SPRINTING sensation Tom Somers is on track for the World Junior Championships after smashing the 200-metre field at the Northern Indoor Athletics Championships.
The 16-year-old City of York Athletic Club runner scorched round the track in 21.69 seconds to take gold in the under-20s category at the event held at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.
Somers, who also claimed a bronze in the 60 metres with a time of 7.01 seconds, crowned a glorious meeting for City of York athletes, with Rowan Palmour taking gold in the women’s U17s high jump with a leap of 1.63 metres and Scott Lincoln (16.62 metres) grabbing bronze in the senior men’s shot.
Joshua Schofield added to the joy after his time of two minutes 01.05 seconds brought bronze in the U17s 800 metres, and Henry Fairclough also took a bronze medal in the U17s shot thanks to a throw of 12.47 metres.
In three runs, from heats to final, Somers shaved a second off his time, and coach Geoff Barraclough claimed he was “right where he wants to be”.
“His target time is 21 seconds dead so he will want to be a little bit better as we go along, but he did that last year,” he said.
“This was his first competition of the year. He has had a broken wrist so he has missed quite a lot of training but he has come back from that all right.”
With Somers only recently stepping up to U20 events, he has been competing against some athletes who are at least two years older than him.
But Barraclough said the youngster would still be targeting a medal at the worlds when they are held in Eugene, Oregon, in July, should he be selected.
“Tom always targets his medals,” he added. “He would certainly like to medal in Eugene. He is still only 16 and, in the U20s, there is always a lot of competition.
“The world juniors is at U18 and, at the moment, he is measuring up extremely well.”
On the achievement of the York athletics club as a whole, Barraclough added: “It’s really good going when you consider that we are competing against the whole of the north of England and places like Newcastle. These are really good results for the club.”
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