Madeleine Turner’s sports hall season could not have got much better when she bagged two gold medals at the UK National finals at Fenton Manor, Stoke last Saturday. Her first victory came in the Under 13 Girl’s 6 Lap Run where she showed excellent pace judgement crossing the finish line in 1;18.9 minutes to secure the gold medal, over a second ahead of Jasmine Nkoso (Surrey). Her second gold came in the 8 Lap Paarlauf, where she teamed up with Imogen Hamilton (Derby AC). The Parlauf race couldn’t have been closer with the two Derbyshire athletes edging out the team from Berkshire by two tenths of a second in a time of 1:39.1 minutes. This was a great achievement by Madeleine, emulating former AVEAC athletes Katie Rowe and Chris Turner who won national sports hall titles in the Standing Long Jump in 2014 and 2017.
Seven other AVEAC young athletes were also taking part in the finals and did themselves proud with sterling performances all round. Madeleine was joined by Jasmine Shore in the U13 Derbyshire Girl’s team while Corey Fisher, Joe Moss, Ryan Ghai, Riley Jones, Ethan Ray and Sam Davies were part of the U13 Boy’s squad. Both teams finished fourth in their competitions with the girls squad scoring 1007 points behind champions Norfolk on 1237 points. The Boy’s team amassed a total 1068 points behind winners Surrey on 1202.
As well as Madeleine’s outstanding performances, Jasmine Shore also picked up a gold medal as part of the Derbyshire 4 x 1 Lap sprint relay; the Derbyshire quartet finished joint first with Norfolk in a time of 46.8 seconds. Jasmine also ran a leg in the longer 4 x 2 Lap Relay with the team finishing seventh and completed her afternoon with a distance of 2.02m in the Standing Long Jump placing fifteenth.
Corey Fisher picked up a silver medal in the Boy’s 8 Lap Paarlauf. Partnered with Timi Omotara (Derby AC), both athletes ran intelligently and were narrowly pipped at the finish by Welsh county Powys. Corey also competed in two individual events finishing seventh in the 4 Lap Run and sixteenth in the Standing Triple Jump.
Ryan Ghai produced a great leap in the Vertical Jump with a height of 60 centimetres to take a bronze medal. He sprinted well in the 2 Lap Race ending up seventh overall and finished his stint by running in the 4 x 2 Lap Relay where Derbyshire were just edged out of the medals in fourth place. Joe Moss was also involved in the 4 x 2 Lap Relay and additionally in 4 x 1 Lap event. Running the first leg in both he got the teams off to good starts and like the 4 x 2 Lap race, the 4 x 1 Lap foursome also ended up in fourth place. Joe also produced a personal best of 2.30m in the Standing Long Jump to finish seventh.
Riley Jones put together a series of good distances in his four attempts in the Standing Long Jump and was rewarded with a PB of 2.37m placing him fourth overall. He finished tenth in the 6 Lap Run and joined Ryan and Joe in the 2 Lap Relay gaining another fourth place. Alfie Ray and Sam Davies’s best performance came in the Obstacle Relay team, where once again Derbyshire just missed a podium place with another fourth place finish. Alfie also finished fourteenth in the Speed Bounce while Sam was fifteenth in the Shot.
Credits
Report – Joe McColgan
Photos – Sarah Turner