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Jack Meredith and the 4x400m quartet claim bronze medals on the final day of competition at the World Junior Championships
WORLD youth silver medallist Jack Meredith claimed a bronze medal in the 110m hurdles on the final day at the World Junior Championships but the Liverpool Harrier, who was fastest en route to the final, was disappointed with his performance.
“I stumbled out the blocks. I’m happy that I made up ground, but I wouldn’t have been happy with anything other than gold,” he admitted. “It was a shaky start and it took me a while to get into my rhythm; I got into it eventually but it was too late.”
The gold medal went to Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in 13.52 (-2.4 m/s), who defeated Norway’s Vladimir Vukicevic (13.59), while Meredith was rewarded with the same time as the silver medallist.
The 4x400m team added another bronze medal to the tally as the quartet of Nathan Wake, Dan Putnam, Sebastian Rodger and 400m hurdles finalist Jack Green finished third in 3:06.49 to finish behind the USA (3:04.76) and Nigeria, who set a national junior record of 3:06.36.
Niall Brooks just missed out on a medal in the final of the 800m, finishing fourth, albeit in a lifetime best of 1:47.02, but the Norman Poole-coached athlete was a mere two-hundredths shy of the USA’s Robby Andrews, who won the bronze medal.
The fourth placer reflected: “I felt really good all the way round. I thought the front three had gone but they got closer and closer and it looked like it was there so I went for it. Maybe I should have gone out quicker, but I thought yesterday I went off too quickly and died, and I knew if I wanted to medal today I’d have to keep something for the last 100m.”
Kenya’s David Mutua won the gold medal in a PB of 1:46.41.
Laura Weightman finished a creditable sixth in the final of the 1500m in a PB of 4:14.31 behind Tizita Bogale from Ethiopia, who took the title in 4:08.06 from Ireland’s Ciara Mageean (4:09.51). Early pace-setter Nancy Chepkwemoi won the bronze medal (4:11.04).
The Steve Cram-coached athlete commented: “I’m disappointed. I felt so good in the race so I thought I might come a little a bit higher up than that, but it’s still a PB so I can’t really complain.”
World youth champion Ben Williams finished 11th in the triple jump in 15.42m but Kola Adedoyin didn’t record a valid effort.
As the World Junior Championships drew to a close, the overall British medal tally was the best since 1994 as team GB came away with two gold medals, two silver medals and four bronze medals to rank sixth in the medal table, and fifth in the placing table.
Team leader Kevin Tyler said: “It’s the second best ever performance by a British team at a World Junior Championships and it’s probably one of the deepest quality junior teams we’ve ever had. I think there are a number of medals left on the table in a couple of instances, but we’ve got an amazing amount of talent on this team.
“From an inspirational standpoint, we’ve had the gold medals from Jodie Williams in the 100m and from Sophie Hitchon winning the hammer on her final throw, and I think the event which best represented the spirit of the team was the men’s 4x400m. They weren’t projected to be anywhere but they competed right at the end and they've remained professional throughout the entire competition and delivered on the day.
The next edition of the World Junior Championships will be held in Barcelona in July 2012.
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