Success for young track and field stars

We are pleased to be sponsoring the Birchfield Harriers ‘Junior Development’ programme again this year. This is the seventh year running we’ve sponsored the athletics club.

We are supporting 20 ambitious young athletes in their development, many of whom have already enjoyed success at the recent European U18 Championships and the England U20 Championships.

Just this weekend at the European U18 Championships Cassie-Ann Pemberton ran the fastest time in the semi-final qualifiers with 11.56 second and just missed out on bronze in the final. This follows her England U20 Championships success where she won bronze in both the 100m and 200m and her time of 11.74 seconds in the 100m placed her at 5th in the UK.

Also taking home medals from the England U20 Championships were Abbazz Shayan-Smith who won the triple jump, bagging her the top spot in the UK rankings, and Benjamin Saunders took bronze in the high jump.

Other notable successes at these championships also included talented sprinter Kaie Chambers-Brown, who has been on the programme for two years and scooped the bronze medal in the 100m race. He recorded the fastest time in the UK in 2018 in his heat running 10.35 seconds, which is the qualifying standard for the World Junior Championships. He has now been selected for these championships, his first competition on the world stage.

Looking ahead, we have high expectations for our ambitious young athletes at this week’s English Schools Championships and further ahead in the 2022 Commonwealth Games scheduled to be held on the athletes and LDC’s home soil in Birmingham!

Everyone at LDC wishes all the athletes the very best of luck for what is set to be another fantastic year for the Birchfield Harriers and GB athletics!

A selection of the LDC-supported Birchfield Harriers athletes:-

Anya Bates

Ranked 9th in 100m hurdles and 8th in the long jump.

Nichole Birmingham

She is ranked 19th in shot and has taken up the hammer this season already throwing 43.94m which puts her 26th in the UK.

Kyle Boden

In his first year as an U17 he has a new pb in the long jump of 6.37 putting him 24th in UK.

Kaie Chambers-Brown

Recorded fastest time in the UK in 100m with a time of 10.35 – scooped the bronze medal at the England U20 Championships.

Jose Duhaney

Another young athlete who has moved to U17 this year. He has a new pb of 50.75 for 400m and is 21st in the UK.

Zachary Elliot

After a year out through injury Zach is making his way back to fitness and is ranked 23rd in the 100m hurdles.

Dylan King

Having moved up to U17 Dylan has improved his pb over 800m to 1.58 and is looking to go quicker by the end of the season.

Jasmine Lovell

Another triple jumper who is relatively new to the event. She currently stands at 30th in the U20 rankings.

Leah Ohirki

Leah is in the U17 age group now and is making her mark against older girls. Her 100m time of 12.2 secs puts her at 10th in the UK’

Cassie-Ann Pemberton

Won bronze in both the 100m and 200m heats and her time of 11.74 seconds in the 100m sprint at the England U20 Championships has placed her at 5th in the UK.

Jordan Ricketts

Jordan is the leading U17 100m hurdler in the UK. His progress this season puts him as number one in the UK. He finished 7^th in the European U18 Championships.

Louise Robinson

Louise has moved from 300mh to 400mh as she is now competing in the U20 age group. She currently stands at 15th in the UK rankings.

Benjamin Saunders

Ben has cleared 2m for the first time this year putting him 9th in the UK

Abbazz Shayan-Smith

After a winter marred by injury Abbazz has returned to competition and her new pb of 12.68m puts her in the number one spot in the UK rankings.

Ryan Shields

In his first year in the U17 age group Ryan has improved his 1500m time to 4.06 some 9 seconds quicker than he ran last year. This puts him in 27th in the UK and he expects to run even quicker as the season progresses.

Oshay Williams

Following a successful indoor season where he won the England U17 200m title Oshay has continued to improve his outdoor times and in his first year in this age group is ranked at 23rd.