Herts Phoenix athletes impress in Sheffield (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Herts Phoenix athletes impress in Sheffield

12:09pm Tuesday 16th February 2010 in

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The Senior World indoor athletics trials and UK national championships took place at the weekend in Sheffield and four of Herts Phoenix's rising stars made a strong impression.

Hurdlers Stephanie Gaynor (Under-23) and Claire Humphries (Under 20) took part, alongside runners Laura and Nathan Wake, against top athletes from all over Europe, with one eye on next month’s World Indoor Championships in Doha.

Nathan Wake lined up for the 800m taking second place in the 'B Final' on Sunday in a time of 1.53.20. In the earlier heat Wake finished fourth in a time of 1.52.56.

His sister Laura, now a student at Loughborough University, finished fourth in Sunday's 400m final, in a time of 55.04, and remains at the top of the national U-20 rankings.

Her coach, Dave Rice said: "This was an important learning curve for Laura competing against such a high class field, and showing that there is every likelihood that she will improve upon her outdoor time come the start of the summer season.

"This is because for an athlete of her age running indoors you need to allow anything of between one and two seconds off the indoor time to calculate an outdoor time.

"That being the case, Laura will have improved upon her outdoor best, and hopefully as part of her campaign to get selected for the World Junior Championships.

"But that's some time off, and she has more preparation yet, because if she qualifies for that, she could face as many as three races leading up to the final, and so far all her experience has been two races in two days.

"Nevertheless, we are pleased with these performances and will take a lot away from it."

Brunel University student Gaynor and A-Level student Humphries, were up against the likes of former world champion and world record holder Derval O'Rourke of Ireland, and defending champion Gemma Bennett from London.

Humphries injured her hamstring in the warm up but still finished fifth in heat two, against Team GB's Olympic heptathlete Louise Hazel.

Gaynor was drawn in heat four and also ran a strong race to finish second but was disappointed not to make the 'A' final.

This did, however, put her at the top of the rankings in the 'B' Final, which she duly went on to take first pace.