Despite having had no indoor preparation this season and despite recent adverse weather conditions preventing quality work outdoors, the results of the quintet were quite remarkable.Two silver medals and three fourth places were achieved on a weekend where six new championship records were set.Prosser once again rose to the occasion and produced a performance worthy of an athlete of greater age and maturity.And coach Andrew Winnie says his progress through the rounds of the 60-metre sprint should be the model plan to be copied.Winnie said: ‘Stephen’s plan should be copied by most sprinters and that includes our top top internationals.
Unfortunately they continue to get it wrong by producing the goods in the early rounds but failing in the finals.’Prosser won his heat five in a time of 7.32 seconds.
In heat three he again claimed first place in a life-time best of 7.12.
Prosser excelled again to win his semi-final in a personal best 7.10 and then he recorded the exact same time to finish second behind Harry Aikines-Aryeetey who covered the distance in a European record time of 6.95 seconds.When asked about the prospect of facing the fastest ever European under-17 sprinter again on 28 February in Birmingham at the AAA’s Championships, Prosser replied: ‘I will have improved by then, I’ll probably get closer.’Winnie believes that if Prosser remains healthy, retains his hunger for success and his attitude to hard but structured training, he could progress right to the top.’Stephen does not fit the standard star profile,’ Winnie said.He added: ‘As a 13-year-old he was a good, but not great, sprinter.
Progression has been steady.
He has not physically matured early, as a matter of fact I believe that he still has growing to do, both outwards and upwards.’Peter Irving continued to progress into the ranks of the seniors.
The 20-year-old finished a creditable fourth in the 60m hurdles against much older and experienced competitors.Irving is now learning that the transition from being a top under-20 junior to a top senior can be extremely tough not only physically but also psychologically.Kamela Monks’s undeniable talent in the triple jump allowed her an easy transition from the U17s to the U20s.
With a good performance of 10.40 metres she secured the silver medal in her first competition in her new age group.Paul Dingle also made his début in an older age group.Moving from U15 to U17 can be a most traumatic experience.
Many 16-year-old boys are undeniably young men while most 14-year-olds are still boys both physically and psychologically.Dingle proved that he can cope with the mental changes but he will have to be patient while his body develops the attributes of manhood.
Nevertheless he produced a very good series of long jumps to eventually finish fourth place with a leap of 5.91 metres.The unluckiest athlete was undoubtedly Sophie Twinam.
Competing in the U15 high jump she cleared the same height as the gold medal winner but only placed fourth.Competition started at 1.25m, rising in 5 cm stages.
Eventually at 1.45m only four athletes remained and Twinam was favourite owing to her first time clearances at each height.Disaster then struck with two failures before clearing the height on her third attempt.
Although the other three competitors had failures at other heights, they all managed to clear 1.45 on their second attempt.All four failed 1.50m with first to four places decided on a countback.
Twinam was technically the best jumper in the competition but the best technician does not always win and this was a hard lesson to learn at such a tender age.
Coach Winnie is confident that Twinam will be a stronger competitor and ultimately become a better athlete because of this experience.
