Loughborough International

22 May 2016

Cheltenham Harriers Mollie Courtney and Sophie Yorke were on top form at the Loughborough International as they represented the GB under 20 team. Their call-up to the squad last week followed PBs at the West of England Championships in Yate where Courtney won the 100m hurdles in 13.71s and Yorke the 100m in 11.87s and 200m with 24.79s. At Loughborough, Courtney had the run of her life stopping the trackside clock at 13.30s, although this was later confirmed as 13.32. As well as winning the race and smashing her personal best and Cheltenham Harriers record, it was also well inside the 13.50 qualification time for the upcoming IAAFWorld Junior Championships in Poland. Courtney commented, “I don’t remember much about the race but I really wanted to hang onto the England girl as she had already run sub-13.5 this year. I sensed we were close towards the end so I just kept going. I am ecstatic to have got the qualifying standard”. Not only that but the run also put the Dave Warner coached athlete joint fifth on the UK under 20 all-time list and is provisionally the second fastest set by a European junior woman and tenth on the world rankings so far in 2016.

Called up for the GB Junior 4 × 100m relay squad, Yorke was told over breakfast that she had a lane in a Guest 100m race which she won from lane one setting a new PB of 11.76s. This also broke breaking the Harriers under 20 and senior record that had stood since 1998. That set Yorke up for the relay later in the day where she ran the fourth leg holding off the England senior team in the home straight for an impressive win for the GB Juniors. Their time of 45.04s was the second fastest set at Loughborough by the GB junior team since 2008 – quite a feat given they had first practiced together just the day before.