Serita Solomon

Serita Solomon
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
European Athletics Indoor Championships
2015 Prague60 m hurdles

Serita Solomon (born 1 March 1990) is a British track and field athlete competing in the hurdles. She was the bronze medallist in the 60 metres hurdles at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 2015.[1] Solomon holds a personal best of 12.87 seconds for the outdoor 100 metres hurdles and represented England in that event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Career

Born in Bromley,[2] Solomon became involved in athletics at a young age, taking it up at primary school to follow in the footsteps of her older brother.[3] She joined Blackheath and Bromley Harriers Athletic Club around 2005 and competed for the club in sprints and hurdles. She represented the club at the 2006 European Champion Clubs Cup for Juniors and placed second in the 100 metres hurdles. After an English junior title in that event in 2007, she returned to the European club competition in 2009 and won the B group hurdles race, as well as taking second in the 100 metres.[4]

Working with successful British coach Lloyd Cowan, her first year as a senior athlete in 2010 did not go well: she failed to get past the heats at the British Indoor Athletics Championships and did not finish at the London Grand Prix meeting.[4] This was also her first year of competition while studying at Middlesex University.[5] Her 2011 season went much better. Starting indoors, she was a national finalist in the 60 m hurdles, then shared the British indoor universities title with Ashley Helsby with a new personal best of 8.40 seconds.[4][6] Outdoors, she knocked three tenths of a second off her 100 m hurdles best with a run of 13.51 seconds in Bedford, then won the British under-23 title. A further improvement to 13.27 seconds came in July, but she was much slower in the British trials, coming last in the final. In 2012, she was the English senior champion and placed fifth at the British Olympic trials for the 2012 London Olympics, but did not qualify to compete at the event.[4]

Solomon began edging nearer the top of the British elite in 2013, when she placed fourth at the British Indoor Championships, and improved her 60 m hurdles best to 8.16 seconds a week later at the Midland Counties Open. She lowered her outdoor best three times that season, to 13.23, then 13.21, and finally 13.09 seconds.[4] The latter mark came in the heats of the British Athletics Championships, at which she was runner-up to Tiffany Porter.[7] She did not improve her bests in 2014, but did place in the top three at the national championships, both indoors and out.[4] This gained her her first international selection for England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.[2] At the games she missed qualifying for the final by one thousandth of a second and ultimately ranked tenth overall.[8] She also represented Great Britain for the first time at the 2014 European Team Championships Super League, in which she placed eighth overall in the hurdles.[4]

She had strong indoor form at the start of 2015, bringing her 60 m hurdles best down to 8.13 seconds, then 8.11 seconds. In the absence of Tiffany Porter, she was the winner of the British indoor title with a time of 8.04 seconds.[9] This brought her a place on the team for the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships and she excelled, improving her personal best in the heat (8.03), semi-final (7.95), and then the final (7.93) – as a result, she took the bronze medal behind Alina Talay and fellow British athlete Lucy Hatton.[10] This time raised her to fourth on the British all-time lists for the event, behind Porter, Jessica Ennis and Hatton.[11]

Personal bests

International competitions

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2014 European Team Championships Braunschweig, Germany 8th 100 m hurdles 13.22
Commonwealth Games Glasgow, Scotland 10th (qualifying) 100 m hurdles 13.38
2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic 3rd 60 m hurdles 7.93

References

  1. ↑ "BBC Sport - European Indoor championships: GB win silver & bronze 60m hurdles". BBC Sport. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 Serita Solomon. Glasgow2014. Retrieved on 2015-03-07. Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ "Serita Solomon - Athletes - Welcome to the future of British sport - SportsAid". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Serita Solomon. Power of 10. Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
  5. ↑ Brilliant Gilling in UK’s 100m top five. Bexley Times (2010-05-06). Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
  6. ↑ 2011 BUCS Indoor Championships 60 hurdles women. Power of 10. Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
  7. ↑ 2013 British Championships Women's 100 metres hurdles. Power of 10. Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
  8. ↑ Serita Solomon. European Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
  9. ↑ 2015 British Indoor Championships Women's 60 hurdles. Power of 10. Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
  10. ↑ Rowbottom, Mike (2015-03-06). Torneus earns European Indoor long jump title in Prague after 2013 torments in Gothenburg. Inside the Games. Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
  11. ↑ 60HW Women Overall All Time. Power of 10. Retrieved on 2015-03-07.
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