Manchester athletes leading the way

Jerome McIntosh and Seren Bundy-Davies competed at the North of England Athletics Championships at the EIS in Sheffield on the weekend of the 18th – 19th January.

Jerome represented City of Sheffield AC and excelled in the 60m on the Saturday in the senior men’s section, making the semi finals with a new personal best (PB) time of 7.16 seconds On the Sunday, he won his heat with an indoor PB, ran a PB in his semi-final and made the very competitive final and came a highly respectable 4th. He made yet another PB with an electric 22.40 seconds for the 200m.

Seren (competing for Macclesfield) won a gold medal in the 400m final, which she ran in a PB of 54.12 seconds.

Jerome spoke to Mancunion Sport about the build up to the event, the day itself and his ambitions for the rest of the season. The speedster had an injury-ravaged season in 2013, struggling with a tear in his meniscus (knee cartilage), but he was delighted with the lead up to the Championships in the New Year.

“Training around that time was difficult, as it was revision period, but I had just had a nutrition change as I was struggling to manage [studying] medicine and athletics.

“Working in hospital Monday to Friday made it very difficult to eat and drink regularly, so I tried a supplement recommended by a friend…and it really helped…so I was in high spirits for the competition.

“I’m happy with the race I won, but I believe as most athletes do that I can still go faster, so I’m looking forward to BUCS to improve further.”

Seren also took time out to speak to the us here in the sport section.

She said before the event, “Everything was going well as I’ve been lucky to have no real injuries or setbacks in winter training.

“After competing indoors at Sport City over 600m I knew I was in good shape so decided to do the Northerns. My training stayed pretty much the same until a week or two before the event as I’m still focusing mainly on the outdoors. Everything had been going well though.

“I knew I was in PB shape as training has been going well. My season was cut short due to a stress fracture early last year, so I was happy when I ran as well as I did.

“I’m competing this weekend (8th – 9th February) at the Sainsbury’s British Athletics Indoor Championships which I’m ranked 5th going in to so I’m hoping to at least make the final [of my first senior trials].

“My major aim for the season is to hopefully make the Welsh commonwealth team.”

It’s reassuring to see that Manchester’s athletes are ahead of the rest of the competition in the early stages of this season and Mancunion Sport would like to wish Jerome, Seren and their squad mates the best of luck over the remainder of the season.