New UK Junior Record for Dennison

Report by Tom Gayle

Former Olympic 100m Champion Donavon Bailey described those present at the 9^th staging of the World Junior Championships as the future of track and field. Amongst those present, City of Stoke’s Kate Dennison rose to the occasion in the heat and humidity of the Caribbean island by taking the British Junior record to 4 metres.

Going into the championships the former gymnast stated that a place in the final was her primary target, and that was achieved in the early hours of Tuesday (16/07/02) morning. With first time clearances at 3.60 and 3.80 she placed 6^th in Pool B and progressed to the final.

In the final most nerves were probably eased by a sound first time clearance of 3.70. She took two attempts to clear 3.90 and the same number of attempts was required when raising the record to 4.00, before bowing out at 4.10.

This clearance was not only a Great Britain Junior record but also an age 18 best and took her to 7^th on the UK all time list.

In a very high quality event though, Dennison could only place 7^th. Germany’s Floe Kuhnert won with a new championship best performance of 4.40 as the Europeans completely dominated the contest filling the top 8 places.

Looking ahead to next year’s European Juniors in Finland, three of the girls who beat Dennison in Kingston will still be eligible for this championship, 4^th and 5^th placers Dímitra Emmanouíl of Greece and Anna Huculak of Poland along with the champion Kuhnert. Hopefully, a year from now, Dennison under the watch of her coach Dave Young, will be able to use the Jamaica experience as a format to set a serious challenge for a medal come Finland.

Full results and reports from the 2002 World Junior Championships can be found at www.iaaf.org/wjc02/, while a report regarding the British teams success at the event can be found in this weeks Athletics Weekly magazine (24/07/02)