Bournemouth Athletic Club hosted an Open Graded Sprints meeting on Sunday 23rd August at King’s Park Athletics Stadium. The meeting was an initiative to provide local athletes with an opportunity to compete without need to travel much. As such and to limit the number of competitors on site, the meeting was restricted to athlete members of Bournemouth AC, Poole AC, Poole Runners, Wimborne AC, Dorchester AC, Weymouth St Paul’s Harriers and AC, New Forest Juniors and Isle of Wight AC.

The events were seeded races and included the 100m, 200m, 300m and 400m and held under UKA Rules and EA Covid-19 Guidelines. As a result it was classed as an ‘official’ meeting with results compiled for Power of 10, the first in Bournemouth in 2020. There was also a wind gauge in operation.
As the first official outdoor sprints meeting in Bournemouth in 2020, it was clearly evident that athletes were delighted to be back on track! The athletes embraced the opportunity to put their hard training into practice and there was an undeniable buzz about the place.

The weather was kind as it stayed warm and dry but the wind was hitting the back straight in big surges. However, the longer sprint athletes did not appear to let this deter them and this is evident in some excellent performances being recorded.

100m
The meeting kicked off with the most popular event of the day, the 100m sprints. The races were spread across 12 heats with over 60 athletes competing. The wind was in their favour with readings ranging from +1.3 to highs of +4.2.


The fastest time of the day was recorded by BAC’s International Long Jumper, James Lelliott who raced to victory in 11.0 (+1.6). He was followed by BAC’s Joseph Haywood and Muiris Egan in a time of 11.5 and 11.6 respectively.
They all looked on great form having put in the hard work and dedication during lock down. We are looking forward to seeing James in action again at the Müller British Athletics Championships on 4-5 September at the Manchester Regional Arena. The Championships will be broadcast live on Friday night on BBC2, 1800-2100 and Saturday afternoon on BBC1, 1315-1630.

The woman’s fastest time of the day was clocked by Amelia Verney (U17) in Heat 2 with an excellent time of 11.8 (+3.6) followed by Brooke Ironside’s (U20) impressive 12.0 (+2.4) in Heat 3.

Other notable performances by BAC athletes included a great show from our Junior athletes are as follows: Keon Dzuda (U17M), picture below in 11.8; Jolomi Nengite (U20M) 12.3; Adam Nicholass (SM) 12.4; Jazmin Cooke (U20W) in 12.8 (pictured above) Abi Phillips (U17W); Mia Wilkinson (U17W) 13.0; Amy Tonkyn (U15G) 13.6; (U15G) 13.9; William Launder (U13B) 14.0; Connor Bailey-Pearce (U13B) 14.6; Ewan Brown (U13B) 14.7; Bailey Guy (U15B) 15.0; and Ben Hutton (U13B) 15.0.

200m
Over 40 athletes lined up on the top bend to compete in the 200m which extended to 10 Heats. The fastest time of the meeting was recorded by BAC’s Kevin Hodgson with an outstanding 22.4. Kevin is a sub-50 second 400m meter runner and has shown to be an excellent talent. We are looking forward to seeing more great performances from him in the future.

BAC dominated the field with a convincing lead in this event, taking the top four places. Muiris Egan stormed through the line in 23.1, followed closely by Joseph Haywood (U20M) in 23.2, and Toby Bailey-Pearce (U17M) in 23.3. Excellent performances considering this is the first competitive sprints meeting at Bournemouth in 2020.

Ashley Williams of NFJAC clocked the fastest time amongst the women competitors with a time of 24.0 in Heat 1. Having the men to chase down must have helped as she was close behind the man in front.

The next fastest was Amelia Verney doubling up in both the 100m and 200m metres with an impressive 24.5 in Heat 3. Brooke Ironside also doubled up and recorded a great time of 24.8 in Heat 2.
BAC had a good presence in the 200m and showed great form with some excellent performances throughout. Again this included a good number of our younger talented athletes which shows great prospects for the future of the club. Performances in order of times include: Keon Dzuda (U17M) 24.3; Abi Phillips BAC (U17W) 25.9; Joy Wright BAC (W45) 26.8; Trevor Elkins (M40) 28.2; William Launder (U13B) 28.2; Amy Tonkyn (U15G) 29.0; Amy Doble (U15G) 29.1; Connor Bailey-Pearce (U13B) 30.6; and Ben Hutton (U13B) 31.8.

300m
The 300m was reserved for the U17s and took place across 4 Heats. There were some excellent performances from our three BAC athletes in Heat 1 as follows: Arief Mckenna (U15B) 40.9; 4 Abi Phillips (U17W) 42.7; Oscar Ewen-Matthews (U15B) 44.2. The fastest 300m time of the event was run by Charlie Brookes (U15B) of DAC in 38.1.
A great show of commitment and determination to continue training up to now.

