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- Sam Gordon . . . The Fastest Welshman In History (Unofficially)
By Owen Morgan
Cardiff sprinter Sam Gordon produced the fastest Welsh 100m time in history on day two of the Welsh Athletics Championships.
In the last event of the day, Gordon blasted to a wind-assisted time of 10.08 seconds to claim the Welsh title.
Unfortunately, the following wind means that the time won’t go down in the records books. Had it been legal it would have been a new Welsh record.
However, Gordon was delighted with the time and feels it is now only a matter of time before becomes the first Welshman to dip under 10 seconds.
The Cardiff Athletics man said: “I want to see how the next three races go, but it’s on the cards. When it will happen, I have no idea, but it’s going to happen soon.
“I am extremely happy – extremely happy. It’s been a really tough season so far. Things haven’t gone my way.
“You could say they haven’t gone my way again today because the wind is illegal, but it’s a step in the right direction. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ for getting me here healthy and hopefully we can push on now for the rest of the season.”
It was a day of records and personal bests at the Cardiff International Sports Centre with T38 Paralympic medallist Olivia Breen breaking her own Commonwealth long jump record, which she set on the Gold Coast last year.
The City of Portsmouth athlete leapt to a distance of 4.81m in the long jump competition where Sarah Abrams, of Blackheath and Bromley, took the win with a jump of 6.23m.
There was another outstanding performance in the men’s hammer, where Cardiff’s Jac Palmer broke the 70m barrier by one centimetre to set a new PB and move into second place on the all-time Welsh list behind Osian Jones, of Liverpool Harriers, who finished second on this occasion.
Palmer said: “It’s been building for a while, I’m really chuffed with it, I’ve been working hard. It’s good to have a good competition with Osian, I couldn’t have done it without having the quality competition.”
In the race walking showdown between Wales’ British 5k and 20k champions Bethan Davies and Heather Lewis, it was Pembrokeshire athlete Lewis, who took the title in new PB of 21:41.34.
Lewis and Davies, who finished first and second in the recent British 20K World Championships trials, will now go in search of the qualifying time for the Doha event.
Lewis said: “I’m really chuffed to finally break 22 minutes. I’m really pleased. I was a bit shocked when I saw 4:10 for the first kilometre, which was probably a little bit quick especially with the heat as well. But sometimes for the 5k you’ve just got to go for it right from the start and see what happens.
“We’re concentrating now on going to Switzerland to do another 20k to try and get the World Championships standard.”
Another two Welsh Commonwealth Games athletes went head-to-head in the men’s 1500m, where Cardiff’s Ieuan Thomas, just edged out team-mate Rowan Axe.
Fellow GB international Owen Smith also reached the top step of the podium with an impressive run in the 400m, where he clocked 47.57 to retain his title.
In the 400m hurdles, Lauren Williams returned on Sunday to complete the one lap double, which she had started the previous day by winning the 400m flat title.
The Cardiff athlete dipped under 60 seconds to comfortably clinch the hurdles title in a time of 59.31.
There was also a double on Sunday for Birchfield Harrier Adele Nicholl, who added the shot put title to the discus crown she had won the previous day.
And there was a third double success on the second day as Jade Williams clinched the 1500m title following her 800m win 24 hours earlier.
The Amman Valley Harrier clinched the longer distance title by clocking 4:26.51, just ahead of fellow Welsh international Charlotte Arter, of Cardiff Athletics, who clocked 4:26.88.
Olympian Brett Morse claimed an incredible 11th Welsh title in the discus, with a winning effort of 56.79m, while Hannah Williams, of Bristol and West AC edged out Birchfield Harrier Mica Moore in an exciting 100m final.
Full results from across the two days can be found on the Welsh Athletics website.
