| Multi-Eventers Alice Robinson and Ben Pitts made the long journey up to Gateshead on Saturday to take part in the North East Counties Open Indoor Pentathlon competition. Both athletes finished 4th; Alice in the Senior Women’s event and Ben in the Men’s Under 20 contest. Alice who took up athletics again last Summer after an absence of eight years decided to take on the challenge of multi-events. Having previously focused on Javelin and Shot for her home club in Ipswich, she has had to learn the basics of new events like the Long and High Jumps plus the Hurdles. A recent spate of hard training paid off and she was rewarded with a new PB, scoring 2175 points. Individual PBs were recorded in four of the five individual disciplines including a time of 8:92 in the 60m flat, 12:02 seconds in the 60m Hurdles, 4.09m in the Long Jump and a throw of 9.38m in the Shot. Her High Jump of 1.28m was just short of her previous best.Ben Pitts recorded three personal bests in his five disciplines. A time of 9.42s in the 60m Hurdles was marginally better than his recent best set in Manchester. He leapt 5.86m in the LJ adding 15 centimetres to his previous mark and his 8.59m in the Shot was an improvement of 13 centimetres. He also cleared 1.76m in the High Jump and recorded 8:03 in the 60m flat to give a combined points score of 2757. Overall it was a good outing for the AVEAC duo who now look forward to the outdoor season where they will compete in a number of open and league events building up to taking part in Heptathlon and Decathlon competitions later in the year. Words – jmccolgan Photo acknowledgment – Alice Robinson |
