Another busy week for club members as lockdown restrictions were lifted and the sport took another step back towards normal. Saturday saw the return of Parkrun with many members joining their local run. Holly Dixon beat all-comers at Eltham running a Parkrun PB of 17:44, whilst Under 15 Amelia Lawrence broke 20 minutes for the first time with 19:47. Plans are underway for new Parkruns in Sutcliffe Park and Charlton Park to add to the opportunities for everyone to run and opportunities for us to recruit!
On the track Sabrina Sinha took over 2 seconds off her 1500m PB in a high-class race at Loughborough University. Organised by the British Milers Club (BMC) and held in memory to the great coach George Gandy, Sabrina’s time of 4:14.20 not only moves her up to 18th in the UK Rankings but she also now tops both the men’s and women’s rankings at Cambridge Harriers! Closer to home Brandon Mingeli lowered his 100m PB again to 10.20 albeit with a 2.4m/s tail wind and will I’m sure be looking at potential Commonwealth Games selection next year. At the same meeting held at the Jim Peters stadium in Barking Doyin Aderinto took another few hundredth’s off her 100m PB running 12.43 (+0.8m/s). Doyin’s race program is a good lesson to others in how races move you on as this was her 8th 100m race of the season and each time she has shaved her few hundredth’s off and moved from 13.09 in May to 12.43 now.
Sabrina Sinha (No 238) - (Photograph courtesy of Mark Hookway (Tonbridge AC))
Sunday saw the 3rd YDL U20/U17 fixture of the season, and we took a strong team down to Gillingham. Unfortunately, so did all the other clubs and a close fought match saw us finished 5th out of six, though only a few points behind 3rd and not that far off second. Our summer recruitment has been going well, driven in part by the successful Greenwich Schools events that we organise, and it was good to see ten members making their YDL Upper age group debut. Highlights included a 100m PBs for Dejaune Lingard (10.90) Shawnna Williams (12.77s) and Chichi Cooper (12.96s). Over the hurdles Aaron Abayomi and Carlos Rojo-Thigo continued their neck and neck progress with both setting PBs of 14.77 and 14.87 respectively and then went on to set PBs in the high jump (Aaron 1.70m) and triple jump (Carlos 10.66). In the throws Kingsley Baffoe-Bonnie, Theo Hafford-Tear and Maddie Cattanach all picked up useful points.
Friday of course sees the start of the Olympic athletics programme with our own Daryll Neita competing in the 100m alongside Dina Asher-Smith. Dina and Daryll are the same age and both started off competing against each other in the Kent League as Under 13’s!
Schedule in UK time is as follows: Heats Friday 3.40 - 4.35am, Semi-finals Saturday 11.15 – 11.30am, Final Saturday 1.50pm.