Great Britain’s Andy Pozzi has elevated himself to the position of 110m hurdles favourite for the forthcoming European Athletics Junior Championships when he clocked a national junior record of 13.29 in Mannheim, Germany, on Sunday.
Pozzi had clocked a personal best of 13.44 in his heat and final at the Bauhaus Junioren Gala on Saturday but returned to action for another race quickly put on the schedule to take advantage of the perfect conditions, with the wind reading eventually registering 0.0 metres-per-second.
His run puts him third on the European all-time junior list over 99cm barriers, with Poland’s Artur Noga holding the continental record with 13.23. He also moved up to sixth on the global all-time list.
“I hadn’t originally planned to race again this weekend, but I knew I could go quicker and it was such a brilliant opportunity to run a fast time on a fast track,” said Pozzi, who hails from Stratford-upon-Avon.
“I had a good first half yesterday and I was pleased with my times, but I was hitting hurdles towards the end and I just wanted to run a clean race; I could see there was more to come and I was really eager to get back out there.
“I’d only run 13.61 before this weekend and I needed a decent time to put me in the right frame of mind for the European Athletics Junior Championships; halfway through today’s race I knew it had the potential to be really quick if I could stay clear of the hurdles, and now that I’ve run that time I’m feeling really good,” he added.
The 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships will be held in the Estonian capital Tallinn between 21-24 July.
Another excellent mark in Mannheim came from 2010 World Junior Championships 100m gold medallist Jodie Williams who won 200m in a season’s best time of 23.05 (-0.2mps), the second best time by a European junior this year.