Warwickshire's Meghan Beesley produced a second personal best in two days at the World Junior Championships in Poland on Friday to claim a scintillating bronze medal in the 400 metres hurdles.
The Birchfield Harrier, who barely came through her heat on Wednesday after clattering a barrier and nearly falling over, turned in the best performance of her life on the highest stage she has ever graced to finish in a comfortable third place behind American winner Takecia Jameson and runner up Janeil Bellille of Trinidad.
But most impressive was her time of 57.08 seconds and, although she was five metres short of the champion, she still smashed her previous best by 0.16 seconds to mark an outstanding championships for the Polesworth-based athlete.
Following near disaster in the first round, she put everything and everyone behind her in Thursday’s semi-final to win through as the fastest qualifier with her first PB of the season.
But Jameson was always the favourite and Beesley did well to hold off fourth-placed competitor Hanna Titimets of the Ukraine, much to the satisfaction of her coach Trevor Marsey.
“The two athletes we thought would be dangerous were just that, but you cannot complain with a world medal of any kind,” he said.
“I said in the final she would have to try and keep pace which she did and ran really well. She was catching up over the last 15 metres and was coming back hard so she was not far off silver. But if she’d have been offered bronze at the start of the week she’d have taken it in a shot.”
She will not, however, win a second medal following the failure of the women’s 4x100m relay team to get the baton round the track. The 18-year-old was pencilled in to join the squad for Sunday's final, a quartet that includes women’s 100m silver medallist Ashlee Nelson, but will not now get the chance.
There was also disappointment in the 800m for Alison Leonard who was expected to finish on the podium. Despite setting a new personal best, the Blackburn-based competitor came home in fourth with Romania’s Elena Mirela Lavric setting a new championships record of 2:00.06.
