Last weekend saw the start of the Winter season for AVEAC young athletes with the sports hall mini-league taking place at Chesterfield on Sunday while the day before saw action in the North Midlands cross country league at Markeaton Park, Derby.
Derbyshire Mini-League Sports Hall Match 1, Chesterfield – 15 October
Bob Boyd reports
Left the house at 11.30, having grabbed a sandwich in lieu of a Sunday roast and headed for Chesterfield sports centre (coincidentally built on the site of the former Chesterfield athletics track where I competed in my first English Schools Championships in 1961!) Arrived at the same time as team manager, Rich Woodward, and we handed out numbers and pins to the athletes – 27 in total (of which more later!)
The young athletes warmed up and parents settled down to watch from the bleachers. It transpired that the club were to judge the vertical jump and thus Becky Moss and I took up station. Meanwhile Rich was finishing up giving out numbers and collecting smartie tubes, whilst Sarah Turner was fund raising which a stick pick!
Under 11s
Six girls represented the club in the U11 section and finished second, 14 points ahead of Derby, and only three points behind leader’s Chesterfield.
Summer Biggs had a very good day as she placed second in the one lap sprint with a time of 14.2 seconds. Shethen proceeded to win the standing triple jump with 6.06m and the chest push with 7.70m; a new county and AVEAC club record! Summer was ably supported by Ruby Arnold who came seventh in the one lap in 14.9 seconds, third in the triple jump with 5.50 metres and a good second in the chest push with 5.80m. Aimee Brackenbury produced a 44cm standing vertical jump to claim another victory for the club, as well as placing fourth in the two lap in 29.50 seconds and finished with a 4.84 standing triple jump. Katherine Turner placed fifth in the two lap in 30.80 seconds, got out to 4.56m in the standing triple jump and recorded 4.80 in the chest push. Florence Protheroe claimed valuable points in the vertical jump in sixth place with 23cm and finished the two lap in 34.40 seconds. Finally Sophie Humphrey gained great experience competing in the one lap in 16 seconds dead, the vertical jump with 22cm and 3.79m in the standing triple jump on her debut appearance. The first named four young athletes then combined to produce an exciting end to their day by finishing second in the relay just behind Chesterfield. The other two young ladies, not to be out done, combined with the two U11 boys in a non scoring relay as well – well done!
There were only two U11 boys in attendance and they performed really well. Kyran McCrellis had a very good day winning the chest push with 5.10m and then recorded two third places, with 30.20 seconds in the two lap and 5.06m in the standing triple jump. The experienced Oscar Ashmore placed fourth in the one lap in exactly 15 seconds, produced a throw of 4.70m in the chest push and leapt up 33cm in the vertical jump to place fifth.
Under 13s
Five girls competed across the events here, with Erin Beresford leading the way with first places in the two lap sprint in a storming 26.4 seconds and 5.82m in the standing triple jump, whilst she also pushed the shot out to a first ever 6.00m. Olivia Irvine similarly upped her shot best to 6.28 to place fourth and then finished sixth in both the two lap sprint in 28.60s and in the standing triple jump with 5.14m. Isabella Parsons-Loades, in her first sports hall event won the shot with a pb of 8.20m, placed sixth in the vertical jump with 37cm and achieved 4.80m in the standing triple jump. Isla Douglas recorded the same time as Olivia in the two lap sprint and then placed a fine second in the six lap in 98.70s, before finishing eighth in the vertical jump with 33cm. In her first year in the age group Ruby Shore, gained great experience recording 4.73m in the standing triple jump, 27cm in the vertical jump and 4.06m in the shot, to show her range of skills. Four of the girls combined to place third in the relay.
Six boys turned out in this age group, with Joe Moss once again exhibiting his range of talent by winning the vertical jump with 63cm, followed by the standing triple jump with 7.70, just short of the county record, but had the satisfaction of setting a new clunb record. Joe then set a PB in shot ‘putting’ 11.14m which did re-write the record books. Ethan Barnett copied Erin, winning the two lap in 26.6s and showed versatility with 43cm vertical jump and 5.52m standing triple jump. Alfie Ray placed fourth in both the two lap with 27.3s and the vertical jump with 44cm and then added a fifth place with 5.81m in the standing triple jump. Sebastian Taylor recorded a PB in the shot in placing fourth with 7.2m. He also recorded 5.25m in the standing triple jump and 34cm in the vertical jump. Archie Kirton placed a fine sixth in the six lap with 1:48 mins, recorded 28.7s in the two lap and 4.82m in the standing triple jump. Marcus Parson-Loades produced a 5.15m standing triple jump and a respectable 5.99m shot put. Four of the boys combined to race to third place in the relay.
