurdles at a canter.
She also dipped under 12 seconds in the 100m for the first time with a PB of 11.86secs, albeit with a following wind of 2.7mps.
Also, in the non-scoring 100m, Team Bath’s Luke Williams ran a PB of 11.14secs (+2.4mps) to finish third.
■ WE can’t let the bronze medal won by GB international pole vaulter Holly Bradshaw in the Olympics in Tokyo last week go without mentioning the significant Bath connection in her success.
That connection is former King Edward School and Bath College student Scott Simpson, who has coached Bradshaw.
Simpson - who in the nineties was a member of Wessex and Bath AC which subsequently merged with Team Bath - was a successful pole vaulter in his own right finishing sixth in the 2006 Commonwealth Games before moving into coaching. He is now based at Loughborough University and is employed at the National Performance Institute Senior Coach for pole vault looking after elite athletes and promising juniors.
■ TEAM Bath’s Ben Ashby finished 14th in the Wessex 10k road race on Saturday, clocking 39mins 45secs.
■ Athletics coverage in the Chron is sponsored by Running Bath