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- Jac Palmer And Jake Heyward Were An Ocean Apart But Both Hit Commonwealth Games Standard
By Owen Morgan
Welsh athletes Jac Palmer and Jake Heyward registered Commonwealth Games qualifying standards as they competed on opposite sides of the Atlantic on Saturday.
Hammer thrower Palmer claimed his standard in Aberdare in the afternoon, while Heyward clocked his 1500m qualifying time in Irvine, California, later in the evening.
For Heyward it was a spectacular return to racing as he clocked a new personal best of 3:36.24 in only his fourth race since August 2019.
In an eye-catching season-opener at the star-studded Sound Running Track Meet, Heyward finished second to 2016 Olympic 1500m champion Matt Centrowitz.
Dad we did it!
Commonwealth Games Qualifier!
Diolch eto i @WelshAthletics , edrych ymlaen i daflu dros Cymru wythnos nesaf! pic.twitter.com/QGvo4DKxRx
— Jac Palmer (@jac_palm) May 15, 2021
The time was Heyward’s fastest since leaving his home-city of Cardiff in 2019 to base himself in America with the world-famous Oregon Track Club Elite.
The 2019 Welsh Athletics men’s junior athlete of the year took more than half a second off his previous best of 3:36.90 which he set at the 2018 Diamond League Anniversary Games in London.
Heyward beat fellow Briton Marc Scott into third place in California as he posted the second fastest outdoor 1500m time by a British athlete this year. It is also the fastest by a British Under-23 athlete during 2021.
The time, which followed five weeks of altitude training in Flagstaff Arizona, was outside of the Tokyo Olympic qualifying standard of 3:35.90.
But it was a hugely promising performance from an athlete whose appearances have been limited by injury and the restricted athletics calendar in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
During his junior career, Heyward won 1500m gold at the 2016 European Youth Championships and European Junior Championships the following year, where he beat Norwegian sensation Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
Closer to home, Heyward’s Cardiff Athletics club mate Palmer was staking his own claim for a place at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
Competing at the Welsh Athletics Spring Invitational at the Ron James Stadium, Palmer produced a winning throw of 69.74m – well beyond the required standard of 69m.
Palmer has previously gone beyond the 70m barrier when he threw 70.01m to win the Welsh hammer title in 2019, but that performance was outside the qualifying period.
Saturday’s effort was the fifth longest by a British athlete this year – edging him one cm ahead of fellow Welshman Osian Jones.
Full results from the Spring Invitational can be found on the Welsh Athletics website.