Under 15s
Five girls competed here, Hallie Balncheon and Sasha Fleming making their debuts. The talented Isla Hiscocks produced two wins, firstly the two lap sprint in 25.9s and then headed the vertical jump with 55cm. Our upcoming middle distance star, Madeleine Turner, stormed away with the four lap run, showing good pace judgement to win in 57.7s She then came fifth in the shot with 6.38m and also showed a turn of speed with 27.3s in the two lap sprint. Jasmine Shore chased Isla hard to record 26.7s, placed second in the two lap sprint and later came fourth in the shot with 7.54m. Hallie Blancheon recorded two good marks with 28.0s in the two lap sprint and 39cm in the vertical jump, as well as contributing an excellent leg to the girls winning relay team. Not to be outdone Sasha Fleming produced 29.5s in the two lap sprint and a good 43cm in the vertical jump.
Three boys represented the club in this first match of the season. Riley Jones produced a PB in the shot to place second, going over 10 metres for the first time with 10.08M, then leapt out to 6.46m in the triple jump for fourth place and finally came fifth in the four lap run with 55.5s. Corey Fisher powered to fourth place in both the two lap, 25.4s, and four lap with 54.5s. He then stretched out to 6.02m to place fifth in the triple jump. Coen Fagg raced to 30.5s for sixth in the two lap sprint and gained another sixth in the shot with 4.45m.
At the end of the competition the final results were:
- Chesterfield – 475 points
- AVEAC – 398.5 points
- Derby – 385.5 points
- High Peak – 172 points
Interestingly Chesterfield had 57 athletes, Derby 39, AVEAC 27 and High Peak 13, which meant that AVEAC averaged 14.76 points per athlete, High Peak 13.23, Derby 9.88 and Chesterfield 8.73. To my mind this reflects some interesting points – entering every event helps, our athletes are talented and our coaches must know what they are doing!
Finally, thanks to our officials for helping the programme to run so smoothly, team managers for getting the athletes organised and parents for transporting the athletes to the event and supporting them throughout the afternoon.
And a final final messaage to all our young athletes – this is a good break from training, great fun and allows you to enter whichever events you want. With a few more attending we can WIN this competition outright! The next fixture will take place at Queen’s Park Leisure Centre on Sunday 19th November at 12.30pm.
North Midlands Cross Country League, Derby – 14 October
Joe McColgan reports
The first cross country fixture of the season involving AVEAC athletes took place at Markeaton Park on Saturday last. Five of our young athletes and team manager/coach Chris Rigby took part in the event.
In the under 11 girls 1km race Claudia Sangster making her debut over the country finished in 20th place recording a time of 8:49 minutes while our only other female in action Eleanor Rigby also came home in 20th position at under 15 level. Eleanor’s race was over a 4km course and she ran a respectable time of 17:28 minutes.
Four boys took part in the under age male races. Jasper Sangster ran well to complete the 1km under 11 run in 19th place timed at 7:47 minutes. In the under 13, 4km race, Harvey Glover was first home for AVEAC in 20th place crossing the line in 15:18 minutes. He was ably supported by Alfie Ray in 37th place who recorded 16:59 mins and Lucas Sangster one place behind recording 17:20 mins. The three young ‘harriers’ combined to score 93 points finishing eight overall in the team event.
Meanwhile a big shout out to club coach Chris Rigby who donned the AVEAC vest in the senior men’s 10km. Chris managed to get round the gruelling course in a time of 62:15 minutes. Well done Chris!
It would be great to see more of our young athletes take up the challenge of cross country running. It provides alot of benefits for young athletes. Running over uneven terrain and uphills sometimes on muddy courses helps develop strength, power and resilience in your calves, hamstrings and quads. The uneven ground strengthens feet and ankles. The challenging surfaces will make you lift your knees, deal with twists and turns and help overall with your balance and core strength. There is also a great social aspect and camaraderie to cross country running and a feeling of satisfaction when finishing the races. If you are up for the challenge in giving cross country a go talk to our distance coaches, Geoff Lowry, Chris Rigby and Chris Aikman for more details. As well as the North Midlands League, the club also take part in the more locally based Derbyshire mini league cross country.