After The Flood, It Rains Medals For Welsh Athletes At UK Athletics Championships

By Owen Morgan

Following the torrential rain that ended day one of the UK Athletics Championships, there was a flood of medals from Welsh athletes at the start of day two.

The opening track action saw a Welsh one-two in the 5000m race walk thanks to Pembrokeshire Harrier Heather Warner and Cardiff’s Bethan Davies.

Warner dominated from the start to claim gold in a time of 22:22.50 ahead of her great friend and rival Davies, who clocked 22:58.85.

Warner said afterwards: “It feels amazing to come back here (Manchester) and be British Champion again. I had a tough race last year with being disqualified, so it felt good to walk a good race today.

“The cards were shown quite early on, so it was a hard race to manage with being careful not to foul and achieving a good time. I would have loved to have pushed even more, but I had to play it tactically which I did.”

Asked about the rest of the season, Warner added: “I’m looking more towards the winter season at the moment. It feels good to finish on a high before we get the blocks back out for the winter.”

Silver medallist Davies added: “It was a really good race, and to medal with my great friend Heather is a great feeling. It’s great to come here (British Champs) especially for race walking as usually we are on the roads for longer distances. It’s a great opportunity to showcase our sport.

“It was a good crowd today, they got behind all us athletes. I did set my PB in the rain actually, but I’m very glad the weather wasn’t like yesterday, it looked horrible.

“I’m happy with where I’m at currently. I would love to get back to under 21 minutes. I’m aiming to do some 20ks in the winter.”

Tom Wilcock lunges over the line in a bid to claim bronze in the 110m hurdles. Pic: Owen Morgan.

Tom Wilcock came within a hair’s breadth of claiming a fifth Welsh medal in the 110m hurdles.

The Northampton AC athlete ran a new personal best of 13.69 as he finished third in his heat to earn a fastest losers spot in the final.

Lining up in lane one, Wilcock ran a brilliant race to take another chunk off his PB to cross the line in 13.48, just 0.02 off the bronze medal time as Tade Ojora took gold.

Full results can be found on the British Athletics website.