By Owen Morgan
Automatic picks Jake Heyward and James Tomlinson have been joined by fellow Welshman Joe Brier in the Great Britain team for next month’s Junior World Athletics Championships in Finland.
Rising middle distance star Heyward and discus prodigy Tomlinson had already booked their places in Tampere by virtue of meeting the qualifying standards and winning their events at the trials held in Bedford earlier this month.
When the 40-strong team was announced on Tuesday, the name of Swansea Harrier Brier was included as part of the Great Britain men’s 4x400m squad for the championships which will take place between July 10 and 15.
Heyward is in the middle of a phenomenal season having run the World Junior Championships qualifying standard of 3:42 in Oordegem back in May.
Then he produced a stunning performance at the Oslo Diamond League 1,500m where he ran a new lifetime best of 3:39:84 and moved ahead of Steve Cram in the all time U-20 list for the 1500m.
Heyward already has a wealth of international experience after winning gold at the European Youth Championships 1,500m in Tiblisi back in 2016 and the European Junior Championships in Italy last year.
Tomlinson has enjoyed a similarly successful season, throwing a big personal best of 58.57m in Portugal at the start of June to secure his qualifying standard.
The 18-year-old was also crowned England u20 Champion and the World Junior Trials two weeks ago, securing his spot in Tampere.
Tomlinson has already represented the British Athletics’ Junior Team this season after competing at the Bauhaus Junioren Gala in Mannheim last weekend.
One lap specialist Brier has been rewarded for a number of strong performances over 400m in recent weeks. He ran a season’s best of 47.71 at the Loughborough International back in May, before clocking a new lifetime best of 47.31 in Oordegem just over a month ago.
The 19-year-old finished fifth at the England u20 Championships and World Junior Trials, again running under 48 seconds.
The Cardiff Met student represented the Great Britain Athletics Junior Team at the Loughborough International in May.
Team Leader for the British juniors, Trevor Painter, said: “We’ve selected a strong team for the World Junior Championships that we believe has an excellent chance of challenging for medals.
“We saw some excellent performances at Mannheim International over the weekend which produced great levels of competition from all our athletes, with personal bests broken all over the track and field, a trend which we hope continues in Tampere.
“The team contains a strong array of medal prospects and athletes that we believe can reach the finals of their respective event and thrive on the World Junior Championship stage.”
The announcement follows last week’s news that two Welsh athletes have been selected for the 33-strong Great Britain team travelling to the European Under-18 Championships in Gyor, Hungary, next month.
Carmarthen Harrier Ben Thomas will compete in the 2,000m steeplechase following his win at the Under-18 trials in Bedford, where he clocked a time of 5:59.70.
Meanwhile, Cardiff AAC’s Kiara Frizelle will run in the 3,000m – as long as she can prove her fitness before the event.
Frizelle registered her qualifying standard with an impressive time of 9:36.12 at the British Milers Club PB classic in Street.