The recent announcement of the GB U18 team to attend the forthcoming World Youth Championships at Bressanone in the Sud Tirol of Italy was warmly welcomed by two of Herts Phoenix’s rising stars.

n the same week that thirteen of the clubs other young stars will be in Sheffield competing at the English Schools Championships these two will be swapping their orange county vests for red, white and blue ones and representing Great Britain on the world stage.

 

Nathan Wake, 16, a student at Richard Hale School, Hertford and Jodie Williams, 15, a student at Queenswood school, Brookman’s Park have been selected and will travel to Italy for the championships which run between 8th and 12th July this year.

The small team of nineteen athletes has been selected with the intention that only athletes who stand a genuine chance of making the finals in their events should travel to the global U18 championships.

Jodie has been selected in the 100m, 200m and relay and has been on top form this year particularly over the 200m where she currently lies ranked 4th in the UK at all ages.  Jodie won her first international call up at the Loughborough international meeting in May and has been training hard since despite a recent bout of tonsillitis from which she has successfully recovered.

Her recent 200m PB of 23.25s recorded at Bedford in May will stand her in good stead to take on the best in the world in Bressanone.  There she will compete alongside domestic rival Shaunagh Thompson in an attempt to make it a clean sweep for team GB.

Nathan has been selected for the 400m and is currently ranked 4th in the UK under 20 age group despite being one of the youngest athletes in that category.  His recent personal best of 47.13s at the Mannheim international meeting in Germany showed that his progression is steadily taking him towards the top.

Both athletes are looking forward greatly to the opportunity to compete on the world stage and test themselves against the best.

Their friends, team mates, former coaches and everyone Herts Phoenix AC is extremely pleased that these young, talented and hard working athletes have been selected and wishes them very success on what we hope will be the first step in a long and successful career in the GB vest.  We will all be following their progress closely via web and text messages from those in Italy and want them to know that the club is very proud indeed that they have been chosen to represent Team GB at the championships.

See UK:A website news section for details of the full team.