Another national title for Kierra Barker (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Another national title for Kierra Barker
2:00pm Monday 11th March 2013 in Sport
Kierra Barker.
BASINGSTOKE and Mid Hants teenager Kierra Barker claimed her first national title of the year, winning the under-17 pentathlon at the English Indoor Combined Events Championships.
The 15-year-old, who was a multiple national champion at under-15 level last year, travelled to Sheffield for the championships after picking up the Junior Ladies award at the Basingstoke and Deane Sports Awards.
Barker has only been in light training recently but she got off to an excellent start, clocking 9.01sec for the 60m hurdles, the third-fastest of the 31 athletes taking part. She did even better in the high jump, clearing 1.66m, the best height of all the athletes competing, to move to the top of the leaderboard.
The Bishop Challoner pupil then recorded a personal best of 8.80min the shot, the fourth best throw on the day, to retain top spot, while a leap of 5.10m in the long jump saw her lead the field going into the final event, the 800m.
With victory in her sights, Barker ran a very tactical 800m, clocking 2min 38.17sec to amass a final tally of 3,346 points, 53 ahead of the second-placed athlete.
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