English Champs Create Club Records for Ogunleye and Akinboh.

Three teenage Harriers took the journey to Sheffield to compete in the England Athletics Age Group Championships held over the weekend of 23rd and 24th February.

On Saturday Joy Ogunleye successfully worked her way through three rounds to find herself in the final of the U20 women’s 60m.  Once again utilising her lightening start to gain her a good advantage from the gun and showing composure in round two as her semi-final was thwarted by a delayed recall on a false start. In an exciting and much anticipated final, she displayed a great return to form to cross the line in a very tight sixth position, where just 3 hundredths of a second split fourth to sixth places.  Her time produced a season’s best of 7.62s, equalling her lifetime best and beats her previous Club Record by two hundredths of a second.

I was grateful to have the opportunity to compete up in Sheffield against some of the top girls in the country and to come away equalling my pb. I learnt so much from the experience and am looking forward to running even faster in the upcoming outdoor season.” 

Powerfully built Akin Akinboh, in only his second meet of the season, managed to produce two very consistent runs in the U20’s men’s 60m with both his heat and his semi clocking the exact same time of 7.07s  a new PB and Club Record.   From lane 8 he managed to gain a fastest loser slot having placed third in the fourth heat and was delighted to race again in the second of the three semis where he lined up against a top ten UK ranked sprinter who went on to claim the championship silver. Unfortunately his third place finish was not enough to gain a place in the final, but the next day he also competed the 200m where despite a good start he was not able to keep up with the field, crossing in sixth place.

“I was pleased with my time in my heat after I stumbled at the start but I had hoped to run quicker in my semi.  It was a really good learning opportunity, there is so much I can bring back and work on at training.” Akin commented.

Having been hit with the winter lurgy a week before, Rebecca Jeggo made the long trip north to compete on Sunday morning to challenge the 200m, her third time at this competition.  Sadly though, luck was not on her side.  Having gained an automatic qualifying place into the semi after her heat, where she eased down in 25s dead, she was then drawn against the Dubarry-Gay sisters. A lovely start then saw her open up along the back straight and it was neck and neck as she came off the final bend, just one one hundredth of a second separated her from an automatic place in the final as she had to settle for third. Agonisingly, despite gaining the sixth fastest qualifying time, only five athletes were eligible for the final. 

“Having ended my fastest ever indoor season with another sub 25s 200m time, missing out on a place in the final by a hundredth, I am looking forward to some solid training and to see what I can achieve outdoors.”