BROMSGROVE and Redditch Athletic Club’s (BRAC) young athletes enjoyed a successful weekend representing Hereford and Worcester county at the English Schools Athletics Championships in Manchester.
The championships, held at Sportcity, have become known as the starting point for many future and current GB athletes with the likes of Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Kelly Holmes and Greg Rutherford all previously taking part.
And Ollie Dieppe proved to be the club’s only medallist as he claimed silver in the 80-metre hurdles to set a new personal best (PB) and club record time of 11.50 seconds to overtake previous record holder Matt Griffin who was acting as a team manager.
BRAC’s Sam Hembry just missed out on a bronze medal in the 800m but was at least rewarded with a PB of 2 minutes 1.51 secs to take Gary Corbett’s longstanding club record.
Elsewhere, Ella Burrows ran extremely close to her PB in the 100m heats but was unable to qualify for the semi-finals in a high-quality field of sprinters.
And Luke Richardson narrowly missed out on a place in the 800m final, at his last English Schools event, after he was overtaken just before the finish line to come home third with only the first two guaranteed a spot in the final.
Fellow BRAC athlete Will Hembry ran just one second slower than his PB in his 800m heat but was unable to progress to the final.
The club’s athletes gained fantastic experience against some of the best competition from around the country with many keen to make the team for next year’s championships together with other representatives from the club.
