The 2019 South West Inter County Championships were held in mostly warm and sunny conditions at Exeter on Sunday 21st July. This report will be restricted, for the sake of brevity, almost solely to medal winners. Unless otherwise mentioned all the medal winners below were competing for Dorset.

Starting with the younger age groups saw Oscar Ewen Matthews win a Gold medal in U13 Boy’s Long Jump with a leap of 4.75 metres. Oscar also won Bronze in U13 Boy’s 800 metres in a time of 2.20.11 seconds.

Sofina Sommerseth won Silver in U13 Girl’s Long Jump with a jump of 4.37 metres.

Mariah Marshall won Bronze in U13 Girl’s Javelin with a throw of 15.54 metres.

Abigail Phillips won Gold in U15 Girl’s 300 metres in a time of 41.79 seconds which was a PB. She also won a Bronze medal in the U15 Girl’s 200 metres in a time of 26.72 seconds.

Brooke Ironside continued her fine summer season with a Gold medal in U17 Girl’s 100 metres with a PB and new Championship record of 12.03 seconds. Amelia Verney won Silver in a time of 12.26 seconds which was very close to her PB. BAC athletes were close to a 123 on the medal rostrum with Lana Blake coming 4th in a Season’s Best time of 12.63 seconds.

Brooke Ironside won Gold in U17 Girl’s 200 metres. Her winning time of 24.97 seconds was another PB. Amelia Verney won Bronze in a time of 25.36 seconds.

Larna Blake won U17 Girl’s Long Jump with a leap of 5.44 metres. Brooke Ironside won Silver with a jump of 5.39 metres.

Jasmin Cooke won Gold in U20 Women’s High Jump with a jump of 1.55 metres.

Chloe Burrows achieved a sprint double, thus continuing her fine 2019 season. Chloe won Gold in Senior Women’s 100 metres in a time of 12.23 seconds and Senior Women’s 200 metres in a time of 24.58 seconds. Both times were just short of her PB’s at those distances.

Isabell Shepherd won Bronze in Senior Women’s Hammer with a throw of 39.19 metres.

Joe Bacon, who now competes for BAC’s BAL team, represented Cornwall. Joe won Gold in U20 Men’s 400 metre Hurdles in a time of 55.69 seconds. He also won Silver in U20 Men’s 110 metre Hurdles with a time of 15.69 seconds, which was a PB.

I hope I have included all BAC medal winners out of over 500 entries from the day’s competition. Apologies if there are any omissions

Thanks to all officials at the event, particularly to BAC’s Wynne Munden. (Some other BAC members were officiating at the London Anniversary Games).

Thanks also to BAC and County stalwart Brian Camp who was very busy all day as Dorset Team Manager. His final duty of the day was to collect a Dorset 2019 vest left by the Long Jump/Triple Jump pits at Exeter. The vest is believed to be a junior’s size. As of Tuesday 23rd July no one had claimed the vest from Brian. If you know anyone who left it at by the LJ/TJ area or would like to have it (if no one from around Dorset claims it), please contact Brian.

By William Kearsey

BAC Athletes at English Schools’ Athletic Association 2019 Track and Field Finals, Alexander Stadium Birmingham.

The Finals held over Friday 12th July and Saturday 13th July had ten BAC (first claim) athletes selected, not the nine I erroneously reported previously. I apologise for omitting Amelia Verney.

All athletes mentioned below represented Dorset Schools unless otherwise stated. 

As earlier reported, the Finals are one of the largest sporting events held globally and thus since inception in 1925 are now meticulously timed and run. The athletes travelled up to Birmingham on Thursday 11th July.

Friday dawned and the first BAC athlete to compete was Abigail Phillips in Event T1 Junior Girls 300m commencing at 10:00 hours, Abigail was drawn in Heat 3. Only 8 of the 24 competitors would go through to the Final T95 to be held at 16.39 on Saturday. Abigail acquitted herself well running in a time of 42.35 secs, her 3rd fastest time. All the more creditable considering how early it was. Abigail did not make it to the Final but surely gained experience for future finals at ES.

Soon after T1 started, Isabella Shepherd was in action in Event F4 at 10:10 Senior Girls Hammer. Isabella could not reproduce the form from earlier in the season and finished 20th with a distance of 37.18. She did however enjoy the whole experience of the 3 days camaraderie and hopefully will continue in the sport now School competition has come to an end for her.

