Heyward Qualifies For World Juniors 1500m Final

Jake Heyward vowed to go all out for glory after qualifying for the World Junior Championships 1500m final with an impressive run in Finland.

The Cardiff AAC runner finished third in his heat in Tampere on Tuesday to reach the final on Thursday

Heyward, who won the European Junior title over the distance last year, clocked three minutes 45.45 seconds.

The 19-year-old said: “It was a really good race, the crowd were amazing but the field was really strong.

“I stuck to my plan to get an automatic qualifying spot and it paid off. All that matters is getting to the final because no one looks back at the heats and thinks ‘he did that there’.

“It’s going to be a competitive field and I have absolutely nothing to lose.

“I’m just going to give it a go and see what happens. As long as I leave the track knowing I’ve given the best account of myself on Thursday that’s all that matters.”

Heyward is one of three Welsh athletes in the GB team in Finland being joined by James Tomlinson in the discus and Joe Brier in the 4x400m Relay squad.

Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera won Heyward’s heat in 3:44.48 with Serbia’s Elzan Bibic clocking a personal best 3:44.68 for second.

But it was all about grabbing one of the automatic qualifying slot’s with Heyward’s time the sixth fastest from all the three heats.