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- Jonny Hopkins Leads The Way As Welsh Athletes Battle Hard In Belgium
By Owen Morgan
Swansea Harrier Jonny Hopkins led the way with a new personal best and a European Championship qualifying time as a strong contingent of Welsh athletes competed in Belgium at the weekend.
Ten athletes were supported by Welsh Athletics to travel to the International Flanders Athletics Meeting in Oordegem, and the investment certainly paid off with a glut of qualifying times, personal bests and season’s best.
Steeplechaser Hopkins, who has been in excellent form already this season finishing sixth at the Commonwealth Games and more recently winning the Welsh 5K Championships, finished third just behind Spanish duo Daniel Arce and Eric Penalver.
The occupational therapist at the Princess of Wales Hospital clocked a time of 8.30.52 – three and a half seconds inside his previous best set at the same meeting last year.
The time has also been confirmed as being inside the qualifying mark for the 3000m steeplechase at this summer’s European Championships in Berlin.
Hopkins said: “I’m really pleased to get the standard, but I still feel like there is a lot more to give. I lost a few seconds with my last few water jumps, which is frustrating but also exciting because I know I can go quicker.”
Shortly afterwards, in the final event of the meeting, there was another big qualifying performance from a Welsh athlete.
Cardiff AAC’s Jake Heyward, the reigning European Under-20 1500m champion, finished second in his heat, stopping the clock in a time of 3:42.31 – inside the qualifying standard for the World Junior Championships being held in Finland this July.
Earlier in the day there had been a number of other impressive performances by the travelling Welsh athletes.
First up was 19-year-old Swansea Harrier Joe Brier, who enjoyed a big PB finishing second in his 400m heat in a time of 47.31. His older sister Hannah made her outdoor season debut in the 100m where she finished 6th in her heat in 11.75.
There was another personal best from a young Swansea Harrier in the 400m hurdles where Lauren Williams produced a fine performance to finish fifth in 59.80.
Cardiff AAC’s Owen Smith came within a vest’s width of beating his PB as he stormed to victory in the 400m where he stopped the clock in 46.24 – an agonising 0.01 seconds outside his best.
Among those Smith overcame on his way to victory was home favourite Dylan Borlee, the youngest of the famed trio of Borlee brothers, who won bronze in the 4x400m at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham earlier this year and is a European Championship gold medallist.
In form Swansea Harrier Laura Maddox clocked a season’s best in the women’s 400m when she finished second to Anne Louise Bertheau, of France, in a time of 53.76.
World Championship relay bronze medallist and European Championship relay gold medallist Seren Bundy-Davies, of Trafford AC, finished sixth in the same heat with an outdoor season opening time of 54.81.
In the men’s 400m hurdles Cardiff AAC’s Paul Bennett came away with a season’s best time of 52.30 as he finished fifth from lane eight.
And there was yet another season’s best in the men’s 800m where Cardiff AAC’s Alex Coomber finished seventh in his heat in a time of 1:49.14.
