Kettering’s middle distance International’s Alice Bennett & Alice Bates both secured a podium finish at the England Athletics U20 Championships held on the Friday evening at Birmingham Alexander Stadium. Both were involved in straight finals with Bennett winning a Gold Medal in her specialist distance over 800m & Bates a Bronze Medal in the 1500m.
Alice Bates (left) & Alice Bennett both secured podium finishes in a National Championship
Alice Bennett stormed to a hugely impressive win in the 800m in a New PB & Club Record time of 2:06.94 for her first National outdoor title. Just 6 days earlier she suffered the bitter disappointment in finishing just out of the medals at her last English schools with her second 4th place finish at the championships, so this victory against an almost identical field was a sweet victory for her.
Using her disappointment at English schools to motivate her Bennett ran a significantly better tactical race with a quite Brilliant run to take the Gold Medal, totally focused in the race and sitting in third place in the opening 62 sec lap, she made a positive move on the back straight to get herself in contention for the medals. Sitting in on the leader, Thames Valley’s Adela Svihalkova, and holding off a challenge from May Mairs-Ingram on the final bend she produced a decisive kick with 120m to go and broke away from the field and nobody could live the indoor National champion’s pace as she surged through the line arms aloft to take her first outdoor National title by over half a second.
Alice Bennett holding off a strong field in the final 100m to win her first National outdoor title
Bennett was delighted to take her first National outdoors title “The last 100 was all about holding on, but I’m really happy to have won. I was shocked when I crossed the line,” she said.
Harriers endurance lead coach Shane Smith was very happy with the way she won the race “ Alice approached the race in a very positive manner, especially so close to her bitter disappointment in losing out on a podium finish just a few days earlier”. He added “ She has come of age today and I’m delighted she corrected some tactical errors from English Schools, she ran a much more positive race today; the perfect race”.
The championship is the official trial race for the U20 Home Countries International and Bennett will now wait to see if she will be selected for her second International vest to represent England on 17th August.
Just one hour after the success of her club colleague, it was Alice Bates time to shine and she duly obliged with a superb podium finish to claim a fabulous Bronze medal in the U20 1500m race.
Bates now based at Birmingham University, has been in superb form in training but has struggled to transform this into race performances this season. She was recently diagnosed with ADHD and has just started receiving medication and she hopes this will allow her to put together some better race performances. Bates has found the condition debilitating during race conditions, especially over her favoured 1500m distance, a distance she represented GB in the European U18 Championships.
In the race Bates set the early pace and controlled the opening two laps before stretching the field with 600m to go, which was the signal for pre-race favourite Ava Lloyd and UK No2 to respond, Lloyd quickly opened up a gap on the field as she took control of the race with 500m to go to try and force a victory which would see her automatically selected for the World U20 Championships in Peru.
At the bell Bates seemed to stutter as the field started to mount their challenge, and she was swamped falling back into 8th place leading to the final bend, with 150m to go she again surged forward with a concerted effort and a seemingly impossible task to get into the medals, Bates then produced a truly spectacular finish taking 5 athletes in the final 120m to grab a Bronze medal that nobody would have expected. Bates had made the shrewd decision to stay on the inside lane using her speed to blast her way past a tiring field. Bates crossed the line in 4:29.68 her second fastest time this year, with Ava Lloyd winning in 4:24.28.
Alice Bates with an outstanding finish to take the Bronze Medal
This is testament to her determination, and ability to dig deep when the going gets tough, and the Bronze medal performance could be a significant turning point for her season.
Club coach Shane Smith was delighted with her performance, “Alice’s finish was simply sensational, she decided that off the final bend she could get into the medals and went for it”. He added, “Alice has really struggled in race situations this season and her recent diagnosis was almost a relief for her as she could at least understand the reason why. This race was a significant improvement and will give her some positivity going forward”.
Both girls will race again over 1500m at the Watford Open Meeting with a chance to run a fast time on a track meeting which consistently provides athletes with PB’s.
Congratulations to both girls who represent the MD squad, and Club with pride, Brilliant Running!