CAC Athletes turn a Pigs Ear in to a Silk Purse at the Southerns.

Many in the past may have considered the Crystal Palace stadium as one of the best in the UK, how times change. For a major event such as the Southern Championships the organisers found that three lanes were unfit for use resulting in extra heats being run for 300 and 400 metre events and then of course only five competitors were able to go through to the finals. Still a good couple of days for Chelmsford youngsters with a total of twelve medals gained with an equal number of personal bests achieved.

Day one`s events saw Harry Hughes take third spot in the pole vault, clearing 3.10m for a pb whilst Olivia Mullineaux went one place better being second in the discus with her pb of 30.77m and following this with the bronze medal from the shot putt with 10.66m,  Other bests came from Nicole Hawkins in the 400m in 61.13s and from Bella Kehoe from the under 13`s 800 2m 34.0s. Other notable performances came from Joseph Delaney in the under 17 men 800m to take him through to the fallowing day`s final, Fred Ferman did likewise in the 1500m.

From the shot putt Monica Malagala finished fourth in the hammer reaching 45.82m whilst on the track Lily Hartman, 46.26s. Won her heat of the 300m hurdles, Ava King was first through in her heat of the 1500m (4m 45.01s) and would be joined by Izzy Eida in the following days final. Lily Sanford was another first in her heat of the under 15’s 800m clocking 2m 22.01s bit it was to the under 17`s races over this distance which gave most promise. Heat one was won by Jorjia March (2m 19.31s), heat two saw Ezrah Harrold winning in 2m 22.23s with heat three going to Lottie Wilkin (2m 19.82s)  and being followed through by Amelie Shipton (2m 23.82s) thus all four going forward to the semi-finals on Sunday.

Day two started with Timmy Osei, who the previous day had contested the shot and discus, now setting a pb in the hammer with 23.54m. In the under 15 triple jump Abi McElroy leapt an impressive 10.37m to secure a well deserved bronze medal with Katie Lowe just behind her in 4th spot with a jump of 10.26m setting her a new PB. Lily Hartman in the 300m final placed fourth, later in the day she again just missed out on a podium finish placing fourth in the 200m with 25.10s having won her heat in 25.65m and semi-final in 25.24s. Bella Kehoe improved on the previous day’s heat of the under 13 year 800m by now recording 2m 28.56s placing sixth in the final. Now came our first medal of the day with Matilda Hewitt third in the shot putt with 14.00m - Monica Malagala was one place behind on 13.31m.  These placings were to be improved later in the programme as Matilda won the discus with a seasons best of 37.06m with Monica coming up with a pb of 36.19m for the bronze medal. For the boys under 17year 800 Joseph Delaney just missed out on a finalist spot being fourth in his heat (2m 02,30s) and then followed the semi-finals of the girls event at this distance.  Jorjia March won the first of these (2m 14.54s) with Amelie third ( 2m 15.29s). Heat two and Ezrah Harrold winning  with 2m 17.29s closely followed by Lottie Wilkin ( 2m 17.85s) all four qualifying for the final. To the under 15`s 1500 metres  and in this Ava King took second place with 4m 46.24s, Izzy Eida 4m 56.88s was sixth. Unfortunately Fred Ferman could not repeat his time of the heat with 4m 29.02s.  It was second place for Amelie Scott in the 80 metre hurdles  whose 11.52s    was only bettered as the winner set a new championship record. Chelsea Clarke (11.85s) was 5th. Zenobia Williams (u15) recorded a pb of 29.19m with the javelin - another just that one place from the podium awards. Zak Williams (u17) did make this being second - again the javelin - throwing 57.51m for a pb. Lily Sanford slightly faster than in her heat of the under15 year 800 with 2m 20.27s finished eighth in the final.  The highlight of the championship from a local view point has to come at the end of the day from that under 17 year 800 metres. Rarely can a club provide four athletes in a final of eight. Even more unlikely that three should finish on the podium for Jorjia took the gold with 2m 12.01s with Ezrah less than a second down (2m 12.91s) winning silver and then Lottie who `Rose` to the occasion being third with a new pb of 2m13.66s. Amelie down on her heat time with 2m18.24s placed sixth. Yes a most satisfactory two days for CAC and the athletes will remember this and soon forget the organiser`s problems which caused the  programme to overrun on the first day.   

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft