Training hard in lockdown and staying motivated and focused has paid off for three athletes who have worked with DIS in recent years.
Alex Knibbs became the new men's 400 metres British champion at the Muller British Athletics Championships in Manchester, while Jess Turner took silver in the women's 400 metres final that came straight after it.
Both athletes are more often to be seen taking part in the 400 metre hurdles and they also run 400 metre relay races. In fact, in August 2019 they were in a mixed 4 x 400m relay quartet with Niclas Baker and Yasmin Liverpool that took first place with a time of 3:19.40.
Following lockdown, Alex and Jess both decided to run the 400 metre flat race at the Manchester Regional Arena. Alex said lockdown meant he didn't have access to hurdles or a track for three months, so when he got back to the track in mid-July, he decided to train for the 400m flat.
Back in April, Alex did an interview with us where he talked about life in lockdown and how he'd taken up yoga. You can watch that again here on our YouTube channel.
Alex was in the outside lane and appeared to be out of the running in the final stretch before he stormed back to take first place with a new personal best of 46.65s.
There was also a personal best for Jess Turner when she won silver with a time of 52.57s. She also shared her thoughts with us during lockdown, about staying positive and motivated in this video.
Meanwhile, Ella Rush, currently the UK's Under-18 number one heptathlete, has claimed two European titles.
She won the Latvian under-18 championships with a personal best score of 5,188 points, a result that placed her third in the world for her age group. Her individual highlights were personal bests of 14.47 seconds in the 100m hurdles and 25.25 in the 200 metres. She equalled her personal best in the high jump.
A trip to Denmark followed where she took the Danish under-18 title with another personal best of 5,270 points. At this event she achieved personal bests in the shot (13.62m): the javelin (28.45m) and the 800 metres (2.24.74).
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