400m
The 400m took place across three Heats with Ciaran Dunnion (SM) of PAC clocking the top time of 50.2, followed closely by fellow team mate Josh Smith (U17M) of PAC in 50.5.

The women saw the fastest time of 58.3 run by local athlete Sarah Kearsey followed by Joy Wright’s (BAC) performance of 60.1. This places Joy in the top rankings in GB (V45) for both 200m and 400m.
Next through the line was Trevor Elkins (M40) in 64.0. Trevor is currently a BAC road runner but hopefully he’s developed a taste for the track so we can see more from him in the future.

In summary, it would be fair to say this was a superb day of Sprints at King’s Park! Organiser, Tim Hughes did a great job in coordinating the events in adherence to Covid guidance which required additional work and planning.

Tim and BAC would like to extend a huge thank you to every official and helper that made this event possible. This includes a proficient BAC Officials team alongside our friends from nearby clubs who worked efficiently in accordance with the standards and guidance.

A huge congratulations to all who took part in what was a fantastic and enthusiastic day.

Here are the official results: Bournemouth Sprints 23-Aug-20

Today, 30 August 2020, BAC are hosting a Throws Invitational Trial which has attracted an excellent field of talent.  We look forward to receiving the full results. 

On Tuesday 8 September BAC are hosting a Shot Invitational Meeting This will take place on Tuesday 8^th September at 6pm (during the club training session) for BAC members with a focus on juniors.  For more information click here.

What an Super SAL Saturday.

Such a great bunch of people.

I was rather nervous about today. Southampton at home

Chelmsford top 3.  Thames Valley who are 6th.

To secure our league position next year we needed at least 2nd and a healthy bunch of match points.

Team orders were given on the bus.

Have fun or stay on the bus. It would be safe to same fun was had.

By the half way point of the match and to my horror we were joint 1st with Southampton.

Towards the end of the match Southampton pulled ahead. We finished with a magnificent 2nd place and 216 match points. A great great result…. no a huge result.

We will have to wait to hear the other results. But it looks good for BAC.

Thanks to you all for making this year such a wonderful experience. Jemma and I were chatting after the match and agree that you are a very unusual but lovely bunch of people.

I never thought of athletics as a team event until I experienced the SAL. What a team.

Thank you!

By Andrew Sheerin, Team Manager.

Phoebe Dowson came second in Women’s Discus at the BIGish Jumps & Throws Fest at Bedford On Monday 27th of May, with a throw of 54.79 meters.

At the same meeting, James Lelliott was 4th in the Long Jump with a jump of 7.39 meters. James was unfortunate in that 2nd, 3rd & 4th places jumps were within less than 2 inches of each other. A slightly longer jump would have been rewarded by second place. James is currently ranked 7th in Men’s Long Jump in the UK.

Rob Woolgar was also at Bedford participating in the Long Jump. Rob came 7th with a leap of 6.94 meters in a strong field.

The title “BIGish” derives it’s name from a Bedford International Games held some years ago, it is now mostly a national competition, attracting the best throwers and jumpers from around the UK.

Phoebe Dowson was also competing in the Women’s Discus at the Loughborough International meeting the previous weekend. She finished second with a throw of 55.20 meters. At the moment Phoebe is content with her throwing and is ranked nationally SECOND IN THE WHOLE OF THE UK.

Most of the top ten ranked Women Discus throwers in the UK achieved their best throws of 2019 in exotic venues in the USA & Southern Europe. Phoebe’s best throw of 56.05 meters was achieved in the luxurious surroundings of King’s Park outside throwing area at BAC’s Open Meeting at the end of March.

By William Kearsey

Jazmin Cooke came 3rd in the U20’s W high jump at the south of England championships in Bedford on the 1st June 2019

We left Kings Park on a very busy mini bus filling almost every seat! Which for me was a much welcome change from previous years! We picked up along the way at both Picket Post and Cadnam. We arrived at Walton all ready to welcome athletes, officials and parents from Salisbury into our newly formed composite team. I was overjoyed when completing my team declaration that I had a pool of 20 plus athletes all keen and ready to compete !!!I must say unheard of!

My first thank you must go out to the officials. Tim and Tina Wilding from New Forest, Juliet Dobson from Bournemouth and new to us Andy Webb, Alan Munro and Andy Angell from Salisbury. It was fantastic to have such a great team of helpers behind us not to mention the additional points the team received from having an almost full quota of officials! Thank you so much.

