Midland Indoor Athletics Championships, Loughborough – 20 & 21 January
A small number of AVEAC athletes were in action last weekend over the two days of the Midland Indoor Championships. Alice Robinson came away with two individual bronze medals in the senior women’s shot and high jump and a silver medal in the pentathlon. Betsy Wilton taking part in her first ever triple jump with a proper run up secured a silver medal in the under 15 girls event while younger sibling Teddy, stepping up a year from under 13 to under 15, gained a bronze medal in the high jump.
It was good to see Midland Indoor Championships taking place again for the first time since before Covid. Previous championships had taken place in the Hi Pac at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, but this was the first time the Loughborough venue had been used.
Alice Robinson had a busy two days contesting an indoor Pentathlon competition comprising of long jump, shot and 60m hurdles on day one and high jump and 60m flat on day two. It was an unusual competition in which the pentathletes competed against athletes in the individual disciplines and were eligble for medals in these events as well.
Alice scored 2589 points which was a personal best for this pentathlon format where the 800m was replaced by a 60m flat sprint. Her event individual scores were; 60m hurdles – 11.11 seconds, high jump – 1.30m, shot – 10.10m, long jump – 4.54m and 60m flat – 8.55 seconds which was also a personal best. Her shot and high ump performances also earned her bronze medals in the individual events.
Betsy Wilton exceeded expectations in the under 15 girl’s triple jump. Having had one proper coaching session trying the hop, step and jump from a short run up two weeks prior she sailed out to 9.23m to take the silver medal. Watching the event was none other than Ashia Hansen MBE, the former world indoor triple jump champion in 1999 and 2003, and still holder of the british record in the event. Ashia was quite impressed by Betsy’s efforts particularly when she found out that this was her first attempt in a competition! Certainly fantastic words of encouragement from one of the all time great triple jumpers.
Betsy contested two other events over the two day championships. She got through her heat in the 60m sprint recording 8.62 seconds and bettered that in the semi final in fourth place in 8.58; both times were personal bests. Completing a busy weekend she also got out to 4.10m in the long jump to place tenth.
Betsy’s younger brother Teddy stepped up to the under 15 age group gained a bronze medal in the high jump. A clearance of 1.30m improved his previous best by two centimetres. He also improved his 60m personal best clocking 9.29 secconds when finishing fifth in his heat.
Grace Young was our only other athlete in action at the championships in the under 20 long jump. Two fouls in the first couple of rounds resulted in her putting in a safe jump in round three with a distance of 4.73m placing her eighth. Normally this would have gained her a further three jumps but with the senior jumpers also taking part in the same compeition the organisers only allowed the top eight overall to go through which penalised Grace and one other U20 jumper.
Run, Jump, Throw Open, Sheffield – 20 January
Five AVEAC athletes were in action at the latest Run, Jump Throw open at te EIS Arena.
Joe Moss was in particularly good form recording three personal bests. He won his graded heat of the 60m in 7.72, an improvement of seven hundreths of a second from his previous outing over the short sprint at the end of 2023. On to the long jump and he once more got beyond the qualification standard for the England Championships on 10 and 11th of February by leaping 5.45m which placed him second by one centimetre behind Zak Wilberforce (Kingston upon Hull). Finally in the shot, his first competition with the heavier 4kg ball, saw him produce a good effort of 10.33m to also place second.
Madeleine Turner having her first ever outing over 400m produced an excellent run recording a time of 64.24 in her graded heat which placed her fifth against older athletes. She also sprinted to an indoor personal best in the 200m with a time of 28.64 to finish third.
Jasmine Shore had a busy schedule contesting three events. She finished just behind Madeleine in the 200m clocking 29.59, another personal best! Then in the u17/15 combined long jump she was the third best under 15 with a distance of 4.26m. A big improvement in the 3kg shot saw her add over fifty centimetres on to her previous best outdoors with a good throw of 7.26m which again placed her third.
In the girl’s uner 13, 2.72kg shot, Ruby Arnold produced an excellent ‘put’ of 6.91m to take first place and in doing so added thirty eight centimetres on to her best ever throw at the December meeting. She also finished in sixth place in the under 13 long jump with a best of 3.27m.
The final AVEAC athlete taking part was Ruby Shore who placed fourth in the under 13 shot with a throw of 4.72m.
Northern U13 & U15 championships this Sunday
The Northern younger age championships take place at the EIS Arena this Sunday. Looking through the entry list three U15 AVEAC boys will be in action. Corey Fisher will contest the 60m and 200m, Riley Jones is entered for the shot and high jump while Joe Moss will feature in the 60m, long jump and shot. Good luck to all three!
Report and photos – Joe McColgan