British Champs Experience for Sprinters
Joy Ogunleye and Rebecca Jeggo flew the flag for Colchester Harriers at this year’s senior British Indoor Championships at Birmingham Arena over the weekend of 9th / 10th February.
Broadcast live through the BBC red button and British Athletics website supporters were able to enjoy watching these two talented athletes from their armchairs.
Making her debut appearance at the Championships, Ogunleye, 18, was drawn in lane two of the first of four heats for the women’s 60m. Even with a great start which put her ahead out of the blocks, she was unable to match the might of world junior bronze medallist Kristal Awuah who is being touted as the next big prospect in women’s sprinting. In a close field, Ogunleye finished fifth in 7.70s, just outside of the PB she had set at last weeks County Championships and had to wait until the last heat to discover if she had done enough to hold onto one of the fastest losers’ slots to qualify through to the semi-finals. Agonisingly she saw her hopes slip away as the final race of round one featuring Asha Philip produced a quicker time and she relinquished the final qualifying slot by a mere one 100dth of a second.
“The whole experience at Birmingham was amazing, I felt very privileged to have the opportunity to compete at such a high level and feel the energy from the crowd.”
On Sunday, 19-year-old Jeggo bagged herself lane five of the second heat of the women’s 200m, and after a modest start she had a good pick up and made up ground on lane 6 and by halfway down the back straight she was neck and neck. With 50m to go it was anyone’s race, but a strong finish from the inside lanes, left her battling hard to finish in fourth place in a time of 24.76s. Like her training partner, Jeggo then had to wait until the final heat had completed to confirm that sadly she had missed out on progressing through.
“After getting a PB the previous weekend, I went into the championships feeling quick and strong. I was happy to have run another good sub 25s time and on the big stage. The crowd was really loud, it was amazing.”