A busy weekend of national indoor athletic championships culminated in a superb senior bronze medal for Harrier sprinter Rebecca Jeggo, competing in her third British Indoor Championships.

Having taken the long trip to Glasgow, her weekend of competition started on Saturday 22 February with a rare 60m outing.  With the Championships not acting as trials for World Indoors this year, competitor numbers were considerably down on last year. However, a third-place finish in 7.78s was good enough to gain her a slot in her first ever British Championship final, where she ran a PB of 7.72s for 7^th place.

Sunday though was her day.  Drawn in the third and final heat of the women’s 200m, she used the advantage of lane six well to take a great first place and automatic qualification through to the final as the second quickest qualifier in a PB of 24.26s. Half a second quicker than the same meet last year.

In the final and again drawn in lane six, she kept her cool along the back straight despite being passed by the race favourite Ama Pipi. Using the slingshot off the final bend she worked hard to take a confident third place in a time of 24.33s and her first major medal. Summer 2020 will be one to watch.

Whilst in Sheffield, the prestigious England Age Group Championships were also taking place, drawing some of the top talent in the country this is always an exciting event to spectate.  Harriers were represented by three more of Steve Garnham’s athletes: Akin Akinboh, Sam Shippey and Jakub Walecki.

Akinboh, competing in the U20 men’s 60m on day one, achieved a place in the semi final after qualifying in second place from his heat- but was someway off his best- crossing in 7.12s for fifth place.  Shippey went into his heat of the U17 men’s 400m as a favourite to progress. Having held fourth place for most of the race he was unable to find his customary strong finish and was disappointed to finish in sixth place in 53.36s.

Ending the day was the U17 men’s High Jump, featuring Harrier Walecki at his debut English Indoor championships.  He went into the competition determined and confident that he was able to PB and came away with just that. Frustratingly, 1.93m was just one jump too much for him and he had to settle for a first-time clearance at 1.90m to gain him a PB and a good fourth place finish in an exciting competition.

At the Lee Valley U13/ U15 Open meet on Saturday 22 February, U15 Archie Smith made his indoor debut over the 200m and from the inside lane was pleased to come close to his PB to run 27.88s.  He also competed the Long Jump, reaching 4.78m. Hollie Martin-Wymark ran in the 200m heats clocking 28.84 for fourth place. Martin-Whymark also lowered her 60m PB to 8.64s.