Saturday saw a small increase in our numbers attending Lee Valley’s first outdoor open meeting of the season (from 4 athletes who attended last weekend’s meet at Woodford Green to 7 athletes attending Lee Valley). Although there wasn’t much improvement in the weather conditions with it being overcast and windy with headwinds of between -3.7 to -5.8 during the hurdles and sprint heats, this didn’t dampen any spirits on the day and the club results were as follows:-
Special mention goes out to Jade Fitt who ran a fantastic 400m hurdles race that had everyone on the edge of their seats when in the last 30 metres she caught up to, and through sheer determination passed the leader to come home to take first place in her heat, very tense times and very sore throats had by us all! A very spirited seasons best run, well done, and although she was upset at just missing out on the time she was aiming for, I feel this was more due to the blustery conditions on the day than anything else, and on a calmer day she would have achieved her goal time, not a good day for PBs for the sprinters or the hurdlers!
Special mention is also given to Kacey Walters in the under 15s girls division who competed in a number of events on the day, but with 5 jumps being given straight off in the long jump alone, (her first event in the morning), and 5 throws being given in the shot put, it was a bit of a gruelling day, but she did well to win both the long jump and shot put events, and after a swap from the 100m sprints to the 75m hurdles (“just to have a go”), she ran a safe race having had no practise at this distance before and running into a headwind of -3.8. Initially Kacey was going to withdraw from the high jump competition due to the weather conditions outside, but after pulling out of the 100m sprints decided last minute to take part, which proved to be a good decision in the end as she came away with 2nd place in the U15s event (joint 4th overall in the senior women’s section) with a height equalling her PB of 1.50m, (amid the wind blowing off the bar!). The 200m was a bit of a bridge too far being right at the end of a very long day, but she wasn’t too far off her pb with a run into a headwind of -3.7 so well done.
Well done also to Eddie for gaining a fantastic new pb of 43.85m in the U17s division, and to James on a season’s best throw in the senior men’s division of 33.98m, especially throwing against such a strong prevailing headwind, not an easy task, so well done both of you.