One of Bournemouth AC’s long jumpers was invited to compete at the Loughborough International last weekend. Patrick Sylla excelled, jumping a huge 7.33m and finishing in 5th place. This feat is all the more outstanding, given that he was the only U20 athlete in a senior field at such a high standard competition. Congratulations to Patrick, and his coach, Zac Kerin on his achievement. Brad Pickup, who also trains with Zac at BAC also competed, finishing just behind Patrick in 6th place.
BAC hosted a tough match against Guildford and Godalming, Newquay and Par and Swindon Harriers at the Southern Athletics League meeting on 22nd May. In overcast and at times cool conditions, our athletes put in a strong effort to gain third place overall.
Standout performances came from Izzy Wedderburn and Danielle Broom. Izzy gained two very impressive PBs, winning the long jump A competition in 5.45m and came second in 200m A with 26.2 secs. She also won the 100m B race. Danielle won the A string discus, hammer and shot putt, gaining an outstanding PB of 10.95m in the latter.
On the track, Rob Woolgar clinched victory in a close 100m, race and Sarah Kearsey showed a clean pair of heels her fellow competitors, winning the 800m. Guilford and Godalming were largely victorious in the sprints, however, BAC’s athletes stepped up and picked up the points across the board. Special mention must go to Lewis Sainval, who ran a very speedy PB of 52.6 secs in what was his second ever 400m race. Darryn Campbell came 3rd in the 200m A race, and Andrew Speers ran a PB of 24.4 secs in the 200m B race, following his PB at Dorset County Champs last weekend. This time was matched by Ryan Markham, running as a non-scorer, for whom it was also a PB. Danielle Marshall and Janet Dickinson both collected points for the club in the 100m hurdles, coming 2nd in the A and B races, respectively. Danielle also came 2nd in the 400m hurdles race. Performances from Mark Annis, Dave Flicos and Paola King over the middle distance events gained vital points, contributing to Bournemouth’s overall total for the day.
In the field, BAC was largely dominant. Cameron Hale and Jamie Williamson won the high jump A and B string, respectively, while Iona Sheerin leapt to a SB of 1.60m, coming second in the women’s A string and Gemma Kennard won the B string. Iona also gained a new PB in the long jump with 5.25m. She and Izzy were class apart in the long jump field, being the only athletes to jump over 5 metres which they did so in style. Jay Collins also won the men’s B string long jump. In the triple jump, Madeleine Smith leapt out to PB of 11.24m, a distance which would normally win any SAL match, but came second against some quality jumping from an older Swindon athlete.
In the throwing events, Ben Dickinson won the javelin A string in what was a very high standard of competition, with a PB of 49.97m. Amelia Dobson also gained a PB in the women’s A string javelin, with a distance of 26.49m placing her second. Janet Dickinson came second in the B javelin and won the B string discus. Andrew Sheerin and Stephen Dobson put in a solid and consistent performance for the BAC. Most notably, Andrew gained a PB of 10.70m in the shot and Stephen threw a PB of 24.39m in the discus competition.
And finally to the relays; both the men’s and women’s 4x400m teams were highly competitive, both placing second with some very impressive splits from the runners. In contrast, perhaps the less said about the 4x100m relays, the better. In what we thought would be demonstrative of BAC’s sporting prowess, we fielded not one but two women’s teams, in contrast to previous years where we have barely scraped together one team. Unfortunately, following a dramatic turn of events in which not one but two changeovers ended an athlete from each of our teams hitting the deck, both teams soldiered on to finish race, ensuring the track referee had plenty of issues to contend with.
Nonetheless, Bournemouth should take heart from the fact that the team appears to be growing stronger this season with more commitment from the athletes, which can hopefully lift us from the swathes of Division 3 South West, to a division which truly reflects our athletes’ talent. This will be a tough ask for the next match which clashes with a schools championship, so we hope we can still field a decent team at this event.
Well done to all the athletes and their coaches. All those months of winter training are now paying off!
Finally, special thanks must go to the officials and volunteers without whom the competition could not have taken place. From those raking the sand pit to the time keepers, from the sandwich-makers to the race starter, all volunteer roles are important for the day to run as smoothly as it did.
This report was written using results from the Power of 10, accessible here:
http://thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=156061&pagenum=2#LJ (Loughborough International)
http://thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=156003 (SAL)
However if there are any errors, please let me know so I can correct them. Also if anyone has any photos from the event they would like to accompany the report, please get in contact too.