AVEAC athletes produced several good performances at last Wednesday’s Charnwood Open and again on Sunday at the early season event in Nuneaton. Also on Sunday five of the club’s youngest athletes took part in a 3km Mini Marathon held in conjunction with the Derby 10km annual road race.
The Charnwood event was held in conditions that were not ideal with swirling winds hampering some of the performances especially in the longer sprints and middle distance events.
Four of our middle distance runners took part in the graded 800m races along with their coach Geoff Lowry. Recent newcomer to the Group, Eden Klugman produced a good debut over the two laps recording a time of 2:35:04, Fran Howett’s time was 2:48:61, Daisy Kaye who was impeded in the early stages of the race finished in 2:56:60, Jamie-Lee Scott returned a time of 3:02:19 while Coach Geoff running in the Masters Age 55 category crossed the finish in 2: 34:73.
Corey Tatum finished 2nd in the Men’s 400m in 54:85; his time would have been a lot quicker had it not been for a strong headwind on the back straight, nevertheless it’s still a very good early season mark. In the 100m, the wind favoured the sprinters resulting in George Reynolds setting a new PB of 11:69 although the wind reading was over the 2 metre per second allowable limit. Still an excellent time suggesting that George is set to return some fast sprints this Summer. Mae Jones also contested the 100m, achieving a time of 13:71 slightly behind her best mark from last year.
In the Long Jump five of the club’s athletes were in action. Scott Ram and George Reynolds made it a one, two in the Men’s event. Decathlete Scott’s distance was 6.16m while George produced another fine performance jumping out to 6.05m. Corey Tatum was also in the field and managed a distance of 5.01m. In the Women’s event both Nicole Bonser and Mae Jones with distances of 4.57m and 4.32m suffered minor leg injuries and took the sensible decision to withdraw after a couple of rounds.
Nuneaton Open
At the Pingles Stadium, Nuneaton on Sunday, three AVEAC athletes were in action, Charlie Yates, Imogen Laugharne and Daisy Kaye.
Charlie was the top placed woman in the mixed Triple Jump with a best effort of 10.22m and also finished 2nd in her High Jump pool with a respectable 1.55m clearance.
Daisy who is focusing a bit more on Javelin this year was rewarded with a new personal best throw of 31.95m; her first time over 30 metres and in the process won her pool outright. She also cleared 1:41m in the High Jump and ran the 200m in 28:48.
Imogen also contested three events. She finished 2nd in both the Shot and 80m Hurdles. Her Shot ‘put’ was 9:05m, a new PB and her first time over 9 metres. In the hurdles despite clipping one of the barriers, she opened her account over her favourite event, with a time of 12:23. In the 200m she recorded 28:04 which had it not been for a following wind over the allowable limit would have been another personal best.
Derby Road Race
The annual Derby 10km road race took place on Sunday and alongside the main race was a Mini Marathon over 3km. Five of the club’s younger athletes took part and finished in the first half of the large field. Well done to Aimee Brackenbury, Mamie Skipper, Sienna Peel, Joe Moss and Rosie Boyer .
Words – Joe Mc Colgan
Charnwood photos – Chris Kirby
Derby Road Race photo – Kirsty McMillan