Chengelo Elite Athletics Squad: More personal bests for Chengelo Squad!

Chigo and Johanna record PBs at Watford Open Meeting

The Chengelo Elite Athletics Squad traveled to Watford on Wednesday knowing that this could be the busiest open meeting of the UK trip. Hundreds of athletes gathered at the Woodside Stadium with the same aim as the Squad - to run as fast a time as possible!

Maria and Johanna were competing in the 200m for the second time in 4 days and have been enjoying using starting blocks and new knowledge learned at some of their Thursday night training sessions. In this meet, they were put in the same heat with a strong field. Johanna was in lane 2 and Maria in lane 7, with a variety of athletes in the lanes between and around them. Johanna's time puts her 20th in the UK for u15 girls in 200m, which is not even her best event!

Johanna was passed on the bend by the Loughborough University athlete on the lane inside hers before coming back at her on the straight and passing her with ten metres left. Maria had a similar race, finishing fast on the final 100 metres and showing the speed endurance she possesses. Johanna finished in a personal best time of 25.82 seconds, although hand-timing the video shows closer to 25.6 seconds. Maria was just over a second back in 27.12, half a second off her personal best.

After watching some extremely fast and competitive 800m races, featuring British athlete Guy Learmonth who ran 1 minute 47 seconds (fast enough to qualify for the World Championship 800m final), Chigo was ready for his 1500m race. He achieved a new personal best in Southampton of 4 minutes 30.27 seconds and was targeting a second PB in 4 days. Chigo slowly moved up through the field on the first lap before keeping a fast pace and finishing fast in typical Chigo style. His efforts were rewarded with an incredible new personal best of 4 minutes 26.88 seconds, almost three and a half seconds faster than his previous best!