With the completion of the refurbishment of the athletic facilities Melbourne Park has been in regular use, hosting a variety of meetings including the high profile English under 20 /23year championships .We had ten members taking part in this having gained the qualification standards. Obviously in such high quality medals are hard to come by but neverless five did accomplish this - one silver and five bronze .The women under 20 shot putt saw Maegan Hopkins take second spot with a PB of 13,75m whilst in the same category Omola Kupanyicollected the bronze. A further medal for the Hopkins family, and again with a PB ,for Jessica saw her effort of 14.62m rewarded with third place in the under 23 classification. Over at the long jump Sam Wright reached 7.21m (a PB) for third place - a position also gained by Onyeka Okohin the 400mH event. Other PB`s came from Alastair Brown with 14.78m in the shot putt, fifth place, and Will Steadman in the 800mwith 1m 53.21s. Although not reaching finals Kissiwaa Mensah (400m)Holly Watson (800) and Ruby Vinton (1500) put in good performances.
In our own `Mile of Miles` promotion which qualified as an Essex championship event a total of 144 athletes, including 30 of our own members, contested the races over the various age groups. In the senior men's race Joseph Perry-an under 20 age group placed second 4m12.30s and beaten only by one of the Australians competing as guests in this country, thus Joseph takes the county title .At under 17 level Gregory Martin (4m 19,9s) and Jacob Hurrell (4m21.64s) took first and second places Under 15 year Austin Kelly placed third with 4.53.05s whilst there was gold for Fred Ferman in the under 13`s with 5m09.59s With the girls we start at the younger age group with Ava King -5m20.52s just getting the edge over Erin Kelly 5.21.48an Isabella Eida in third place. Under 15`sEzrah Harrold placed second in 5m 16.51s and Lottie Wilkin third 5m18.54s.To the senior event and Kiera Atkinson (under 20) placed third.
The Eastern Young Athletes League home fixture saw a huge victory as our final points score of 776 proved to be more than the combined score of Colchester and Brentwood. This gives us a total of 1460 points from our two fixtures and edges us further ahead of Shaftesbury on 1425 and also unbeaten. We meet in our next meeting where we have home advantage. It really is a crunch match lets hope we get a full team out, it can some times prove difficult during holiday periods. To come up with such a score we did of course have many individual winners - both `A` and `B` events - in fact to many to mention here. However we can not miss out on the likes of Olivia Mullineaux who achieved a treble in the under 13s via the shot putt, discus and javelin. Francesca Hopper also achieved via hurdles, shot and discus in the `B`strings. Matilda Hewitt from the under 15`s won the shot, discus and hammer whilst of the under 17`s there was a unusual combination of events from Sienna Shipton with 300m, 800m and triple jump. I consider it worthy of mention two under 15 boys despite only one win each for they formed part of the Essex Schools team in Birmingham the previous two days. Here Sam Steadman won the 300metres and Adam Handzii achieved a PB in the high jump with 1.78m
At the English Schools Championships in Birmingham seven of our members were in the Essex team and six came away with medals. Pride of place to Kissiwaa Mensah who after a heat win in 24.65s came back the next day to lift the 200 title with 24.86s. Three silvers came from Onyeka Okoh via the 400m hurdles (heat 53.80s 1st and final 53.13s), Matilda Hewitt under 15 shot putt (11.88m) and Alastair Brown under 20 shot putt (15.74m). Sam Wright under 17 long jump (6.40m) and Sam Steadman in the under 15`s 300m (heat 36.29 a PB and final 37.95s) both placed third. Arsene Handzii finished sixth in the under 15 high jump but with a PB of 1.75m took pride in that. He was to better that the next day in the EYAL meeting
Report Compiled and Written by Roy Meadowcroft
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