The crowd knew they were in for something special when it came to the U20 Men’s 800m Final yesterday afternoon in Bedford, but were they ready for 1:45.36? Absolutely not.
Off the back of a UK U18 best of 1:46.80 at Loughborough BMC just days earlier, 17-year-old Max Burgin stormed to take victory as well as a British junior record and a UK lead in the process.
Dominating from the outset, it was Burgin against the clock as he went through the bell in a blistering 52:02 which lead him to break a 33-year-old UK junior record, previously held by David Sharpe of 1:45.64.
His time shoots him to the top of the overall leaderboard in the UK in 2019, ahead of U23 Thomas Staines and the likes of 800m specialists Guy Learmonth, Kyle Langford and Andrew Osagie.
With the U20 & U23 European Championships in Boras, Sweden fast approaching, the Halifax junior and European youth champion is surely the favourite.
Although the highlight, Burgin was by no means the only outstanding performance at the England Athletics Championships over the weekend. Our #OnestoWatch in 2019, Kristal Awuah took double gold in the short sprints and also booked her ticket to Boras, clocking 11.61 and a new lifetime best of 23.24 in the 200m.
It was a family affair when it came to the one-lap wonders, as Guernsey brothers Cameron and Alastair Chalmers took the 400m flat and hurdles titles. Cameron held off a strong-finishing Lee Thompson to take the gold in 46.34 and European age group number 1 Alastair clocked 50.08, just shy of his own UK U20 best set last weekend.
The 5000m saw more passing of the baton through the family ranks, as Jodie Judd, younger sister of Jess Judd, took the U23 title (16:32.19).
Amber Anning made more improvements on her one-lap time and dipped under the 53 barrier yet again to take the U20 women’s title in a time of 52.54, a new championship record.
There were more meeting records from Spencer Thomas in the U23 men’s 800m ( 1:47.31) and Jacob Fincham-Dukes who equalled the championship best performance of 7.75m in the long jump.
The U23 women’s 800m wasn’t quite as clear cut as the men’s however, as a tough two-horse-race between Ellie Baker and Jemma Reekie saw the latter sneak gold by the smallest of margins (2:06.43 and 2:06.46).
Out on the field, Trafford Harrier and comedy queen Naomi Ogbeta secured her seventh consecutive national title in the triple jump with a leap of 13.67m. In the high jump, Morgan Lake also secured gold with a jump of 1.92m and now has more England Athletics Age Group titles than anyone in history.
Re-watch the action with our on demand videos here.
