The opening Upper Youth Development League match for Under 20 and 17 athletes took place at Moorways Stadium on Sunday last. AVEAC are competing in Division 1 North East with seven other clubs from across the Midlands. At the end of the daytime the club were in fourth place behind Marshall Milton Keynes, Northampton and Derby. Near neighbours Burton lie fifth with Leicester, Banbury and Daventry below them.
A good overall team performance was capped with four of the group achieving the qualification standard for the English Schools Championships. In one of the first field events of the morning U17 athlete Ryan Rawlinson won the Under 20 Long Jump with his last round effort of 6.48m, getting over the 6.40m ESAA qualifying mark. In a very high quality Under 17 80m Hurdles, Imogen Laugharne finished 3rd but had the satisfaction of marginally getting under the schools qualifying time of 12 seconds dead finishing in 11:99. During the final event of the afternoon in yet another high quality field, Javelin throwers Millie Walster and Daisy Kaye both threw over the ESAA mark of 35 metres. Millie finished 2nd in the ‘A’ event throwing 36.30m while Daisy’s effort of 35.06m added almost four metres to her previous best and ensured first place in the ‘B’ competition.
In the Under 20 age group, as well as Ryan’s victory in the Long Jump, there were winning performances as well from Callum Findlay in the Men’s High Jump clearing 1.63, Charlie Yates in the Women’s Triple Jump with a hop, step and jump of 10.51m and Grace Young in the ‘B’ Long Jump with a best of 4.69m.
Runner up spots were gained by Maddie Fahey in the 400m Hurdles (90:07) Katie Potts in the A Long Jump (4.85m) and Fran Howett in the 800m (2:46:20). Charlie Yates jumped 1.55m, the same height as the winner, in the High Jump but ended up second on court back. In the Men’s Triple Jump, Callum Findlay claimed yet another second place with a jump of 11.18m.
In a non-scoring Long Jump Mae Jones jumped 4.55m, Izzy Hay’s distance was 4.18m and Maddie Fahey’s best was 3.52m.
In the U17 Women’s match Imogen Laugharne followed up her good hurdles time by winning the High Jump, getting over 1.55m. She also finished finished 2nd in the B Shot with a throw of 8.67m. Daisy Kaye did likewise in the A Shot on 8.96m and took another second place in the 300m recording a time of 44.61. Nicole Bonser also claimed a second place finish in the A Long Jump with a fine effort of 4.79m. Rushcliffe athlete Izzy Haworth who used her second claim membership to compete for AVEAC had a good debut in the yellow vest winning both the A Triple Jump with a solid distance of 10.37m and B High Jump clearing 1.40m.
In the U17 Men’s Match, Ryan Rawlinson showed more excellent form by taking second spot in the 200m with a new PB of 23:58. Corey Tatum just narrowly missed winning the 400m but was rewarded with a best ever run of 53:30. George Reynolds placed third in three events. In a high class A Long Jump field he got over the 6 metre mark yet again with a best of 6.07m. In the 100m he ran a new personal best of 11:68 while in the 5kg Shot his ‘put’ was a respectable 9.33m. In the B Long Jump Hugo Thomas was runner up on 5.51m and also finished 3rd in the B 100m in a time of 12:51.
A big thank you to Team Managers, Coaches and parents for their support to the team. The next fixture will take place on Sunday 29th May in Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Words – J McColgan
Photos – Chris Kirby