Freezing cold but plenty of red-hot performances

Being a junior league, a lot of athletes were competing for the first time or were trying out new events.

In the Under 13 age group, Luke Farrow ran a strong 800m and threw 5.72m in the shot, a great result for his first attempt.

Jack Wheatley won the 75m hurdles in 14.33, achieved third place in the 100m and increased his PB in the long jump to 3.18m.

Ashton Fletcher competed well and achieved valuable points for the team in the discus, javelin and the 100m.

This continued with James Hill, George Williams and Paul Ojelade competing in multiple events to help score points for the team and Leo Sangiorgio ran well in the 200m in his second year in this age group.

There was great success and good team bonding for the 11 boys competing in the Under 15 team as they came out as age group winners.

Louis Moulton gained maximum team points finishing first in the B string high jump, second in the B string 800m and third in the B string shot with a PB.

In the 200m there was a PB for Dontae Bowling (25.2) and a B string win plus a PB for Lewis Wing (25.6).

In the 300m Caleb Topping (45.6) and Neilas Virsilas (46.9) both achieved PBs.

In the 100m there were second place finishes for both Bowling in the A string and Jake Lee in the B race.

The non-scoring runners Kaiden Pereira and Neilas both improved their performances, while Wing achieved a PB of 12.6.

In the middle distance races, Topping knocked four seconds off his 800m best while in the 1500m Oliver Beasley’s sprint finish saw him pip clubmate Lewis Wiles to the line. Wiles was second in the B string.

In the throws Tennyson Fletcher improved in both the shot (7.24m) and discus (16.59m) while Wiles achieved a PB in the javelin and Ronnie Davey achieved a B string win in the discus with a best performance of 16.47,.

There was success in the long jump too, with Jake Lee winning the A string with a new best of 4.94m.

For the Under 17 men Luke Phillips claimed first place in A string long jump with a lifetime best of 5.37m and first place in the B string shot putt with a PB of 7.73m.

Also in action for the club and achieving PBs were 100m runners Cody Roe (11.9) and Bryce Tshabalala (12.3), who both followed up with PBs in the A and B string discus.

Having a successful start to his season was Akinola Ojelade with lifetime bests in the 200m (25.4) and 100m hurdles (16.3).

In the field events Dylan Phillips equalled his high jump PB and achieved a new PB in the javelin with a throw of 22.97m.

Moving up to her first year in the Under 17 age group, Elizabeth Taylor sprinted to victory in the A string 300m in a swift 42.2.

Also competing in their first year as an Under 17 were Charlotte Dunstone in the 80m hurdles and 100m, Megan Shields in the pole vault and 200m, Tamsin Wallings in the 800m and Louise Chance in the javelin, long jump and shot. Dependable second year Under 17 Molly Fletcher ran a strong 300m of 44.3 for secoind place in the B race.

Alice Bennett threw a lifetime best in the Under 15 shot of over 8m to take second place and also scored valuable points in the high jump (1.30m) and long jump (4.03m). Also in the long jump was Lola Hilliard, who jumped 4.59m.

Sisters Danni and Gaby Owusu-Ansah competed in a mix of track and field events. Running the 200m and 300m were Jasmine Heron, Saffron Tasker and Rebecca Humphrey while Molly Egby did well in the 100m and 200m.

Competing for the Under 13 girls were Millie Herrick in the 100m and Lola Gaches and Faith Perkins in the 800m. All three girls ran PBs.