Weekly Update 14th June 2022
County Schools Championships
As the temperatures warms up so does the track season with performance aplenty across the weekend. It was County Schools day on Saturday with club members competing at either Battersea (London Schools) or Medway Park (Kent Schools ). London made their initial selection the next day and have named 6 club members in their team:
Hannah Bridge Under 17 shot Put
Keziah Olaleye Under 17 300 Hurdles
Faith Assah Under 17 200m
Divine Akinlolu Under 17 100m
Daniel Nyong Under 17 400m
Emily Cadman Under 15 200m
The London Championships suffered from a lack of qualified officials on the field which meant the event was unlicensed by UKA and unfortunately therefore performances are not recognised by Power of Ten. This is a problem across the sport caused a bit by fixture congestion (also running on the weekend was 20 SAL matches, the British Masters Championships, Open meetings at Watford and Stratford and the British Blind Championships) but also a general lack of officials following Covid. The solution is for clubs and Schools to persuade more people to get qualified. Officiating gets you right close to the action and interacting with the athletes and can be very rewarding. Initial training is on line, speak to Mick Bond or Barry Ferguson if you ‘d like to give it a go with current officials happy to mentor people where needed.
At the Kent Championships Nuriah Orhurhu smashed her PB and blew away the opposition winning the under 15 girls 200 in 25.50 and should be guaranteed a place on the Kent team when they announce it next week. Other possibly to be selected include Katie Marsh javelin, Lily Gayle, 75m hurdles and Dante Legister 100m.
Southern Athletics League
At the Southern Athletics League match at Medway Park on Sunday our combined men’s and women’s team were trying to repeat the win from the first match. In the end Dartford just pipped us and with just one team to get promoted it looks like being a nail biting season finish could be in the offing. We suffered from a few injuries and athletes missing due to the other fixtures and year 11 exams but the same was probably true for Dartford. The match was a double fixture held alongside Medway’s Division one match and it was good to see that in may events we were matching the standards set in Division 1.
On the women's side, Doyin and Derin Aderinto dominated the sprints. They competed in the 100m and 200m, winning both events over A and B string. They both also ran PB times in the 200m, with Derin going sub 28 seconds for the first time. In the sprint hurdles, Amirat Mohammed-Hassan won comfortably in a time of 17.33. Our ladies smashed the 4x100m relay, with a winning margin of just over 3 seconds.
In the middle distance, Megan Marchant won both the 800m and 1500m. She narrowly missed out on a PB in the 800, but was able to beat her 1500 PB by 11 seconds with a time of 4:42.39. Julie ran well in the 800m, winning the B string in a time of 2:43.31. We had double Lucy’s in the 5000m, storming the field and winning both strings. Amelia Lawrence stepped up for the team and was our only runner in the steeplechase. Even after competing the day before at London Schools, Amelia won the steeplechase for our division. With a fresher legs, a club record might be broken in the U17W 1500mSC; watch this space. Megan and Lucy Foreman stepped up to the challenge of the mixed 4x400m relay. They both ran strong legs and finished in 2nd place.
Megan Marchant on her way to a PB in the 1500m
The throwing events produced lots of PBs for one of our athletes. Sophie Fenner achieved three PBs in the hammer, shot and discus. She improved her hammer PB by nearly 2 metres, with a new best of 337.31m. She came 3rd in the shot with 6.67m and won the B string discus with a throw of 19.66m. Katie Marsh was our other athlete representing the club in the throws. She came 2nd in the discus with a throw of 24.17m, narrowly missing out on 1st place by 33cm. In the javelin, she came 1st with her 1st round throw of 34.28m.
Chichi Cooper and Amirat Mohammed-Hassan were our stand outs in the jumps. Amirat came 2nd in the high jump with a best of 1.38m and 3rd in B string long jump. Chichi came 2nd in the A string triple jump with a best of 10.95m and a PB in the long jump of 4.70m.
The men’s team was again boosted by the presence of Craig Lacy (A sting wins in all four throws) and Brandon Sikity (wins in the 100 hurdles and good seconds in the long and high jumps).
Craig Lacy winning the javelin
In the sprints Shaquille Fernandez-Folkes secured good wins in the 100 B and 200 A strings and then beat his triple jump pb by over a metre with a leap of 12.57m whilst Steve Tredray stepped up to win the A String 400m after Omari pulled up with a repeat hamstring problem.
Shaquille Fernandez-Folkes 200m dip finish
Jordan LeBlanc and Luke Ford picked up maximum points in the 3000m as did Fuad Busoir and Reuben Chandler in the 400 hurdles.
Sri Chimnoy 5k
Running in Battersea Park the night before the London Schools Caroline Ford set a lifetime 5k PB of 16:30 with James Macdonald not far ahead on 16:19.