HIGHLY-rated Adele Lassu sent out a statement to the rest of Britain’s female highjumpers by grabbing a brilliant gold medal for Yorkshire in the UK Athletics Inter-Counties Competition at Bedford International Stadium on Sunday. Adele was competing in the women's highjump against some of the highest ranked senior highjumpers in Britain but Adele landed gold after taking a joint first place with Julia Bennet, who has just returned from the Commonwealth Games. Both cleared all heights at the first attempt and finally took victory at a height of 1.75cm.
Adele trains at Loughbrough University under the coaching of John Anderson, previous Olympic Coach and famous for the television programme 'Gladiators'. This is Adele's first season in the under 20s and since being identified as a future International hopeful for Great Britain, she has already been placed on a gruelling intensive strength and conditioning training plan in preparation for next year. Barnsley AC’S Hannah Bird ran a blistering race to win the 200m sprint at the North of England’s U/17 and U/15 Championships at South Leeds Stadium last weekend. Hannah was in fourth place at the bend, but she came from behind to take a splendid first place in a new personal best of 25-84, a time which brings her into the UKA rankings table.
The U/17 athlete also ran well in the 300m event. Having qualified for the final in first place in 41-16, she finished second in 41-6. There were also good performances in the U/15’s category. Charlotte Worth cleared 1.50m to finish ninth in the high jump. In the 100m heats Sophie Temple was fourth with a time of 13-52 and Jadie Horne was fifth with 13-72. Horne qualified for the 200m final in 27-6 and Kate Ellis was fourth in 28-23. Rebecca Hirst took first place in her heat in the 75m hurdles in 11-76 and than ran a fantastic personal best in the final of 11-44 to take first place and fourth in the UKA rankings.
Temple took fourth spot in the long jump with a personal best of 5.12m and in the shot putt Kirsty Taylor took third place with a personal best of 9.02m. She then took a well-earned second place in the discus with a throw of 26.06m. In the U/17 men’s 400m, Luke Edwards ran 53-7 in the heats for first place and then 52-56 to take sixth place in the final. Barnsley AC sisters Amanda and Racheal Shaw came away medalists from Cleethorpes at the weekend. Both sisters ran against each other in the 100m on Saturday even though Racheal is only a junior lady. Twenty one year-old Amanda stormed home in first place winning the gold with 17-year-old Racheal not far behind in the bronze medal position. In the 200m, only Racheal was entered and again, having to run against senior ladies, Racheal ran a superb race claiming the gold medal. Amanda is competing this weekend in the UK National Womens' league at Wigan.
