On a final medal winning day, two 4 x 400m relay bronzes, in the World Championships in Beijing Charlie Grice (Brighton Phoenix), who was the only European athlete to make the final, ran a fine race in the final of the 1500 metres.
No he did not win a medal but he had done extraordinary well to reach the final and once there he showed he had not come along for the ride.
He ran another very mature race and he was in contention until the final 200 metres when he could not match the pace of top athletes and he was squeezed back into a, never-the- less, excellent ninth place in 3:36.21. Just two second behind the winner Asbel Kiprop from Kenya.
Charlie confessed that he was very happy to actually reach the final. “It has been a great experience and I intend to put this experience into good use for next season and off course Rio”
Anning – A British Best:
While Dina Asher Smith, one of the brightest young stars in British athletics, was setting a new British 200m record in Beijing Brighton & Hove’s Amber Anning was depriving her of the British Under 15 300m Best performance at Bedford.
Competing in the English Under 17/15 championships Anning had to step up an age group as there is not a 300m championship for Under 15s.
Racing to a convincing victory in her U17 300m heat Anning blew her older rivals away as she streaked across the line in 39.04s to erase Asher-Smith’s 2009 Best performance of 39.16s.
The final will be held today (Sunday).
There were a couple medals for Crawley athletes in the field events on the first day of competition with Natasha Purchas clearing 3.01m to take second place in the U15 pole vault and Lillie Franks clearing 1.69m to take the bronze medal in the U17 high jump.