 Williams made the top three of the 2009 Sports Personality of the Year |
I am loath to put more pressure on our young athletes, but it will be a disappointment if this week Britain do not add at least one more gold medal to the total of 19 collected so far at previous World Junior Championships. The team of 45 selected for the 2010 World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada which started on 19 July includes arguably the most exciting name currently in British athletics, Jodie Williams. The 16-year-old was double World Youth Champion in the sprints last year and as well as being one of the world's leading juniors, she is among the best British and European sprinters of any age. In May, she broke the British junior 100m record which had stood for 31 years and is far and away our quickest 200m runner this year. Being born in 1993, she will still be a junior at the time of the 2012 Olympic Games as juniors are classified as those who are teenagers for the entire year of competition. Even without Williams, it has already been a good year for British Under-20s with national junior records from Jack Meredith, Holly Bleasdale, Laura Samuel and Sophie Hitchon. In David Guest we have our best junior decathlete since Daley Thompson and rugby star Lawrence Okoye caused a sensation with his discus breakthrough at the English Junior Championships. Britain's first female World Junior Champion was long jumper Fiona May, who won the last time the championships were staged in Canada in 1988. She went on to have a wonderful career - for Italy - but a look at the list of her fellow British champions shows that a junior gold is no guarantee for senior success. For many World Junior Champions that title has proved to be the pinnacle of their career, though of course it is a tremendous achievement in itself. Conversely, many of our greatest athletes - Phillips Idowu, Kelly Holmes, Denise Lewis, Christine Ohuruogu - never even competed in the Championships. Statistics cannot tell us who will go on to be champions of the future and the London Olympics may come too soon for the World Junior class of 2010. But as the championships unfold on the campus of the Universite de Moncton, it is fair to say that we should be watching some of the home athletes who we will be cheering at the 2015 World Championships should they come to London. BRITISH JUNIORS RANKED IN THE WORLD'S TOP 10 IN 2010 MEN 100m 8 Deji Tobais 10.30 200m 5 Kieran Showler-Davis 20.75 800m 7 Niall Brooks 1:47.29 3000m Steeplechase 8 Matthew Graham 8:51.48 110m Hurdles 3 Jack Meredith 13.32 400m Hurdles 7 Jack Green 50.86 Pole Vault =5 Andrew Sutcliffe 5.30 Discus Throw 2 Lawrence Okoye 63.92 Decathlon 4 David Guest 7727 4x100m Relay 4 Great Britain &?NI 39.91 WOMEN 100m 3 Jodie Williams 11.24 200m 1 Jodie Williams 22.79 800m 6 Sarah Kelly 2:04.29 1500m 9 Laura Weightman 4:14.43 3000m 9 Emilia Gorecka 9:18.38 5000m 7 Emilia Gorecka 15:56.87 Pole Vault =3 Holly Bleasdale 4.35 Triple Jump 9 Laura Samuel 13.52 Hammer Throw 3 Sophie Hitchon 65.98 4x100m Relay 3 Great Britain & NI 44.45 BRITISH MEDALS AT THE WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS BRITISH GOLD MEDALLISTS AT WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN Larry Achike (Triple jump -1994) Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (100m - 2006) Jamie Baulch (4x100m relay - 1992) Tim Benjamin (4x100m relay - 2000) Trevor Cameron (4x100m relay - 1994) Darren Campbell (4x100m relay - 1992) Allyn Condon (4x100m relay - 1992) Marlon Devonish (4x100m relay [ran heat only] - 1994) Tyrone Edgar (4x100m relay - 2000) Jason Fergus (4x100m relay - 1992) Jason Gardener (4x100m relay - 1994) Phil Goedluck (4x100m relay - 1986) Julian Golding (4x100m relay - 1994) Dwayne Grant (4x100m relay - 2000) Jamie Henderson (4x100m relay - 1986) Colin Jackson (110m hurdles - 1986) David Kirton (4x100m relay - 1986) Mark Lewis-Francis (100m, 4x100m relay - 2000) Ian Mackie (4x100m relay - 1994) Christian Malcolm (100m, 200m - 1998) Kevin Mark (4x100m relay [ran heat only] - 1994) David Parker (Javelin - 1998) Jon Ridgeon (4x100m relay - 1986) David Sharpe (800m - 1986) Steve Smith (High jump - 1992) WOMEN Heather Brookes (4x400m relay [ran heat only] - 2000) Vernicha James (200m - 2002) Fiona May (Long jump - 1988) Jenny Meadows (4x400m relay - 2000) Lisa Miller (4x400m relay - 2000) Julie Pratt (100m hurdles - 1998) Diane Smith (200m - 1990) Helen Thieme (4x400m relay - 2000) Stephanie Twell (1500m - 2008) Kim Wall (4x400m relay - 2000)
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