The club had a bumper crop of athletes competing at the 2022 English Schools Championships, with 23 athletes selected to represent their counties last weekend in Manchester.
In the 100m, Joe Carter (U20M), Ryan Brady (U17M) and Ella Bowell (U17W) all ran strongly to make the semi-finals, with Ryan, Joe and Ella coming first, third fifth in their heats respectively. Tamara Jackson clocked 12.78s to narrowly miss out on qualifying for the semi-finals, a strong showing given ongoing injury niggles. In the semi-finals, Ella backed up her 12.36s clocking in the heat to run 12.58s finishing fifth in semi-final 1. Joe followed up his 11.31s clocking with 11.56s to finish seventh in semi-final 2, with Ryan also finishing seventh in semi-final 3 in 11.72s.
The 200m saw a medal haul for Tristan Jamieson's sprints group, with Ed Wilson taking the silver medal in the U20M in a SB 21.90s in his final English Schools appearance. Ed missed out on the gold by the narrowest of margins, being pipped by just one one-thousandth of a second! In the U17M race, Mackenzie Ritson doubled up the medal haul, taking the silver medal in 22.68s. Ricky Powell was making his English Schools debut and ran strongly in his U15M heat, finishing just outside the qualifying spots in a new PB of 23.51s.
Patrick Kyle competed in the U20M 110m Hurdles, finishing fourth in heat 2 in 14.81s. Ruby Woodman (U15W) was our only athlete competing over the 300m, and finished sixth in her heat in 42.59s, matching her PB in what was only her third ever 300m race.
Moving up the distances, Holly Sanigar won her U15W 800m heat in 2:15.03 and went on to finish a strong sixth in the final, clocking 2:15.30s. Megan Hornung delivered a SB performance, to finish sixth in the U20W 3000m in 9:47, a mere 2s outside her PB. In the U20M 2000m Steeplechase, Steve Kerfoot finished ninth in 6:17.
Onto the jumps. Nyree Perry vaulted to 3.5m in the U17W competition to secure herself the silver medal in the Pole Vault, In the U20W High Jump, Lily Bailey jumped a new PB of 1.66m to finish in fifth. We had two athletes in the U20W Long Jump, with Delleah Belgrace (5.69m) coming out ahead of Eleni Francis (5.30m) in 6th and 10th positions. Coach Paul Weston commended them both for strong performances, fulfilling or exceeding their pre-event rankings. In the U17M Triple Jump, there was a close competition between George Isgrove and Destiny Sadiku, with both athletes jumping to new PBs. George finished fifth with a jump of 13.47m, with Destiny finishing in eighth with a jump of 13.13m. In the U17W Triple Jump, Rosa May Ford finished 10th with a jump of 10.34m.
In the throws, Sophie Hamilton led the way, throwing 45.88m to take the silver medal in the U20W Javelin, with Owen Garrett throwing 43.25m to finish seventh in the U15M Javelin. Joshua Schrijver threw the discus 42.81m to finish fourth in the U20M competition, with Moni Brady finishing 13th in the U20W Shot Put with a throw of 9.23m.
A huge congratulations to all our athletes who competed at the English Schools Championships!