The crowd at the national championships in Birmingham were treated to a remarkable performance from sprint queen Jodie Williams to lighten a dark and rainy Saturday this weekend.  Having won the U15 100m title at the English Schools Championships Jodie stepped up to challenge the U17s and in particular the very fast and talented Shaunna Thompson of Sale Harriers.

With both girls having run similar personal bests of around 11.7 seconds it promised to be a fantastic race and so it turned out to be.  Both girls progressed through their heats and semi finals with comfortable wins – Shaunna running in the 11.7 range each time and Jodie, conserving her energy, around the 12.0 second mark.

In the final Jodie started well and lead over the first 30 metres with Shaunna responding strongly and coming through to take the lead at about the 60 metre mark.  Both girls were, by now, well clear of the field and it was time to see if Jodie could retain her unbeaten winning streak.  Remaining relaxed Jodie moved up a gear to come through back into the lead with just over 10 metres to go – her team mates in the stand all cheering and willing her on.  It was a close finish but there was daylight between them as Jodie won in a new UK best time for an U15 girl of 11.56s – to Shaunna’s 11.64 – also a personal best for her.  To put this in perspective the previous holder Ashlee Nelson who set a time of 11.58s two years ago is currently in Beijing with the British 4x100 relay squad.

Jodie was over the moon with her performance – her face a picture as she realised the fantastic time she had run - a real ‘Kelly Holmes’ moment!  Her dad Richard Williams was very proud – ‘I knew she could run fast with the right opposition and Jodie wanted to test herself against someone who we knew would provide a real challenge – to run this time is fantastic – we are so pleased for her.’

The following day Jodie returned to the U15 age group to retain her 200m title in a time of 24.45s finishing a marvellous weekend for a very talented, committed and hard working athlete.

Elsewhere two Bronze medals were also won by Herts Phoenix athletes.

On Sunday in improved conditions Claire Humphries, in the U17 80m Hurdles, returned to form having had a season of mixed fortunes.  Following on from her season’s best at the inter-county meeting last weekend she felt she could make the final and challenge for a medal and so it proved to be.  Claire’s heat was full of drama when it took three starts to finally get them underway – two girls having false started – and Claire, drawn in the same heat as English Schools Champion Kirsty Warland from Oxford, overcame a bad mid section of her race to finish strongly in 3rd with 11.61s.  This was the fastest heat by some distance and she easily qualified for the final later in the afternoon along with Kirsty.  Drawn in lane 7 Claire was next to the English Schools Bronze medallist Rebecca Liddell from Gateshead with all three medallists from that championships in the final.  Another false start did nothing to calm the nerves of the spectators but with the race underway Claire started strongly.  As the athletes approached the final barrier Claire was in 5th place with anyone of 6 athletes in contention for a medal.  She cleared the last hurdle well and showed tremendous strength and desire to get to the line in 11.56s with Kirsty winning in 11.32s.

However, the judges could not split 2nd to 4th by eye and a photograph was required.  There then followed a 40 minute wait, which seemed like for ever, before Claire was told that she had finished 3rd and won the bronze medal with just 6 hundreths of a second separating second and fourth place!  Claire – having finished 4th last year was so relieved to have won a medal to bring a positive end to her season.  Claire said ‘the wait was awful – we were just told to sit down whilst they looked at the photo, not knowing who had won the medals and it took ages for the judges to decide.  I am really pleased to have won the Bronze this time!’

In the U17 Javelin competition Eloise Meakins followed up her silver medal at the South of England Championships with a fantastic Bronze.  In blustery conditions she threw a strong 38.36m to take a medal from the last major championship of the season.  She was particularly pleased as she felt that her performance at the English schools Championships, where she finished 7th, was below par and to end with a throw close to her best was testament to her determination to show she could perform again at the highest level.

Although not winning medals there were a number of other notable performances from the Club’s athletes.

Hannah Lloyd continued to perform well above her ranking and having qualified for the final of the U17 300mHurdles as a fastest loser ran a fantastic race to finish 6th in a new personal best time of 45.12s – knocking over half a second off her previous best time of 45.75s.  This moves her up to 10th in the national rankings.  Hannah is having a strong finish to her first season at the event and improving all the time under the watchful eye of Colin Gaynor at Gosling.

Andrew Walshe and Simon Wake both ran strong heats in the U15 boys 400m to qualify for the final the next day – Simon running a personal best of 53.6s to show that his injury niggles appear to be behind him.  In the final they both ran strongly with Andrew Challenging for a medal all the way to the line to miss out by  a few hundredths of a second – finishing 4th after a fantastic and gutsy performance.  His time of 52.69 was yet another personal best this season.  Simon, although running strongly, finished in 8th with his lack of training due to his recent injuries telling in the finishing straight.  Despite his disappointment he should be pleased at qualifying for the final as at one stage this season it looked like he may not be able to race at this level again until next year.

Katie Caulfield finished 5th in the long jump with a jump of 5.40m and although disappointed can look back on this season with immense pride having won the English Schools Championships and an international vest.  She never looked comfortable in extremely wet and blustery conditions and all the jumpers were below their best. Katie will now travel to the UK games at the end of August and hope to end the season on a high.

Richard Humphries endured a frustrating afternoon in the hammer.  Having thrown a huge personal best the previous week of over 52m he could not find his rhythm and was disappointed to finish 12 with just over 46m.  Richard too travels to the UK games with hopes to end the year on a positive note.

Joe Gaynor, in the U17 800m was drawn in an extremely fast heat – all 8 of those present had faster PBs than he had run.  However, Joe who has had a minor leg injury of late ran very close to his personal best recording 2m01.65s to finish 6th but just missed out on the final.

Deborah Willis was 6th in her heat of the U17w 300m in a time of 42.08s but unfortunately did not progress.

Gemma Armorgie, in the U15G High Jump, looking to add to her South of England silver medal, was eliminated at 1.51m, well below her best, in difficult blustery conditions.

Sarah Miller competed in both Discus and Shot Putt and acquitted herself well at her first national championships to finish 11th and 14th respectively with 22.42m and 9.31m in the Shot in wet and windy conditions.

Jon Humphries