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EPACC Athletes in Action at UK Championships

St Mary’s University College based athletes were in action over the weekend at the UK Championships held at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. The event incorporated the trials for the European Championships taking place in Barcelona later this summer and number of athletes were chasing A and B qualifying standards.

 Jo Pavey continued her comeback from giving birth last year with a superb solo-effort, winning the 10,000m in a B standard qualifying time of 31:51.91.  

Stephanie Twell finished 5th in a slow-paced 1500m final won by Hannah England. Steph, who already holds a B qualifying standard in the event this year, will fly to Spain later this week to compete in the Meeting de Madrid on Friday where she hopes to achieve the A standard of 4:06.00.  Steph has just completed a Strength and Conditioning degree at St Mary’s University College and will begin a masters  programme in the autumn.

St Mary’s based Sam Farah ran a season’s best of 8:52.42 to finish second in the men’s 3000m steeplechase whilst current student Tom Wade put in a superb performance to take third in a personal best time of 8:53.75.

First year student Ben Wallis qualified for the 800m final after smashing his personal best by a huge margin of almost two seconds in the semi-final.

In the men’s 5000m Chris Thompson produced another impressive performance cruising to victory in a time of 13:48.51. Chris has had a number of spells training at St Mary’s this year in between stints in the US. Current student Andy Vernon was second with Mike Skinner finishing in 7th place.

Andy Baddeley looked comfortable to take the 1500m title having already achieved two A standards this year while Colin McCourt came through the field for second place. Colin will be looking for a European qualifying standard later this week when he travels to compete in Stockholm with another EPACC athlete, James Brewer.

St Mary’s alumnus Jemma Simpson looked in fine form in the 800m moving to the front early in the race and increasing her lead in the final straight to take the title in 2:01.50.

In the women’s 3000m steeplechase current student Laura Parker produced a good performance to finish 6th in a personal best time of 10:22.89.