This weekend saw some of our athletes compete at the English Schools Athletics Finals. This is one of the biggest athletics sporting events in the world in terms of the number of athletes involved. To win an event is one of the greatest achievements a school athlete can realise. Even reaching the finals is a challenge itself in a small county such as Dorset which can only take 25 athletes to the competition.
Danielle Broom won the silver medal in the Intermediate Girls (IG) discus. Although throwing 38.47m is just over 4 metres below her PB, Danielle must be satisfied with just one person finishing above her in such a prestigious competition.
In the Senior Girls (SG) triple jump, Angel Kerin came 5th with a best of 11.15m and Madeleine Smith came 6th with 11.11m. These distances were a little below their PBs but Gateshead is not renown for warm and still conditions conducive to the jumps events. They both finished ahead of their positions in the national rankings this year.
In the IG long jump, Izzy Wedderburn jumped 5.40m, finishing 8th in her qualification round. Unfortunately, this was not enough to progress to the final, but having had a few injuries in the lead up to the competition, this is a very good result for Izzy.
Bridget Dence came 6th in SG 1500m with a time of 4.39.52 mins. This was just short of beating her PB, and like Angel and Madeleine, she was well ahead of her position in the national standings.
Cameron Hale came 7th in Intermediate Boys discus. He too threw below his PB but after his exploits winning the South West Schools Multi-Events Finals last weekend, this is still a fantastic achievement.
Another of our multi-eventers, Olivia Galloway, came 6th in her heat of the IG 80m hurdles. Meanwhile one of our young hurdlers, Yasmin Bridet, also finished 6th in her heat of the Junior Girls 75m hurdles.
A recent newcomer to BAC is Jack Davies, who represented Hampshire in Senior Boys 100m. Jack came 8th in his heat. Jack’s preparation for the competition has been hampered with an injury, so being fit to run in Gateshead is an achievement in itself.
Patrick Sylla, who was selected to compete for Dorset, opted to not compete at English Schools as he has been selected to compete soon at the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz in Poland.
Once again, well done again to the eight athletes who competed in Gateshead, and their coaches.
If there are any mistakes or anything missing, please let me know.