Nachshen positive
ATHLETICS UNDER-15 UK No. 1 Gilad Nachshen broke the two-minute barrier in the 800m for the second time this season, finishing just 0.62 seconds off his personal best in 1:59.72 at the Watford open meeting.
And he believes had if it had not been for a lastlap incident, he could well have achieved yet another PB. “The race came after three weeks of solid training, and I knew it was going to be my last chance of the season to do even better,” explained Nachshen.
“But with 250 metres left to go, I was jostled and almost pushed over. Because I always mix endurance runs with faster speed 200s in training I was able to recover quickly, but I was quite frustrated and ended the race thinking what might have been.”
Still, Nachshen, 14, is already looking ahead to next year, when he plans to add the 400m to his repertoire as he moves up to the under-17 age group.
Maayan Radus, 14, improved her PB to 2:26.51 at the same event, while fellow Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers 800m runner Josh Goldstein, 11, won in 2:44.69 at the Eastern Young Athletes League meeting in Hendon. Blackheath & Bromley’s Anna Barnett, 19, placed second in the discus at her club championships with a throw of 28.14m.
Hanna KnyazyevaMinenko was Israel’s second most successful competitor at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin. Knyazyeva-Minenko finished fifth in the triple jump with a leap of 14.37m. In the men’s marathon, Maru Teferi finished seventh out of a starting field of 72, setting a national record of 2:13.00 in the process.