The first meet of the year saw us take a trip to north west London at the Bannister stadium in Harrow. On a day that started overcast but became steadily sunnier the still conditions made it almost perfect for a day of track and field. Had it not been for the mini marathon on Sunday then we would have been able to field a full team but nevertheless we had 6 boys who managed to fill all but 3 slots. Four of the six boys were competing competitively in club colours on the track for the first time meaning that is was a relatively inexperienced team. The inexperience was countered by their enthusiasm and the support they gave each other throughout the day. Most of the boys were trying events for the first time and so the day was about getting some scores on the board and picking up points collectively.
Liam Carr started us off in the 75m hurdles, adding to his points from the sprint event with placings in the B string javelin and 800m, showing himself to be a versatile all-rounder.
Other good all round team performances came from Dontay Thomas, proving himself adept at the high jump as well as the sprints (100m, 200m, relay and high jump) and Theo Hafford-Tear (Long Jump, 1500m and relay) with a gutsy run in the A string 1500m before picking himself up to run the 2nd leg of the relay just 20 minutes later. Another good all round performance came from Ethan Fiore (Long Jump, 800m, Shot Put & Relay) who achieved 2 p.b.’s, including an AAA grade 2 time in the 800m. Temi Abiola proved himself to be our fasted boy on the day with strong performances in the sprints (100m, 200m & relay). His 200m time proved to be quick enough for a AAA grade 4.
A special further mention for Liam and Ethan who were also competing in the mini marathon on Sunday.
Our main thrower Nico Marino scored well in Shot and Javelin, his first place with the spear being the pick of his events. He can now look forward to adding the discuss and hammer to his repertoire when the Kent league starts.
Everyone contributed to the team and should feel proud of their results, which makes choosing a stand out performance very difficult. Each league meet I’m going to select a man of the match and my first pick goes to Temi for achieving a AAA standard with his first race of the season.