European
Youth Olympic Festival, Charlety Stadium, Paris, France, 28-31 July 2003
a=28th,
b=29th, c=30th, d=31st.
It's
been a remarkable few days for Wade Bennett-Jackson who only turned 16
last February. He had already set some remarkable personal records
this season and competed with distinction in the AAA Under 20
Championships. But surely not even he could have dreamed of what
he would achieve in the 7th edition of the European Youth Olympics
Festival, held at the Charlety Stadium, Paris.
On
the opening day Wade stormed to an amazing 10.49 in the 100 metres to
win his heat by a street and move to 5th on the UK all-time list as an
Under 17.Now marked out as
the favourite, he progressed through the semi-finals with another win,
in 10.54, and duly went on to claim the gold medal.Our club record before this onslaught had stood to James
Ellington with 10.69.
But
Wade’s “purple patch” was far from over.A championship best of 21.51 came in his opening run in the 200
metres (11th best all-time) and later in the day he reduced this to
21.46 in the semi-finals (=10th).On
the last day of the Games, yet another championship best fell to our
young Belgravian as he clocked 21.38 for his second gold medal and
became the 7th fastest ever Briton for his age. Of course it was
another Belgrave record.
As
Wade later said: “This
has been my best ever week in athletics. I am chuffed to have come
to an event like this and finished the 200 in that time. I have been
preparing well all week and am really pleased to come away with two Gold
medals and a Games record.”
And
while Wade was grabbing the headlines, let's not forget two great runs
from Amala Onuora - a previous "Young Belgravian of the Year"
and fine supporter of our women's teams as she reached the semi-final
stage of the women's 200 metres and ran second stage in the sprint
relay.
Men.
100m:
b (-0.4) 1 Wade Bennett-Jackson 10.70 (1s2 a 10.54/-0.3, 1h2
10.49/-0.4); 2 B.Sunier (SUI) 10.82; 3 P.Strandquist (SWE) 10.89.
200m:
d (1.1) 1Wade Bennett-Jackson 21.38 (1s1 c 21.46/0.6,
1h3 21.51/1.2); 2
D.Gunev (BUL) 21.64; 3 J.Lopez (ESP) 21.84.
Women.
200m:
c 6s2 Amala Onuora 25.46/0.2 (4h1 25.20/-1.5).
4x100m:
2h1 GBR (Holdsworth, Amala Onuora, Garavand, MacDermott) 47.71.