Mike Strange catches up on another weekend of Indoor Track & Field competition.
The highlight of this past weekend has been the England Athletics Junior Championships at Sheffield. Another very successful foray for B&W, proudly acquiring 2 medals plus some fine performances, mainly in field events.
New acquisition George Iisgrove led the field with an exciting Silver Medal in the U17 Men’s Triple Jump with a leap of 13.22m on Saturday. George will thank his B&W Coaches Paul Weston and Eugene Hechavarria for their expertise and advice that has guided George to this success. George made it a weekend to remember on Sunday with a personal best in the 60m hurdles that pushes him up to 3rd in the B&W Indoor ‘All Time’ rankings with an excellent 8.65 secs. George has new Coach Jim Kyle to thank for this achievement. Next week George will head for Cardiff for the South West Championships where he should again reap rich rewards.
Owen Garrett is already Welsh Champion at the U15 Shot. He faced the top competitors in the UK at Sheffield and emerged with a PB and bronze medal with a throw of 11.32m. Owen made his mark with a final 6th round effort to win that medal.
Nyree Perry was crowned Welsh U17 Pole Vault Champion last weekend, and this week she consolidated her efforts with another 3.15m clearance to clinch 5th place in the England Athletics Champs. Well done again Nyree.
In the Women’s U20 High Jump we had two competitors. Lily Bailey had improved her PB to 1.66m a couple of weeks ago so was there with high hopes and the other Bristol Uni student Melissa Choong comes with a PB of 1.69m achieved back home in Malaysia last year. Both jumped well and achieved 1.64m before fouling out at 1.68m and on this occasion Melissa got the judges nod due to fewer failures. Both are in fact multi-event athletes which means that we have some talented young ladies coming along to support the Club in the forthcoming season.
Back on the track Tamara Jackson U17 was our hero reaching the semi-finals of the 60m with a great PB of 7.90 secs in her heat with a matching 8.00 secs in the semi. Tam also had a mixed run in the 60m hurdles heat where she ran a good solid race until the last hurdle which she clipped, destroying her rhythm to end up just short of her PB with a 9.70 secs clocking.
Josh Maggs U20 has improved his 60m PB with each race this winter and did so again with 7.11 secs in his heat finishing one place behind HCA Member Joe Carter who clocked 7.01 secs to make it to the semi-finals. That is the second time that Josh has missed out in making the next round by one place. It’s tough in there Josh. Joe went on to clock 7.09 in his semi-final but failed to progress further.
Ryan Brady U17 also made the Men’s 60m sprint semi-finals clocking 7.35 secs in his heat for 3rd place before running a consistent 7.29 clocking in his semi in 6th place. I say consistent because Ryan has now run 7.28 on 3 occasions and 7.29 twice this winter. Time to break through again next week maybe Ryan.
Not all good news though for our athletes. Highly rated Mayalee Osola who could have been a medal contender in the 60m hurdles tweaked a hamstring last week which cast doubts on her being able to race. A brave Mayalee did make it to the line but sadly crashed out after clipping her first hurdle. Similarly Melissa Choong also crashed out in her heat.
Better news for NSAC Whitehall trained Triple Jumper Rosa Ford who took a well earned Bronze Medal with her first jump of the competition clearing an 11.45m personal best.
Away from Sheffield, U20 athlete Jedani Wright showed excellent form in the Inter-Varsity match at Lee Valley on the 9th Feb with a Triple Jump effort of 13.31m. In the same match Emma Bakare U23 improved her Season’s bests for Triple Jump and Shot with 11.61m and 12.80m performances respectively.
In Boston, MA, Hugh Sadler continued his strong indoor form, competing in the mile at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational. Backing up his 3000m PB last weekend, Hugh finished 11th, in a new PB of 4:11.77.
Mike Strange