In glorious sunshine on what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far the U13 boys kicked off their season in the YDL at Battersea. A small team assembled for the inaugural meet in South West London and it was debutant Benjamin Tranter who got us underway with a fine 4th place in the long jump. Benjamin followed this up with 3rd in the 200m B string and was joined in the sprint by Dontay Thomas claiming 4th in the A string but more importantly running a pb. Benjamin was soon in action again by scoring points for the team in his first ever 800m.
Next to come was our second debutant of the day, Joshua Jackson. In his first race for the club Joshua stormed to an impressive victory in the 100m clocking a time that was fast enough to earn him Grade 2 and a full second ahead of the next runner.
Jack Adams and James Barnes were up next, although usually seen doing multiple laps of track, on this occasion they were both scoring points in the field ahead of representing Greenwich at the day mini-marathon a day later. Jack picked up a 2nd (Javelin A string) and 3rd (Shot B string) whilst James scored similar points with 3rd (Shot A string) and 2nd (Javelin B string). James finished off his day with a sensible run in the 1500m, working his way through from the back to finish in 3rd.
The last event of the day was the 4×100 relay and after some handover practice the boys were ready to go. Dontay got us off to a good start before handing over to Jack who kept us in contention down the back straight. The baton then moved to Benjamin who ran a great bend passing on to Joshua in joint 1st place and from then on there was only one outcome as we ended the day with a win.
The first recipient of the Man of the Match trophy this season is Joshua Jackson for an impressive victory in the 100m and earning a Grade 2 time on his debut.
A great start to the season and a big contribution by all of the boys.