Lansiquot Lights up LEAP

Imani-Lara Lansiquot

Imani-Lara Lansiquot (centre) was in fine form at LEAP. Image provided by Sakura Sport Media.

Imani-Lara Lansiquot stormed to a new 100m PB of 11.01 at the annual Loughborough European Athletics Permit (LEAP) meeting this weekend, leapfrogging Montell Douglas’s 2008 LEAP performance of 11.05 to go third on the all-time women’s UK lists, and breaking the Loughborough stadium record in the process.

Competing in near-perfect sprint conditions, it shows that Lansiquot is coming into her very best form and is ready to take on the rest of the world when she flies out to Budapest for the World Athletics Championships in August.

She was followed into second place in both the women’s 100m heat and final by fellow GB&NI relay teammate Asha Philip who is also showing good form after injury stopped her competing at the UK trials earlier this month. The men’s event was won by Tobi Ogunkanmi in a time of 10.51w, closely followed by French athlete Marc Perrin in 10.56w.

In other events, there was a scintillating women’s 100m hurdles, which saw Jenna Blundell dip under 13 seconds with 12.93, followed by Loughborough scholar Abi Pawlett in 13.08, though unfortunately, the wind was over the legal limit at +3.4 m/s.

The men’s sprint hurdlers fared better with a legal wind, allowing Australia’s Jacob McCorry to get the better of his national teammate Nick Andrews, running 13.72 to Andrews’s 13.78. Loughborough’s Tom Wilcock backed up his recent good form with a third-place clocking of 13.95.

In the field, there were strong performances in the discus from Nick Percy, who threw a season’s best of 63.84 to push European medallist and UK record holder Lawrence Okoye into second with a throw of 63.57. An honourable mention goes to Loughborough first year student Dillon Claydon who threw 53.85 for 4th place, meaning that Claydon has added over seven metres to his discus PB this year. Bekah Walton threw a solid 57.06m to win the women’s javelin, with Katie Head getting the better of European U23 silver medallist Charlotte Payne, throwing 68.32 to Payne’s 66.06.

In the jumps, there were PBs in the long jump for Loughborough students Georgie Forde-Wells (5.78m) – backing up her recent UK Championships triple jump win – and Sam Danson (7.16m), with the overall winner, Alexander Farquharson jumping out to 7.64m.

LEAP Meeting Director and Loughborough Athletics Programme Manager, Emma Wiltshire, commented: “This is the first year that Loughborough has been part of the World Athletics Continental Tour, which indicates the high levels our competitions are operating at, and the calibre of competitor we can attract.

“We aim to help athletes with their preparations for the World Championships, or for those not selected, simply provide an athlete-friendly environment for athletes to compete at their best. This is the last competition of the summer that we will host, and after a bit of a summer break we’ll start planning for the indoor season.

“I want to say a huge thank you to all who help put our competitions on at Loughborough, from the volunteers, facilities team, ground staff and officials, to the support we receive from the wider Loughborough Sport team. Thousands of competitors throughout the year, and hundreds of PBs make all the hard work worth it!”

Full results from LEAP can be found here: Results (thepowerof10.info)