We are in the home straight as far as Sportshall season goes, and on Sunday 02 February, AVEAC headed back to Chesterfield for the penultimate fixture of the 2024/25 season. We brought 35 athletes – our best this season – as we attempted to close in on the hosts.
Again, our under 11s were in fine attendance and the number of year 5’s and below is a great indicator for the 2025 outdoor season. We have some fine athletes transitioning up to the under 13s, and plenty of talent remaining in the under 11s, which is great to see.
As is being the norm, our athletes again wore our colours with pride, and we saw plenty of ‘AV’ across the scoresheets.
Under 11s
We again had 18 under 11s in Chesterfield – 7 boys and 11 girls. Of these 18 athletes, eight are year 6s, which shows that we have a good pool of youngsters for the track and field – and a good number of additions for our currently smaller under 13s group.
On the track, Lola-Rose Funnell came in 3rd overall in the 1-lap race with a time of 13.80 seconds, which earnt AVEAC 8 points. She was followed by Eva Price with a 14.40, and Sophie Humphrey and April Malone who both ran 14.80 as the third AVEACers. Grace Meehan (14.90), Elsie Whittleton (15.90) and Esme Wainwright (16.40) all competed in the short sprint as well.
In the 2-lap, Lo-Ro took the win in 27.70 (one hundredth of a second off the record), just ahead of Katherine Turner who came joint 2nd in 28.30. Their scores secured us 18.5 points. Florence Sibley and April tied with 30.20, whilst Sophie (30.60), Florence Protheroe (31.30), Thea King (32.40), Elsie (33.60) and Esme (34.00) all wore yellow in the 2-lap.
Onto the field, Grace was the top AVEACer in the vertical high jump with 36, with Eva (31) and Thea (26) also leaping for the club. In the standing triple jump, Eva set a massive PB with a 5.20 jump to secure 2nd overall; Katherine and LoRo (and a Derby athlete) all tied for third with 5.18m. Sibles (5.12), Sophie (4.66), Grace (4.48), FloPro (4.30), Esles (4.18), April and Elsie (3.90) completed the field.
Finally, Katherine came 2nd in the chest push with a 5m throw, with FloPro and Sibles getting us the secondary points with 4.25 lobs. Thea threw a good 3.75m as well.
In the relay, the team of LoRo, Katherine, Eva and Sibles came second to the hosts with a 57.00 run, whilst our other team of Thea, April, Grace and Elsie came home in 61.80.
In the male side of the draw, the boys took 83.5 points from their events. In the 1-lap, Elliott Wright was level 1st with a Chesterfield athlete with a run of 13.40, only two hundredths of a second off the record. One for the final run in March, maybe?? Dylan Knowles took 8 points with a 3rd placed 13.80, just ahead of Adam Banton (13.90), Joseph Brackenbury (14.10), Reggie Taylor (14.60), George Whittleton (15.90) and Brodie Fisher (16.30). In the 2-lap, AVEAC took 5 places out of the top 7, as Joseph and Dylan tied for 2nd with 28.50. Reggie (28.90), Elliott (29.00), Adam (29.10), George (32.10) and Brodie (32.90) all ran well for the yellows.
In the vertical high jump, Elliott grabbed top spot and 10 points with a 44 jump, with Adam (38) and George (31) all going well. Joseph carried on his good day with a 5.72 2nd place jump in the triple ahead of Dylan who bounced to 5.20. Finally, in the chest push, Reggie took 9 points with a 5.50.
The boys then knocked over a second off their time from January, as Dylan, Elliott, Reggie and Joseph came home in 55.30. Our other team of Adam, George, Esme and FloPro ran a spirited 62.60 in their race.
In the U11s section, although not quite a dominant as they had been in January, the girls still won their section with 81.5 points, whilst the boys secured 83.5 points to also win. Going into the final fixture, the girls have a 7-league point lead, whilst the boys are ahead in their section by the same score.
Under 13s
The numbers in the under 13s were very disappointing, though the Northern Athletics U13s and U15s Championships being on the same day didn’t help. We had only 4 athletes for our club – for the girls: Bibi Mulholland, Aimee Brackenbury and Ruby Shore. For the boys, just Isaac Smith.
