Amber Valley & Erewash AC star Ella Rush takes national long jump honours in Sheffield

Competing at the two day England Athletics Indoor Championships at Sheffield, the Duffield athlete lifted the gold medal in the U20 Women’s long jump with an outstanding leap of 6.22m.

Her achievement set a unique record of English indoor titles in the same event, Ella having lifted the U15 long jump championship in 2018 and the U17 honour in 2020.

The battle for the long jump on Saturday was an exciting affair with silver medallist Ruby Jerges (Crawley) also breaking new ground with an effort of 6.09m.

Indeed Jerges went into pole position early in the third round, topping Ella’s second round effort of exactly six metres.

The Crawley athlete’s lead, however, lasted a mere few minutes, when Rush responded with her massive 6.22m leap. The distance was too much for the rest of the field and although Jerges managed another jump of 6:09m, Rush was too far in front to be challenged.

Third place went to Leeds athlete Kiki Brown who had a best distance of 5.70m.

On Sunday, Rush pulled out two more notable performances in the shot and 60m hurdles.

Competing against individual specialists in both events, she threw a huge 12.57m in the 4kg shot to take fourth place, adding almost a metre to her previous best; a mere 12 centimetres off the bronze medal.

In the hurdles final a time of 8.70 was good enough for fifth, three one hundredths slower than her PB, achieved at Loughborough the previous weekend.

All three performances suggest Rush should do well in the pentathlon at the forthcoming British Senior Indoor Championships at the end of the month in Birmingham.

Also qualifying to take part in the championships over the weekend were fellow AVEAC athletes Isla Hiscocks, Imogen Laugharne and Ryan Rawlinson, with Hiscocks and Laugharne both making the 60m and 60m hurdles semi-finals respectively but Hiscocks opting to save herself for Sunday’s Regional Sports Hall final in Grantham.