Mia Wilkinson was in Event T6 at 11:18 hours Junior Girls 75 m Hurdles. Mia came 7th in Heat 2 in a time of 12.53 seconds. Mia didn’t progress to Saturday’s Final T81 at 15.09 but hopefully gained a lot of experience from the trip to Birmingham. Although not a first claim member, recent new second claim member Molly White deserves a mention. Molly was 6th in Heat 3 in a time of 12.20 seconds.

Yasmin Bridet was selected for Intermediate Girls 80m Hurdles T9 at 11:32 but unfortunately due to injury was unable to compete. We hope Yasmin makes a full recovery and is fit and ready next year.

Leah Sullivan was in F12 at 12:45 Junior Girls Long Jump. There were 24 competitors. English Schools can be a very daunting competition with more officials, totally different surroundings and other events going on simultaneously sometimes in close proximity. Leah came 24th with a best jump of 4.33 m well down on her PB of 5.08 m. Leah will surely learn from her experience and strive to be back at ES in future.

T21 at 13:54 saw two BAC athletes in Intermediate Girls 200m. Brooke Ironside was first in action in Heat 2, fighting through and coming 3rd in a time of 25.13 seconds. Amelia Verney was in Heat 3, coming 3rd in a time of 25.61 seconds. The first 2 in each Heat qualified along with the 2 fastest losers overall. Brooke qualified for the Final T 75 on Saturday at 14:29 but unfortunately Amelia just missed out as 4th fastest loser.

Saturday saw the athletes back early at the stadium from their overnight accommodation, with Isabelle Franklin in action at 10:00 in F30 Intermediate Girls Long Jump. Also in action was Lana Blake representing Hampshire Schools. Lana, having competed previously at ES, finished 9th with a best jump of 5.32m, down on her PB. Isabelle was 22nd out of the big field of 25 competitors with a best of 4.97, down on her PB of 5.18m. You have to accept the event was at 10:00, not ideal for Long Jump. The athletes have to be up, fed and ready to travel and prepare when it suits the whole team. These are part of the character building aspects of the competition.

About the same time, in Event F31, commencing at 10:15 Adam Phillips was in action in Senior Boys Discus. Adam chose the perfect time for a PB with a throw 46.98 m to come a very commendable 4th.

Brooke’s moment with destiny duly arrived at 14.29 with T75 Intermediate Girls 200m Final. Brooke again battled through to finish fifth in a time of 25.05 secs. It is only Brooke’s 2nd year in athletics. Congratulations to her, her current coaches Zac & Tim and her earlier coach Dave. Despite being only 16, Brooke is one of the fastest 200 m runners in the SW of England.

Due to restriction in the total number of competitors counties can take to the Schools Finals, especially the smaller ones such as Dorset, a relay team can’t always be entered by a county. The relay is 4×100 m only.

Dorset this year had sufficient Junior Girls and Intermediate Girls selected for ES to enter a relay team for each age group, both of which included BAC athletes. The Junior Girls failed to finish in their heat. The Intermediate Girls clocked a very good time in their heat but failed to progress to the Final.

Lana Blake ran in the Hampshire Intermediate Girls relay team, they progressed in their heat on Friday to Saturday’s Final. Lana ran superbly in the second leg of the Final and had two brilliant baton changes, thus helping Hampshire to win that relay Final and gaining herself a gold medal.

I won’t go into the many individual cups for different size counties, ages, genders etc. The award for the aggregate totals of all ages and genders saw Hampshire come third in Group A (the Broadbridge Trophy for the largest counties by school population) with 275 points. Dorset came 6th in Group C, the Tonkin Cup with 66 points. (There are four groups/ aggregate cups/school population categories).

Finally a brief mention of a young man called Alfie Why. Alfie was recently selected to represent his area of Dorset at Dorset Schools Junior Boys Long Jump. He won Dorset Schools with a best jump of 5.55 m. He was thus selected to represent Dorset at SW Schools at Exeter and won that with a wind assisted jump of 6.32 m.