I also cannot thank the parents who sat in the freezing cold enough! Also thank you to all the coaches that prepared athletes ready for the event and helped me with the team. Thank you to Tim and Dennis for helping the girls on the day particularly with the relay teams.

I now must move on to some of the day’s highlights. What can I say 2nd place overall above teams like Southampton and Team Dorset! Amazing, Amazing, Amazing! Well done everyone what a fantastic start!

Now over to the real stars of the day.

The girls put in some strong performances across the board in both age categories on both the track and the field. The biggest highlight was U17 100 m relay team breaking the club record with a time of 49.2. Well done Brooke Ironside, Amelia Verney, Lana Blake and Yasmin Bridet. Yasmin had said to me that the team would do well and you definitely did!!

We scored double points in Long Jump Lana Blake and Issy Franklin U17 both first and first with 2nd place going to Amelia Dobson in U20.Again in the High Jump Jaz Cooke jumped a season best gaining 2nd position in U20 and Amelia Lewis who jumped in u17 also came 2nd place. Lana Blake secured first place in Triple Jump. In shot our 3 athletes were Alice Miell and Issy Shepherd at U20 both gaining first place and Georgia Clarke scored well in U17 age group. In Javelin Alice Miell and Amelia Dobson both first in U20 scored double points along with Lucy Wilkinson came first in U17.Issy Shepherd threw a season best in hammer and took first place, Lucy Wilkinson stepped in and threw the hammer in U17. Georgia Clarke stepped into Discus thank you for doing so alongside Issy and Lucy.
Over to the track. Brooke Ironside ran up in U20 in 100m gaining first place position. Rebecca Hannibal also ran a great race. Amelia Verney, Issy Franklin and Sarah Brett ran great races in 100m and 200m. Alice Miell ran a really impressive 100m hurdles all on her own with me cheering for Sarah! I did say I was sorry!! Thank you for getting us top points. Yasmin Bridet gained first place position in 80M Hurdles. Melody Creber ran her first ever 3000M it’s a long way but you did it! well done! The other 100m relay team included Issy Franklin, Jaz Cooke, Sarah Brett and Rebecca Hannibal you had never ran as a team before but came second with a time of 52.4 well done girls. As the day went on the team spirit grew and amazingly a group of girls actually wanted to run the 400m relay. Thank you to Brooke, Jaz, Sarah and Becks.
Be proud of yourselves!

The boys also performed like real troopers. Showing fantastic results across both track and field. We had some new boys who had never competed before and they bravely rose to the challenge. I do really hope you enjoyed it!In 100m Joshua Dyer and Daniel Owen both ran fantastic races both in a time of 12.1 and Sam Cook ran his first ever 100m putting in a strong performance. Aidan Dure -Smith showed us how to compete at distance running and then showed his versatility by running the 100m relay. His team consisted of Joshua, Daniel and Morgan sorry boys for all the faffing about with the vests !!!Danny Sinclair did amazingly well in High Jump coming second. I hope that you survived the hurdles and that your knee is ok now? Morgan competed in Long jump coming 2nd place well done a great result.

Looking at the U20 Boys. Fraser Spall competed in a maximum number of events including being the only athlete in the steeple chase, I think we might have some more takers next time!!!Sam Cook threw the hammer for the first time ever in a competition. He wasn’t even put off by another competitor saying he could throw 60M plus! Adam Petty only agreed to come on Saturday evening he is primarily a runner but he entered into the spirit and tried a whole host of events. Thank you and well done! Jacob Northcliffe did some great running including the relay.

I really hope I have not left anyone out! You really were all amazing. Thank you for enduring the cold, meeting and making new friends. Together we will build on this success please come again and invite your friends to take part.

Please contact me ASAP to let me know your availability for the next events.

Thank you so much and a huge well done!!!

Suzi Shepherd

World Masters Athletics Federation have introduced Awards for the Best Masters athlete in each discipline in addition to their annual Best Masters Male and Female Athletes Award.

Nominees are selected following numerous hours spent trawling through results, records, PBs, analysing statistics and studying the WMA criteria.

BAC’s Janet Dickinson, a professor at Bournemouth University has been nominated by British Masters Athletics for the World Masters Athletic Federation Awards 2018 for her Multi Events performances and achievements.

Janet won the silver medal at the World Masters Heptathlon this year in Malaga, Spain, competing for Great Britain. Nationally she won six different British Athletics Championships including Heptathlon and Pentathlon.

Janet set new British Heptathlon Records at the British Championships and again at the World Masters Championships.

Janet is coached by Paul Rees and a is member of Bournemouth Athletic Club and Bournemouthbarbell.

Congratulations to Janet on her excellent performance and we wish her every success for 2019. WMA should announce the winners shortly.

World Masters Athletics Annual Awards