A number of our athletes attended the South of England Championships held at the Lee Valley Stadium with eight coming home with medals. The five star performance came from Jacob Hurrell for after placing third in his heat of the 1500 metres (4m 09.83s) provided our only gold during the two days of competition by taking the title with nearest opponent almost four seconds down in his wake as he set a time of 3m 59.92s for a new club record. The old record was held by John Archer dating back to 1962 which before the metric distances were adopted for UK athletics and thus the record had been set in a mile race and converted. Middle distance events also brought two other medals. Fred Ferman placed second in the under 13`s 800 metres in 2m 19.67s and Ezra Harrold took the bronze medal in the girls under 15 age group with 4m 39.49s in the 1500m. Other medals were gained via the track, throws and jump events. Sophie Catchpole having placed fourth in the 80mhurdles (12.46s) then proceeded to the 300m hurdles with 46.38s claimed third place. Sam Steadman meanwhile went for the 300m flat event and with 37.12s was another bronze medallist. Matilda Hewitt has been in great form during the season in the shot and hammer events but was unable to give of her best here placing 4th and 5th respectively but then took third place with the javelin with a pb of 33.16m. At the high jump Charlie Pyner was another below his best but with 1.75m still took third place in the under 15 boys class. Back to the track and Milana Thorpe was third in the under 15`s 75m hurdles with 11.97s after winning her heat in 11.85s. Worthy of note are athletes achieving personal bests, Harry Lee and Daniel Brown in the under 15 long jump, Thomas Carter and Joshua Eida from the 1500 metres, Ava King under 13`s 800 metres and Madison Poulter with the javelin.
Report Written by Roy Meadowcroft