Friedrich tops British rankings with gold run

The promising junior athlete not only won his focal event in the South of England Indoor U13/U15/U17 Championships at Lee Valley, but he did so by a huge margin in running 37.23sec. to lead this year’s British age-group rankings.

It also ranks him Britain’s ninth-fastest U15 runner ever for 300m indoors.

His nearest rival, Brighton’s Louis Ashworth, trailed in 38.79 and James Coleman completed the podium with 40.16.

Friedrich called the finals ‘incredible’ after going hard from the start and exceeding his own expectations.

‘I let out a roar after dipping for the line, being more than happy with the result,’ he said.

‘I was hoping to run around 38sec., which I smashed.’

That was his second sub-38sec. run of the day, having won a strong heat from those same two runners.

The previous day he had raced the 60m hurdles, running 9.33 in his heat despite clattering a number of barriers but having a clean final to take bronze in 9.03.

‘I was hoping for sub-9, but I couldn’t ask for too much,’ Friedrich said.

‘Definitely happy with the result.’

Now targeting next month’s ‘Nationals’, he added: ‘The feeling of stepping back onto the track is incredible, and something I missed throughout the winter.

‘The adrenaline and the emotional rollercoaster that our beautiful sport brings with it is all part of the journey, and I enjoy every bit of it.

‘It’s almost as if I found my true self again, after this weekend.’

U17 sprinter Seth Le Tissier was contesting these Southerns a second year running and recorded personal bests over both 60m and 200m.

He improved his 60m time to 7.52, placing fourth in his heat, and then made the 200m semi-finals after beating his best wind-legal outdoor time with a 24.17. He followed up with a 24.21 in his ‘semi’.

Their fellow competitors had even less indoor experience, but they put down markers in new disciplines and earned regional placings – in the field events especially.

U17 girl Nikola Vagule came close to a medal of her own.

She placed fourth in her age group with a 1.55m clearance in the high jump, which was just 1cm shy of her PB and equalled the Island Games A standard, though she is marginally too young for Orkney 2025. The three medallists all reached the 1.60m range.

She was also the quickest of Guernsey’s female 60m hurdlers with 9.48 and produced her best 3kg shot put yet – 8.28m – for seventh in the U17 girls.

Olivia Whitmore went within the same shot put field and recorded 8.16m for eighth, while Caitlin Tucker placed 13th in the U15 girls with 7.14m. Both Whitmore and Tucker had also kept themselves busy with other events at the two-day meet.

U15 Daisy Le Page also made her indoor debut in racing the 60m and its hurdles counterpart.