Young guns leave their mark on day 2 ESAA Championships Gateshead

The second day of the Aviva English Schools athletics championships held in Gateshead started in complete contrast to the previous day’s action with dry conditions and sunshine.

On a day that saw 4 championship best performances set in the north east athletics stadium, the program was mainly made up of finals and London looked to get into their stride and pick up some silverware for their young team.

On a day at that saw many highlights for the London team the inter girls 100 meters was by far the stand out performance with Daryll Neita running a championship best performance with 11.63 resulting in clear daylight between Cambridge harrier and the rest of the field.

The junior boys 400m had many of the team and its followers jumping up and down when Mahmood Khaisto and Ajibola Aderemi picked up gold and bronze medals respectively. Sfactor’s academy Mahmood Khaisto has featured as part of the RUN! Project with the new London club (Sfactor Academy) working within the RUN! Project in Lewisham, under the guidance of Lisa Miler. The careful planning and preparation (Carried out at Ladywell track) that has been put in place for all of the Sfactor Academy athletes has seen Khaisto go on an unbeaten run over the 400m distance and still it continues. The delight and emotion was clear for all to see when he crossed the finish line in a time of 50.39, a stark reminder of how truly magical the English Schools championships can be.

Ezekiel Olusanya clocked a national standard time of 23.14 on his way to adding a bronze to a now growing London tally of medals.

It doesn’t rain it pours! The inter girls 4x100m relay team held off the strong Surrey team to take the gold in 46.98. The junior boys were not to be out done and proved too strong for the field in the 4x100m relay wining in a respectable 44.42 from Hampshire.

The junior boys 100m was won in a record time of 10.92 but Kevin Owusu-Mantey was also celebrating when he crossed the finish line in 11.25 to collect the silver medal. The London athlete would have won the title on any other given year with that performance.

Reece Young was 6th in the inter boys 100m hurdles final with a very respectable 13.38 clocking over the 10 barriers.

Meanwhile In the field Onur Aksinoglu threw 38.26 for 5th place in the junior boy’s discus. He was joined by team-mate Denzel Borley-Agyei who was 11th in the 17 athlete field with a best throw of 36.35m. Dean Oamen jumped a best 13.86m in the senior boy’s triple jump. That placed him 7th with team-mate Lawrence Fanulza-Davis finishing 9th with 13.79m.

London team manger Anthony Solla-Bell had played Sky Sports footage from the 2011championships to the whole of his young squad on the journey up to Gateshead and he said: “They were buzzing after that! They knew what it was all about and what was in front of them”. The former Shaftesbury Barnet Harrier and Sierra Leonean athlete was happy with the 9 medal hall consisting of 2 gold’s, 1 silver 4 bronze and 2 relay gold’s. He expressed the need to going away from the championships and continues to build on what the squad young and mostly first timers had achieved over the 2 days.

Full results can found here: http://www.esaa.net

To read about the first day’s action go to: http://www.londonathletics.org/LondonSchools