Alfie was then invited to represent Dorset Schools at ES. He accepted their invitation, came to King’s Park for a quick couple of coaching sessions with BAC’s Brian Camp. On Saturday in one of the last events, F48 at 15:30, (probably using the two days extra time to practice a bit and some brief coaching from BAC’s Tim Ward) saw Alfie win the ES Junior Boys Long Jump with a best jump of 6.65m. Hopefully Alfie will return and maybe join BAC.

Hopefully all participants will have enjoyed the experience, have learned something which will further their athletic ability or just put to good use in general life. Especially as many of the team were from the Junior and Intermediate Age group and have the chance to train even harder and return in future years.

Written by William Kearsey

BAC athletes turned in some excellent performances at Bedford last weekend on 1st & 2nd of June. Bedford was again the stage this year for the South of England Athletic Association’s Senior & Under 20 Championships.

Winning a Gold Medal, Sophie Merritt came first in Senior Women’s Shot with a putt of 14.13 meters.

Phoebe Dowson continued her trend for 2019 by winning a silver medal by coming second in Senior Women’s Discus with a throw of 50.14 meters. Phoebe continues to be ranked second in the UK for Women’s Discus. Sophie Merritt came 4th in the same event with a throw of 42.16 meters.

A Silver medal was also won in the Senior Men’s 3000 m Steeplechase by Jamie Grose in a time of 9 min 30.17 seconds.

A surprise Bronze Medal was won by Jasmin Cooke in U 20 Women’s High Jump with a height of 1.63 meters. It was Jasmin’s second taste of competition at this sort of level with all it’s added pressure.  She also competed at Lee valley EESA in U17’s last year and received a bronze medal

Jack Messenger came 6th in the Sunday morning’s Final of the Senior Men’s 400 m Hurdles in a time of 55.45 seconds. Jack had battled through in the 10 AM Saturday morning’s heats with a qualifying time of 54.75 seconds to reach the final.

The Senior Men’s 5000 m was thankfully for all competitors a straight Final. Former local Craig Palmer returned to Bedford and along with Josh King were up near the front in the first half of the race. The fast pace eventually told on Josh who couldn’t hang onto the leaders and finished 11th in a credible time of 15 min 39.58 seconds. Craig paced his race exceedingly well, finishing 7th in a PB of 15 min 21.41 seconds.

Rob Woolgar on the Saturday finished 6th in Senior Men’s Long Jump with a jump of 6.77 m. Rob unfortunately didn’t finish the Senior Men’s 110 m Hurdles Heats held the next day. Despite Rob’s height, elevating one’s self successfully over the high hurdles is not an easy task.

Chloe Burrows ran the Heats of Senior Women’s 100 m in 12.30 seconds, in the Semi Final she came 7th in 12.51 seconds.

Joel Harvey and Kevin Richardson ran in the Senior Men’s 400 m Heats. Joel qualified for the Semi Finals in a time of 50.77 seconds, Kelvin did likewise in a time of 50.97 seconds. They both ran in the same Semi Final, Kevin coming 5th in 50.05 seconds and Joel 6th in 50.08 seconds.

Madeleine Smith was disappointied coming 10th in Senior Women’s Triple Jump with 11.46 m due to registering a number of no jumps. She struggled with the warm still conditions, normally contending with cold windy conditions.

Although not a Higher Claim BAC member, David Clarke is a BAC uni student member. David ran in the Senior Men’s 1500 m under High Wycombe club colours . David regularly trains at KP and is always cheerful. He was just even more cheerful on Saturday as it was a straight Final, coming 12th in a time of 4 min 11.22 secs.

Hopefully I have not overlooked any BAC competitors. Special mention must be made of Hazel and Jemma Bates who went all the way to Bedford to officiate on Sunday and to Mike Phillips who did likewise on Saturday. Without such sacrifices competitions at any level would not take place. I overheard the officials being told at 9 AM on Sunday they would be granted £4 for food and drink instead of a packed lunch for their toils lasting till gone 5 PM.

Report by William Kearsey

Three BAC athletes were in action for Southampton in the Hampshire Vets League on Monday night in Basingstoke

Southampton Ladies Masters team won the Hants Vets League Match and the men were second.

Andrew Sheerin won M35 Hammer and was 3rd in Shot. He impressed all with some big warm up throws in the Hammer and was on top form as usual. We are looking forward to seeing some more PBs soon from the muscular, throwing man.