In the 2 lap, Bibi took gold with a 26.90, with Aimee grabbing silver just behind with a 27.80. Ruby also ran a very good 29.6. None of the girls fancied the longer 4-lap!!
In the vertical, Beballs got a 2nd place with a 50; Aimee again fractionally behind as she leapt to 48 and 3rd. Ruby was the third in yellow with 38. Aimee was our sole triple jumper and cleared 5 metres with a 5.12, securing 6 points. In the shot, Beballs took 7 points with a 6.67, and Ruby threw 5.15m and grabbed 5 points.
We promoted Sophie from the U11s to run and so got a scoring relay as she joined Bibi, Ruby and Aimee and the quadruple came third in 117.20.
Isaac Smith had another good day, though it would have been better had he heard the call for triple jump! In his 2 events, he came 2nd in the 2-lap with 26.40 and then took bronze in the vertical with a 47.
On the day, AVEAC girls tied for 2nd with 60 points, whilst Isaac (U13 boys) scored 17 points. So, the girls currently remain in 2nd place overall, two league points ahead of Derby, whilst the boys are in 3rd.
Under 15s
Numbers were pretty good in the under 15s, as we had teams of 8 in the girls’ section and 5 boys. It would be nice to see 15 or more at the last event in March.
In the 2-lap, for the girls, Erin Beresford came third overall with a 27.00 run, with Olivia Irvine in 4th with 27.30. Ailsa McMillan (28.00), Jess Dickinson (28.40) and Lucy Norman (28.60) adding to the field. We had only 2 in the 8-lap parlauf, but it was worth it as, with their last possible attempt, Jasmine Shore and Madeleine Turner ran a 109.5 to set a new record for the event, nearly 1.5 seconds quicker than that previously set.
We had plenty of yellow in the vertical as Madeleine (51), Jasmine (50), Jess (45), Biscuits (43), Ailsa (42), Lucy (41), Earring (40) and Ellie Ursell (36) all jumped high. Likewise, the lack of a 5th event, meant we had plenty in shot. Jasmine (8.05), Ailsa (7.57), Madeleine (7.46), Biscuits (7.33), Jess (6.91), Ellie (4.89), Earring (6.54) and Lucy (5.05) completed the event.
In the relay, the first girls’ team of Madeleine, Jasmine, Earring and Biscuits came first in a time of 105.90. Our other team of Ellie, Ailsa, Jess and Lucy came home in a good 113.80.
The 2-lap saw an AVEAC 1-1, as Corey Fisher and Riley Jones came joint first with 24.50 runs. Joe Stimson (27.50) and Alfie Ray (27.70) also sprinted for us. We also had 2 teams in the parlauf. Alife and Corey won gold with a 106 whilst the team of Joe and Harvey ran a spirited 112.9.
In the standing triple jump, Riley took a winning leap of 7.44 metres, followed by Alfie in 2nd at 7.20 metres. Harvey (5.70) and Joe (4.94) were also representing AVEAC. In the shot, Riley secured another 1st place with an impressive throw of 12.79 metres. Corey (8.29) and Harvey (6.09) finished the events for the U15s.
The relay team of Corey, Riley, Alfie and Joe went under 100 seconds with a 99.70 to take first place.
The boys extended their lead to 4 points from Chesterfield going into the final fixture with the girls 5 points behind the hosts in 2nd.
As it stands
Going into the last fixture, the final table looks like it may remain as it is. But we still need numbers there to ensure we don’t lose valuable points. And, for some, it is their last chance to ever do Sportshall so let’s make March a good one.
The match scores for Sportshall #5 were as follows:
- Chesterfield 443
- AVEAC 381
- High Peak 255.5
- Derby 214.5
Overall, the points are as follows:
- Chesterfield 2,361.5 (19 league points)
- AVEAC 2,111 (16)
- High Peak 1,128.5 (9)
- Derby 996 (6)
A big well done to our athletes after their performances and a big thank you to those that helped the event run smoothly.
See you in March!
Report – Richard Woodward