The Wessex League fixtures concluded for the young athletes in July with matches at Andover on the 4th July and Winchester (which was Southampton's home match) on the 25th July. The team did excellently on both occasions, finishing second both times.
This means, at the end of the season, we had one win and three seconds, leaving us in a hugely creditable 4th place overall out of the 19 teams.
The individual teams also performed extremely well.
There was also one outstanding performance at the Winchester match that deserves special mention, more of which comes at the end of the report.
U17 men. The U17 men came 13th in their section although this was due to the general lack of available athletes as the lads that competed all performed with great credit.
At Andover, they managed to get 3 lads to compete but were only able to finish 6th (out of 7) – although this was only 3 points behind 5th place. Despite the modest numbers there were several PBs and national standards. Jordan Raymond achieved a G4 with a time of 11.80 in the 100m; Sam Hewitt got new PBs in the discus and 1500m; and Jack Page also set a new PB (and a G4 too) with an 11.80 in the 100m. He also set a new PB in the discus.
There were national grades and PBs as well set by the two athletes who competed at Winchester. Lee Prince set a new PB, with a grade 3 throw, in the discus. He also set a new PB in the javelin; and Jack Page, continuing his good form, set a new PB and a G4 winning performance in the 200m with 23.90 (his season's target!).
U17 women. The U17 women came 10th overall - suffering, like the U17 men, with comparatively few athletes. There were however some good performances at both matches. U15 boys. The boys came 5th overall, winning one of their 4 matches, second in one and third in the other two.
At Andover, There were some very good performances despite the windy conditions; there were PBs for Christian Beale in the 80m hurdles; Cary Huckerby in the 200m; and Dominic Vlassak in the discus. There were also some impressive first performances - Marcus Vlassak in the javelin; Jacob Rainier in the discus; and Ryan Buckley in the 100m. Jacob's winning performance in the 400m was a G4 performance.
At Winchester, Oliver Jones got a new PB in the 800; Christian Beale got a PB in winning the 80m hurdles and also in the 800m where he came second; Connor Wingham achieved a grade 4 in the long jump, his first time competing in this event this year!, Marcus Vlassak set a new PB in winning the javelin - a G4 performance - and also set a new PB in the shot; he also achieved a G4 in the high jump; not to be outdone, Dominic Vlassak achieved PBs in both the javelin and shot; and Jacob Rainier set a new PB in the discus and achieved G4s in the 400m and 1500m.
U15 girls. The girls in this section had a fantastic season and, in the end, were joint winners, coming second once and winning their three other matches. An excellent performance especially given the quality of the opposition.
Andover saw another impressive match, finishing 21 points over a strong Camberley team despite the absence of their team manager! It was another great team effort but a few performances need special mention.
Paige Carey threw a new PB in Discus of 25.03m, a Grade 3 and the top throw in the County this season; Nicole Davies achieved two PBs and Grades in 100m – 13.1s (Grade 3) and 200m – 28.00s(Grade 4); Ella Jones achieved a Grade 4 in her first 75m hurdles of the season – 13.4s; Kaitlin Howard achieved a great time of 46.00s in her first ever 300m.
Winchester followed a similar theme and despite being school holidays it was a great team turnout. The girls won this time by 16 points over Southampton, the only team who had beaten them all season so good revenge! Performances of particular note were: Grade 4 and 13.4s in 100m from Hannah Lickfold in her first ever match; convincing wins from Megan Brooke and Nicole Davies in 1500m to secure maximum points; a PB in high jump for Megan Brooke of 1.35m; a PB in long jump for Catherine Thomas of 4.22m and the fastest relay of the season in 54.2s for Ellie, Ella, Catherine and Nicole beating the time of U17 girls!
U13 girls. The U13 girls also had a good season, finishing 6th overall.
Andover was a good result for the U13 Girls who finished 2nd and only 8 points behind the winners. Brilliant team spirit again which has really typified the team all season with every team member doing at least 3 events and performing well. The sprints were especially successful for Katrina Francis who achieved a Grade 1 in the 100m and a Grade 2 in the 200m and Chloe Roddy achieved Grade 4s in both sprints. However, it was also a time for 2 team members to try some throws and Becca Blastock (discus) & Rachel Woods (javelin) achieved very creditable debut performances in windy conditions.
Winchester on 25th July was tough for the U13 Girls as we only had 4 in the team. However, they put in some outstanding performances and came 3rd and although we were beaten by the Isle of Wight and Southampton these 2 teams had 6 and 8 girls respectively so this again emphasises how well our girls did with 1st places in both the A & B string for the long jump and javelin and 1st place in the A string for the high jump. Rowan Bavington-Hall (long jump), Becca Blastock (long jump) and Rachel Woods (high jump) also all achieved Grade 4s in these events.
U13 boys. The U13 boys had an outstanding season. They came second in one match but won their others making them outright winners this year!
At Andover, there were national grade performances for Andrew Lomax with G3s in the 100m and 200m; Alex Page with G4s in the shot and discus; and Rory Kelly with a G2 in the 75m hurdles which was a new club record!
At Winchester, there were also several excellent performances and the one outstanding one mentioned earlier. Andrew Lomax achieved G3 in the 100m and G2s in the 200m and 800m; Dan Johnson achieved a G4 in the javelin and G2 in the high jump which was a new PB; and William Hur achieved a G4 in the discus which was also a new PB.
The stand out performance of the match - and probably the best performance by any Woking young athlete for several years - came from Rory Kelly. He competed in the 75m hurdles, Shot and Discus. He achieved G2 in the hurdles and G1s in the throwing events. He also anchored the relay team to victory. However, the best part about this performance was that he broke three club records! His own hurdles record being one but the shot and discus were records, according to the web-site, that have stood since the 1980's. A fantastic way to finish the season.
Paul Buckland
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