Loughborough Students Open / BMC Regional Races
Saturday 27th April / Monday 29th April 2019
Kingston upon Hull athletes Venus Morgan and Jodie Martin took advantage of high quality out of town events to continue their early season preparation for the forthcoming major track and field championships when competing at the Loughborough Students AC Open and the British Milers Club Regional Races respectively.
Venus travelled south to the Paula Radcliffe Stadium on the Loughborough University campus for an event which doubles as the trials for the host’s team for the British Universities & Colleges Championships. With Loughborough having won the team event at these championships for many years competition for places is keen guaranteeing strong fields in all events. This year was no exception despite bitterly cold weather and strong blustery winds.
Despite being the Northern indoor bronze medallist in the sprint hurdles Venus found herself in the B race where she defied the unfavourable conditions to emerge a clear winner in a season’s best time of 14.66 seconds, beating the entry standard for both the English Schools & England Athletics under 20 championships, both of which are major targets for later in the season once her A level examinations have been completed. Venus also produced a very useful performance in the 100m flat where she finished 4th in the C race in 12.59 sec, marginally outside her personal best.
Jodie made the shorter trip along the M62 where Leeds Beckett University hosted the first British Milers’ Club Regional Races of 2019. The club was formed in 1963 with the specific intention of raising the standard of performance in middle distance events in Great Britain by encouraging top athletes to compete against each other on a regular basis and by providing advice and guidance to athletes and coaches alike. Such was its success in the early years that many top foreign athletes were keen to become members and travel to the UK to compete in events staged by the club. Most of Britain’s top 800m & 1,500m athletes have taken advantage of such events and their popularity has continued to grow. Over 50 events are already planned for 2019 stretching from Glasgow to Exeter, most including events for athletes in the under 17 age group upwards. Having achieved the strict entry standard for club membership last season Jodie chose the Leeds event for her first 800m of the season, looking to gain experience in competitive races and hopefully to pick up her English Schools entry standard – an event in which she was a finalist in 2018, clocking her personal best of 2:14.15 at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium. What followed was a real bonus. Keeping in close touch with the early pace Jodie took control of the race on the second lap and romped home by over 2 seconds from a quality field, stopping the clock at 2:13.15, exactly 1 second inside her old mark, placing her 6th on the UK ranking list at this early stage of the season. This is also a new club under17 record, improving Jodie’s own performance from last season.
Both girls are now looking forward to the Humberside Championships later in the month with the Northern under 20 Championships to follow for Venus in early June.
