English Schools Championships, Birmingham (Fri. 12th & Sat. 13th July)
The goal of many of our juniors is to qualify for this meeting and compete alongside the best young athletes in England, writes Mick Bond. Seventeen of our members made the grade this year, two up on last year’s record of fifteen and whilst three had to withdraw with injury those who made it to Birmingham in one piece performed admirably. The standard to get to this meting is exceedingly high and when you get there it gets even higher !
Emily Cadman (pictured below - lane 6) made it an amazing three wins on the trot as she held off all challengers in the home straight of the 200m to win the Under 17 girls’ event by 0.03 in 24.54s. She will now travel to Wales this coming weekend to represent England Schools against the Scots, Welsh and Irish in the annual Schools International. Emily will be joined by Lily Gayle who won the Under 17 Girls 80m hurdles on a dip finish in a time of 11.47s just 1/100th of a second outside her own club record.
Another hurdler to shine was Elijah Olaleye, running his first season as a 400 hurdler, he scrapped into the final after an outside lane draw in his heat left him off the pace coming into the home straight but then ran a much better race in the final to clinch bronze on the line.
Other medals went to brother and sister team Michael and Hannah Bridge (pictured below). Last year they both missed out on the medals with 4th placed finishes but this year both made the podium with 3rd place finishes in the Under 17 Men’s and Under 19 women’s shot respectively.
Other athletes competing: Dayne Douglas (4th in 100m heat 11.11s), Michael Somade-Makinde (7th in 100m heat 11.23s), Olly Buck (10th in 3000m heat 8:56.25 a PB), Nia Thomas (7th in 75mH heat 12.24s), Daniel Obike (9th in high jump 1.85m), Danielle Agyemang-Talbot (5th in 200m heat 26.18s), Hans Nmaju (5th in 100mH final 13.69s), Keziah Olaleye (6th in 400mH heat 69.72s) & Jovani Lyndsey (6th in 200m heat 24.02s).
Southern Counties Veterans AC Kent League, Division 1, Tonbridge (Fri. 12th July)
Men - (Tim Carter): Again a fine team performance producing a 3rd equal position on the night, but the placings were incredibly tight with 2 points covering 4 teams - all events bar one were covered. The main concern was that Ashford finished in 2nd place who were behind us in the overall league standings and now are only 0.5 match points behind us in the relegation 5th place. We need a really strong team for the final match on Friday at Dartford.
Many solid performances were achieved although there were no winners at the meeting.
The 400m sprinters were most successful - Duncan Hope in M35A produced 56.7s for 2nd - a great run considering he had never run the distance before in competition, a fine 58.0s for Neb Jovanovic gaining 3rd and an outstanding performance from Wole Odele (M55) - 58.3s in 2nd, knocking over a second off season's best.
Over 3000m, Peter Reynolds ran 9:31.6s for 4th in M35A , Duncan gained 5th for M35B, David Reader had a fine run for 3rd M50 in 10:45.3s and John Barron (M65) 4th M60 giving away nearly 10 years.
We finished 5th in the 4x400m with Neb producing a fine split time of 57.7s.
Ever versatile Paris Hunt and Wole gained valuable points for the team as always in many different events and age groups. Paris (M60) 5th in M50 PV, 3rd in M50 hammer - 22.03m and 3rd in M50 TJ - 8.50m and Wole in addition to 400m and relay produced 5th in M35 hammer and 3rd in M35 TJ - 9.72m - giving away 20 years in some instances. Peter Wishart, produced a 3rd place for M60 Hammer - 24.03m.
Women - (Chris Bond): Nooooooo - we’re slipping and it wasn't because of the athletes there on the night. Sophie Johnson, Rose Baker, Lisa Atkinson all ran the 400m, followed quickly by the 3000m and then the 4x400m! Wins on the night went to Natalie Mann in the hammer with 34.90m, Rose Baker competing this time in her new W60 age group winning the 3000m by a clear 3 minutes and Christine Bond in the high jump. Surprise of the night, other than Lisa Atkinson doing a 3000m, was Sophie Johnson asking Chris Bond to show her quickly how to high jump, going on to finish 2nd W35.All this wasn’t enough, we finished 5th and sit 5th in the league.
Lakeland Trails 100k Ultra, Lake District (Sat. 13th July)
John O'Mahony finished 4th overall and 1st M40 in a time of 12:59:39.
Southern Athletics League, Division 1, Eltham (Sun. 14th July)
The club hosted the penultimate Southern Athletics League match at Sutcliffe Park, finishing fourth, which leaves the club in 16th in the league and in significant danger of relegation.
Women (Sophie Fenner): Nirah Valinejad ran a season's best in the 200m of 26.8s. Sophie Johnson (pictured below) was a brilliant team player, running the 200m, 400m and 3000m. gaining personal bests in the 200m and 3000m. Amelia Lawrence, returning from injury, secured a personal best over 800m of 2:25.03s. Julie Backley ran two seasons bests and Rose Baker knocked even more time off of her 3000m, moving to fourth on the 2024 UK W60 rankings. There were personal bests for Lina Poku (HJ - 1.20m), Lily Gayle (LJ - 3.91m) and three personal bests for Sofia Carrillo (SP - 10.59m, JT - 26.45m & DT - 32.82m).
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