David Omoregie got his season off to a flying start as he clocked a World Championships qualifying mark of 13.47 sec in the Loughborough International Athletics event at the weekend.
The 21-year-old sprint hurdler, who missed out on the Olympic Games in Rio last year, has twin targets in his sights with this summer’s World Championships in London followed by the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April.
Although his winning time on Sunday, on what is currently his home track while studying at Loughborough, was slower than his personal best of 13.24 sec set in Berlin in September, it took him to second place on the UK rankings behind Andrew Pozzi.
The Cardiff AAC star ran twice on the day, clocking 13.51 sec in the invitation race before dominating the international event. The qualifying mark for selection for the British team in London is 13.48 sec, while the Welsh mark for the Gold Coast is 13.60 sec.
It was a good weekend for the Omoregie family as David’s younger sister, Sarah, warmed-up for her trip with the Wales team to the Commonwealth Youth Championships in the Bahamas later this year with a personal best throw in the shot putt of 16.28 metres to move into second place on the Commonwealth rankings.
One of her team mates for the Bahamas, Pembrokeshire discus thrower James Tomlinson, showed his medal potential with a UK Under 18 record throw of 63.48 metres with the 1.5kg disc. He is now ranked No 1 in the Commonwealth and will be going for gold this summer.
There was a Welsh senior record for Jade Williams in the 3000 steeplechase on her debut in the event as she won the international event in 10 min, 25.03 sec. Coached by James Thie, the Amman Valley athlete won the Welsh senior 800 metres titles in 2014 and 2015, but has now moved up in distance to try to qualify for the Gold Coast, where the qualifying standards for next year are 9:55.0 (B) and 9:50.00 (A).
Swansea speedster Hannah Brier secured a qualification time for the European Under 20 Championships with a second placed finish in the 100 metres in 11.61 sec. This came after she had helped the Welsh 4 x 100 relay squad finish third in 45.59 sec – the fastest time since the 2014 Commonwealth Games final in Glasgow.
Julia Cooke ran a season’s best of 4 min, 21.06 sec in the 1500 to finish second, while Izzy Parry-Jones set a personal best of 2.10.34 in the 800 metres. Becca Chapman won the long jump with a leap of 6.16 metres and Sally Peake (4.15 metres in the pole vault) and Adele Nicholl (16.27 metres in the shot) notched Commonwealth Games ‘B’ Standards with second place finishes.
There were a number of other great performances in the throws from Under 20 athletes. Amber Simpson set a new Welsh Under 20 record in the Hammer with a throw of 56.04 metres and Beth Rees reached a lifetime best in the Javelin of 47.61 metres as she moved into third place on the Welsh all-time list.
Olympian Seren Bundy-Davies was third in the 400 metres in 54.54 sec, while Laura Maddox won the invitation one-lap event in 53.84 sec.
Earlier in the weekend there was a huge personal best of 32 min, 59.52 sec by Jennifer Nesbitt in the British 10,000 metre trials at Highgate. It was good enough to secure her qualification standards for both the European Under 23 Championships and the World University Games and was also a ‘B’ standard or the Gold Coast.
There are now 14 athletes who have achieved standards for the Gold Coast – 8 with “A” standards and 6 with “B” standards. The 100th Welsh Athletics track and field championships in Cardiff on 9-10 June will act as the Commonwealth Games trials.