A Record Number of CAC Athletes in the Essex Squad at the English Schools Championships.

With twenty of our youngsters competing for Essex in the English Schools Championships in Birmingham this equated to a third of the selected number permitted by a county. And they can be proud of their performances.

No athlete can feel this pride more than Sam Wright for before the completion gets underway teams’ line up for a parade and Sam was selected to lead the team in and carry the county flag in front of the large gathering of spectators.  Sam`s performance lived up to this for in the senior boys long jump he was to win with a massive 7.39 metres - a distance superior to not only our under 20`s but also at senior men level. Naturally with this a national event standards are very high so despite our other athletes in the senior ranks not making the podium they can be rightly pleased with their efforts, Edward Hughes in the 400m hurdles ran 55.11s in his heat and then a 54.52s placed him fourth in the final. In this event Daniel Brown finished seventh with 57.05s having clocked 56.87s when finishing second in his heat. Also, in this event Archie Sims ran 59.80s in the heats. In the 1500 metres Jacob Hurrell qualified through his heat and with 3m 54.09s was seventh in the final. Greg Martin was no doubt the unluckiest competitor here for his fifth-place finish in 3m 55.07s failed to make the final. Unlucky - well that heat was by far the fastest and nobody in the other heats beat that time.

From the juniors, or under 15-year-olds star performance must be Jake Read in the high jump for a clearance of 1.90m brought about a coveted first place. Also, in this age range Olivia Mullineaux made the podium coming out with a discus throw of 30.12m for the second-place award. In the1500metres Ava King with 4m 36.02s went through to the final and clocking 4m33.64s placed sixth in the final. Quite an event for Essex for Brentwood pair Summer Smith finished third and Heidi Woodley fifth.

Now let’s turn our attention to the intermediate (under 17 year old`s) age group for which the team is selected for the School`s International involving England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, I am assuming that the gold and silver medallists are automatically selected and if so we can give our congratulations to two of our members, In the 800 metres Ezrah Harrold after placing second in her heat with 2m 12.66s improved on this with 2m 08.90s to again cross the line in that coveted second place. Moving to the 1500m and Jorjia March, (here she was in the colours of Middlesex), also second in the heats with 4m 33.26s and with 4m 28.09s taking second place, yes it`s our congratulations to both for sterling performances. There were of course other grand performances - take that of Lily Hartman who set a new CAC record in the 200m of 24.42s to place fourth after a second place in the heats with 24.64s. Just missing out on top two finishers but still on the podium for their third place were Joshua Babalola in the hammer with 53.32m and Matilda Hewitt with 13.49m in the shot putt. Amelie Scott over the hurdles clocked 11.27s in the heats then placed fifth in the final, also over in this event Chelsea Clarke was fifth in her heat with 11.89s. In the high jump Charlie Pyner cleared 1.94m eventually being placed sixth - four boys in fact recorded this height. Zak Williams with the javelin reached 56.31m finishing 8th, Jeremy Anderson with 13.57m in the shot putt placed tenth and Harry Lee in the hurdles went through from this hear in second place with 13.31s and in the final took seventh spot. In the discus Monica Malagala with 31.94m and placed tenth.

Yes it`s a great achievement to compete in these championships for your county and for all to finish within the top ten really a good meeting for our club members.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft.