Athletics: Pair rewrite Celtic Games record books

Aug 11 2007 by Bob Cypher, South Wales Echo

TWO of Wales’ most promising young athletes are celebrating after smashing Celtic Games records at the weekend.

The success means that Wales now holds 23 of the records out of 62 for the event.

Despite blustery conditions, Cardiff’s Simon Lawson knocked 23 seconds off the 3,000m record set by Robert Corbelly of Athletics Ireland in 2006 with a run of 8.47:0.

Meanwhile, Bridgend’s David Guest continued his recent demonstration of strong form.

Having recently destroyed Wales’ Under-17 100m hurdles record set by Nathan Palmer, he took gold just ahead of Ulster’s Jason Harvey.

There was also good news in the long jump. Ebbw Vale’s Tom Kivell, 17, caught a late flight over to Northern Ireland after representing Wales at the Celtic Cup in Scotland.

He made sure that the effort was worthwhile though with a gold medal jump of 6.91m – just one centimetre ahead of Ireland’s David Quilligan.

In total, Wales scored six golds of the 14 available for the under-18 men’s events as Christopher Howe of Cardiff also took top honours in the 100m.

Wales won the overall boys category. Newport’s Tom Morgan also had the Midas touch in the javelin thanks to a throw of 46.79m.

The girls had their fair share of strong performances. Kaye Ynhell won gold in the hammer, while the under-16s 4 x 100m team was also ahead of the rest.

And Newport Harriers’ promising young sprinter Mica Moore also tasted success in the 100m.

Peter Stafford, of Welsh Athletics, believes the performances were indicative of future success.

“The fact the team achieved 15 new personal bests shows that they are en route to establishing themselves as athletes. It certainly augurs well for the future,” he said.