Young Athletes Success at Auxilliary Finals
Commitment, determination & team spirit by the Young Athletes.
On what must have been the sunniest spot in the UK on Saturday, the young athletes from Rugby and Northampton battled hard for individual and team success in the UK Auxillary Finals of the Young Athletes League. With a fantastic team spirit the squad brought home a stunning 69 individual medals and 4 relay medals to finish in 2nd position just 16.5 points behind the powerhouse of Enfield and Haringey.
No-one was as surprised as the team or supporters to hear they were leading when the first points tally came at the half-way stage. Athletes were on the medal podium all afternoon, helping R&N hold the lead right up until the last three relays when E&H showed their power round the track and steamrollered on to sneak first place, encouraged by a rowdy crowd. The R&N team was nicknamed ‘The Modest ones from the Midlands’ by event organisers who praised the team for an unbelievable achievement in their first appearance in the Finals.
U13 Girls rise to the Challenge & U13 Boys get a taste of gold
It was a daunting experience for the 11 and 12 year olds but they rose to the challenge with the Under 13 Girls Team scoring a massive 114 points out of a possible 136 taking home 15 medals between them. Highlights were a double win in the High Jump for Natalie Murray and Kirsty Dickinson, medals in A races for 75 and 150m sprints for Iona Smith and double gold in the B races for Megan Sly. Georgia Elliott-King had a great day taking silver in the 800m, joining up with Rhiannon Jones in the shot for a well earned bronze each. Rhiannon added gold in the 75m hurdles B with Natalie Murray taking bronze in the A. Natalie and Iona also medalled in the Long Jump. Against huge opposition the middle distance girls battled hard in the 1200m with Alison Inwood taking 4th in the A and Isobel Hughes bronze in the B with Emily Byrd 5th in the B800m. The Under 13 Boys took home half of the gold medals available with three boys Ciaran Wardle, Patrick Mills and Luke Townsend produing Grade 1 performances. Ciaran and Patrick were clearly on form winning 3 individual golds each in 100m A , 200m A and Long Jump B and Patrick 100m, 200m and hurdles. Luke Townsend took gold in Long Jump A and a silver in hurdles B. Luke and Rob Scott threw well in the shot finishing much higher than expected against a field of giants. Ryan Williams and Adam Wright jumped consistently again in the high jump for good points. In what was generally a tough day for the all middle distance runners with very fast races, the younger boys performed well with Adam Wright taking bronze in the 800m A and Nathan Groves gold in the B. Daniel White and Carrick Baldwin ran good 1500m races for the team.
U15 Girls strong in the field & U15 Boys a string of PBs
The Under 15 girls had a particularly good day in the field with double gold for Kerry Murch and Kathryn Reynolds in the Javelin with a Grade One throw for Kerry. Kathryn added a bronze in Discus A with Sophie Hazlewood throwing well in the B and Rebecca Davies silver in the shot B. Kerry set new club records in the shot and javelin with Grade One throws in both. In the jumps Katie Rowe took silver in the long jump B and bronze in the High Jump A, with Hannah Scales winning the High Jump A and Rebecca Davies silver in the A Long Jump.
On the track medals came for Charlotte Inwood taking gold in 1500m and Eleanor Barnes bronze. Gabby Moriarty and Lauren Byrd ran well in the 800m in another fast field. The R&N hurdlers were again out in force with Kerry taking silver in the A equalling her club record and Charlotte Davies winning the B. Sprinters Eloise Morin, Lauren Jones and Charlotte Davies had good runs against some fast ladies teaming up with Kerry in the relay to well deserved silver just pipped out of gold by the E&H team.
The Under 15 boys also took their fair share of glory with Jonathan Chin taking silver in 100m A, 200m A (grade One) and Hurdles B, James Wright took bronze in 80m hurdles and Long Jump – both grade ones and Fraser Ryan silver in 200m B and bronze in javelin A. Fraser was joined by Jackson Hughes in the Javelin who also took bronze. With again superb talent in all the middle distance races the boys ran their socks off with Jack Hall and Danny Wardle running pb’s in the 800m and Logan Roberts taking bronze in the 1500m A and Conor Hills running the 1500m B.
Conor Malone and Ben Jennings had fine jumps in the Long Jump and High Jump B strings and the throwers were on form with a collection of medals between them. Jamie Iddon took bronze in hammer A as did Rob Mackenzie in the B. Rob added a bronze in B discus and newcomer Joe Osborne showed his potential for the future with great throws in the discus and shot.
U17 Girls a force to be reckoned with & U17 Boys – Young Guns !!
In the Under 17 girls it was all hands on the deck as everyone mucked in to fill as may gaps as possible! There were medals galore in the sprints with Charlotte Burrows taking Gold in 100m A, silver in 200m A, Sophie Wright Gold in 200m B and silver in 300m A, Monet Ager gold in 300m B and Hannah Oliver silver in 100m B. With girls doubling up in all the middle distance events Emma McGowan battled round the track in both 800m and 1500m and was still smiling when it came to her chance in the discus circle. Emma was joined in the 1500m by Emily Waugh fresh from a win in the 3000m A where Chelsea Thompson took Silver in the B. Chelsea also stepped in after a last minute injury in the discus. There were fine pbs in the hammer proving that practice makes much better for amateur throwers Sophie Wright and Emily Waugh. Sophie Meakin had good hurdling day taking silver in 80m hurdles A and 300m hurdles A, joined by Olivia Wetherill in the 300 and Sophie Raven in 80m.
In the jumps Shelley Hazlewood took silver in Long Jump B before an injury in the triple jump. Javelin throwers Charlotte Burrows and Hannah Oliver took silver and bronze.
Finally the young Under 17 boys team faced with undoubtedly the strongest competition of the day again battled hard, doubling up in all middle distance races and filling as many gaps as possible for team points.
The best result came in the javelin with a double win for Alex McKie and Craig Murch. Craig also took bronze in discus A.
Hurdlers Themba Luhana and Ryan Cleaver took gold in the 100m hurdles A and silver in the B with Ryan taking bronze in the 400m hurdles A. Themba took gold in the Long Jump B with Ben Lees jumping well to take 4th in both the A long and Triple Jump and adding a bronze in 100m B. Ben Townsend took gold in the triple jump A and had fine throws in both hammer and discus. Sprinters Luke Storer and Tom Johnson and Rhys Webster ran well against a field of ‘men’ in the 100, 200m and 400m. The talent on the day showed as Luke, Tom, Ben and Themba had a fantastic run breaking a long standing club record in the 4x100m relay yet did not medal.
Competing in both events, bronze medals came for George Cardwell in the 3000m B and Luke Robinson in 1500m Steeplechase B. Rhys Webster and Rory Grant also both doubling up ran fine 1500m races with Rory also competing the 800m with Stewart Bates, both running great times.
Relay Records Galore
The sprinters pulled out all the stops in the relays with 5 out of 6 relay club records broken. Not mentioned above the Under 13 girls took gold in a new club record with Bethany Gaisford, Rhiannon Jones, Megan Sly and Iona Smith. Under 13 boys took bronze in record time with Adam Wright, Patrick Mills, Luke Townsend and Ciaran Wardle. The Under 15 Boys James Wright, Fraser Ryan, Conor Malone and Jonathan Chin will probably be surprised to read they broke last year’s record also just being squeezed out of the medals. By far the most excited team of the day were the Under17 girls of Sophie Wright, Sophie Meakin, Monet Ager and Charlotte Burrows who had hoped to break the long standing record all season stormed round the track to take gold in record breaking time.
