Sky Academy Scholars English and Breen shine at Anniversary Games

Mark English and Olivia Breen impressed on the track inside London's Olympic Stadium at the Anniversary Games over the weekend, plus a round-up of Sky Academy's other Scholars.

Breen was back in the arena where she was third at the Paralympics three years ago, and she made it a happy 19th birthday with a personal best of 13.42 seconds and another bronze in the T38 100 metres in a very competitive race won by Sophie Hahn in a new world record of 13.00s.

The Welsh teenager will now take a mid-season break before heading to Greece for some down-time as she prepares for the IPC World Championships in October. She said: "I couldn’t be more happy. I’ve been running really well this year but I’ve had some good times in illegal winds, so it feels so amazing to finally get something legal!"

English, who joined the Academy Scholarship scheme in April, has had an indifferent start to the outdoor season with stuttering form and niggling injuries and struggled at the European U23 Championships in Estonia two weeks ago.

But the 22-year-old who studies medicine in Dublin bounced back in stunning fashion on Saturday with fourth in the 800m beating off some star names in a time of 1min 45.49 seconds to clock his fastest time of the season and the qualifying mark for next year's Rio Games. 

Botswana's Nijel Amos won the race in 1:44.57, finishing 0.10secs ahead of Olympic champion David Rudisha.

It also sets him up brilliantly for the World Championships in Beijing next month and English told the Sky Academy: "I was delighted with the race. It was one of those races that I knew was going to be a good one when the gun fired.

"I didn't feel a burn in my legs for the whole race now that the injury was put to bed. The crowd buzzed like a championship crowd would. And all the adrenaline was pumping. It was a huge turnaround.

"It felt like I was back running with two legs as opposed to what felt like one and a half when I was injured! Now that I have the Olympic qualifying time out of the way I can focus on winning races, which is most important when Rio comes around.

"Until then I have the World Championships in Beijing to focus on. And I feel like I am in a good position - particularly having beaten a runner like Pierre-Ambroise Bosse. I'm comfortable competing in the company of these world class runners now and looking to go a few better in Beijing." 

Jessica Judd, who's now focusing on the 1500m instead of the two laps, could only finish 11th in London but still needs to slash three seconds off her personal best to reach the mark needed for a major championship.

The 20-year old from Canvey said: "I’m in better shape than that and I don’t know what happened. I felt fine for the first 1200m but I just died at the end and I don’t know why. With 100m to go my legs went, and that’s tough to take.

"This was always going to be a transition year, after moving coaches and stepping up in distance."

On the final day of the Tour de France, just hours before Chris Froome came through a soggy Paris to be crowned the Tour champion, Lucy Garner had been hoping to impress on two wheels as leader of the Liv-Plantur team at La Course.

It didn't quite turn out that way with the weather hampering the efforts of the 20-year-old double junior world road race champion, although she was happy her team-mate finished on the podium.

She tweeted: "This wasn't the @LaCourseTDF I was hoping for. After 3 crashes my body couldn't take anymore! Really happy for @AmyPieters taking 3rd!"

WHAT'S COMING UP FOR OUR SCHOLARS..............

August 2-9: Siobhan-Marie O’Connor - World Swimming Championships, Russia 

August 3-9: Quillan Isidore, National BMX Championships

August 5: One year countdown to the Rio Olympics begins

August 8-18: Lucy Garner, Route de France

August 8-9: Mark English, Irish National Championships