It was CAC Teaching the Lessons at the Essex Schools Championships.

The Essex Schools championships staged at its regular Melbourne Park Stadium found  CAC athletes in great form as they came away with fifteen gold and silver medals plus another ten bronze. Fifteen must have been the number of the day as this equated to the personal bests achieved. Most striking event on the track has to be the 800 metres for from the under 15`s age group where we saw Ava King coming through first with a pb of 2m 14.44s whilst close behind Erin Kelly clocking 2m 15.08s also improved on her previous best. Completing those on the podium Lily Sanford with 2m 18.41s. Moving to the under 17’s Ezrah Harrold won in 2m 10.82s whilst in second spot Lottie Wilkin who had set a pb in the Southern championships only six days back now with 2m 12.64s improved on that. It was not only the girls excelling at this distance for Khaya Fakazi (under 15`s) placed third with a pb of 2m 10.38s. Another third place was gained by Joe Delaney in the U17’s in 2m 02.8s Moving to the 1500 metres Amelie Shipton in first place set a new pb of 4m 39.56. Francessca Phillips, under 15’s, was third  with a pb of 4m 46.25s. Under 17 Daniel Pollard with 4m 15.08s also notched up a pb. Taking second place from the under 15`s was Fred Ferman clocking 4m 20.20s.

In going for the 800`s as pick of the events on the track perhaps I do the hurdlers a miss judgement.. Just look at the hurdles. For starters the under 17 girls saw Amelie Scott winning in 11.60s, followed by Chelsea Clarke 11.91s, Milana Thorpe 12.35s and  Andie Brooks fourth with 13.65s. Going to the boys and Harry Lee took the title in 13.02s with Arun Sitars following in with a pb of 14.28s. Moving up the distances  Daniel Brown won the 400 with 57.28s whilst Alicja Yalaju placed third in the 300m with 48.36s.  Let`s put in the steeplechase in the hurdles bracket for it of course has it`s barriers, here Hetty Harrison finished second with a pb of 5m 39.63s.

Under 17`s over 200 metres brought a win for Lily Hartman in 24.80s with Jasmin Recasa-Lunn third (25.91s) and Evelyn Shonde fourth (26.39s). Abigail Nwakum in the under 15`s placed 3rd with a pb of 26.46s. Over the shorter sprint of 100 metres Abigail McElroy took second spot with12.74s.  Finishing on the track Max Chivers set a pb of 9m 23.55s placing third over 3000m.

The field events may come last in this report but they must rate equal with the performances. Over the high jump Charlie Pyner (U17) won with 1.94m and whilst Arsenii Handzil placed  4th with 1.85m lets remember that this was the height cleared by the two places above him. Moving down an age group Jake Read took the title with a pb of 1.80m. With the hammer and Bevan Dove reached 40.09m for a pb in the under 15`s for second place but in the upper age Joshua Babalola lifted the title with 51.56m. The girls under 17 saw Maddison Poulter placing second with 37.58m. The discus provided two champions in Olivia Mullineaux (u15) with 29.83m and Lily Frost (u17) with 27.60m. In the under 17 shot Matilda Hewitt (13.90m) and Monica Malagala (13.82) took the top two spots whilst in the younger age group Shindar Adeyemo with a pb of 10.82m set a pb. With the boys under 17 and Jeremy Anderson also achieved a pb as he won the event with 14.58m. To the javelin and Zak Williams won the under 17 boys title with 54.61m whilst at this age group Zenobia Williams in the girls event took second place with a pb of 29.45m. At the pole vault Harry Hughes placed second with a clearance of 3.00m. There was also a second place for Everlyn Platts (u15) in the long jump with 4.86m whilst Amy Pugsley (u17) placed third in the triple jump with 10,67m.

The second part of a busy weekend at Melbourne Park saw an EYAL fixture with Chelmsford out to take another win in the pursuit of retaining the league title for the third successive year. Although no individual performances have come my way despite being a home meeting the league web site shows that with 882 points we were well clear of SS/Enfield on 755. Other clubs were Ipswich 612, Thurrock 588, Colchester & T 394, Ilford/Orion 366 and Bedford Lyons 185. The league placings now put CAC on 21 points with match points of 2504 for the three meetings to date. The next four clubs are on 19 points with Norwich best placed with 2288 match points.. With our last fixture at Luton the best placed opponents are Herts. Phoenix in eight place.

Report written by Roy Meadowcroft