We were back at Dartford for the 2nd match in a row and I’m beginning to think that the sun always shines in Central Park. With just seven boys available it was always going to be difficult to fill every place and in a such a competitive league every point is vital. We finished as 4th best U13 boys team on the day (we were 2nd last time out in the Kent League) and there’s no doubt we would have had a higher finish if we had been able to fill the three B string slots we were missing.
The boys who did compete acquitted themselves admirably, especially those who were taking on events they had never tried before.
Ben Tranter yet again proved himself to be a vital member of the team as he took on the hammer for the first time before going on to compete well as A string long jump and B string high jump.
Tomisin Awolowo was up next in the sprint hurdles, narrowly missing out on 3rd place before mobbing on to B string shot put and ducking under 30 seconds as non-scorer in the 200m.
Joshua Jackson continues to impress in the sprints, a pb of 12.74 in the 100m moves him back into the top 10 of the UK rankings and he followed this up with a clear 200m win before competing as A string high jump. Dontay Thomas was 4th as B string 100m in a pb time of 14.27 before scoring vital points as 2nd place finisher in the 1k walk. Dayo Sijuade filled the sprint spots with a time of 14.01 (NS) in his first 100m race before going on to compete as B string in the long jump and 200m.
Still to come were James Barnes and Jack Adams in a very competitive 800m. James was hampered as he struggled with the conditions, pollen being clearly visible throughout the day, and despite being outside his pb he was placed 1st as B string athlete in a race containing 16 boys. James then went on to pb as B string javelin. Having been A string shot and javelin (pb of 21.80) either side of the 800m, Jack narrowly missed out on a two lap pb but won maximum points in a thrilling race as he sat behind the leader for the first 500m before taking it on all the way to the line.
The 4×100 relay team (Dontay, Dayo, Ben and Joshua) made it four wins out of four, remaining unbeaten to win by almost 1.5 seconds.
The Man of the Match trophy for this meet goes to Jack Adams for showing grit and maturity in the 800m, in what I think was his best race to date.