Janet Dickinson competed mainly in the younger W35 age group.  She won the Hammer, 100m and came a close second in Javelin.  It was another first place for Janet in W50 High Jump.  Only taking limited attempts at all these events as they followed each other in close succession.  In fact the High Jump and Hammer took place at the same time so Janet had to switch between throwing and jumping.  Fortunately they were next to each other to facilitate this.

Joy Wright had an excellent evening, winning the W35 400m by a significant margin. She won the High Jump and came a near second in W35A 100m into a stiff breeze. Again the High Jump was cutting it fine due to a late start and Joy just managed to secure a winning jump before running almost 200m to the relay start. She was delighted to be back from long term injuries and illness.

The match concluded with the usual relay and this time it was a Medley, comprising 2x 200m, 400m & 800m. It was the perfect way to end the day with a win. Janet ran 400m and Joy 800m as part of the winning team.

Congratulations to Southampton ladies winning the match by 6 points, ahead of Winchester. There were fantastic performances all round.  Well done to the men’s team on an excellent second place.

A win puts the ladies team in the driving seat for the league. A victory at Aldershot on the 8 July will mean an automatic place in the finals in Kent on 1 September.

It was a fantastic evening throughout.  Well done to everyone that competed, officiated, managed the teams and provided tea and cakes!

Firstly, can I say a huge CONGRATULATIONS and WELL DONE to all involved in the event. This applies to Parents, Athletes, Officials and Coaches who all assisted in making the day a success. To come second again is truly amazing and demonstrates excellent team spirit. We scored a massive 501 points!

We had a team of 28 athletes including some new faces from last time and we welcome you all into the team.

I am going to try and mention everyone because everyone had some special moments.

U17 Boys

Joshua Dyer, Daniel Owen, Robert Jones, Jasper Todd.

The boys were a little depleted in numbers due to school exams and holidays but that didn’t stop them!

Joshua and Daniel dominated the 100m and 200m races both in A and B stream. Robert performed excellently in 800M as well as Jasper.

U17 Girls

Amelia Verney, Brooke Ironside, Milly Siderfin , Mel Creber, Yasmin Bridet, Molly Hole, Lana Blake, Lucy Wilkinson, Nia Jones and Anya Sandell and Gwyneth Ikoli

Amelia, Brooke, Yasmin, Lana and Gwyneth scored massive points in the sprints. Mel, Milly and Anya took on the longer distance runs bringing us home more points. The combined resources for the relays produced some inspirational results. Molly, Lana, Mel and Anya took on the jumps. Anya bravely took on the pole vault. Whilst Lucy, Molly, Nia and Yasmin performed excellently in the throws.

Thanks girls you were all amazing.

U20 Boys

Joseph Haywood, Daniel Kirby, Sam Cook, Sam Cooper, Adam Petty, Karlo Weeks Fraser Spall, Adam Phillips, Matthew Forster.

The sprints scored us great points by Joe, Sam And Daniel. Longer distance runs were Adam, Karlo Fraser and Sam Cooper. The boys throws were inspirational and the stars were Adam, Matthew, Sam and Fraser. We even managed to turn out a 4x100m and 4x400m relay team. All the boys truly took on the team ethics and tried events they don’t usually do. This assisted us greatly in gaining second place.

U20 Women

Rebecca Hannibal, Jazmin Cooke, Amelia Dobson
Issy Shepherd.

Again, a little depleted in numbers but you scored wonderful points for the team all of you rising to the challenge and trying events you usually don’t know normally partake in. Amelia and Jazmin dominated the Jumps. Becks dominated the running both in the sprints and the steeple chase and Issy showed them all how to throw. Thank you girls for doing the relays, even when I knew you didn’t really want to!

The next event is 30 JUNE at KINGS PARK

My vision is to fill in all the gaps we had on our team sheet. With the aim of winning on home turf! I think we could do it! But I will need your help. We were 120 points behind the winning team. We will need a few more athletes. We need to find some hurdlers and middle distance runners, especially boys.

Let me know as soon as possible if you can compete and like before consider doing events you don’t usually do. But please make sure your coaches are happy for you to do so. U17 can do 3 events plus a relay and U20 can do 4 plus a relay.

Thank you and well done all.

Suzi Shepherd, Team manager.