AVEAC Hold Third After Gutsy Team Performance

On Sunday 1st June, AVEAC athletes crossed into Nottinghamshire once again, this time heading to Berry Hill Park in Mansfield for the second fixture of the Youth Development League. With a familiar track and a third-place standing to defend, the squad showed admirable resilience and team spirit, delivering strong performances across both age groups and disciplines to retain their position on the podium.

With the organisers electing to stage a competition during a bank holiday week, we had a number of absentees, but still managed to take the same size squad (23 athletes) as we had at Harvey Hadden first time around.

Under 13s

Our numbers were a bit low in the under 13s again, but we still managed to see some newbies compete at YDL for the first time, and we still managed to perform very well.

For the girls, the hurdles started with a 17.60 from Amie Saxby, in only her second attempt at the sport. Moving to the flat 75m, Lola-Rose Funnell ran a 12.30 ably supported by Sophie Humphrey who came home in 12.90. In the 150m, Harriet Brierley set a PB of 23.60, ahead of Amie who came home in a 25.30. Moving to the 800m, Katherine Turner was our sole entrant and ran a 2.45.70, another PB, whilst LoRo came home in 4.50.50 in her first 1200m.

Off the track, Sophie was centimetres off a PB with a 3.52m long jump; Amie got a wind-assisted PB with a 2.86m. PBs were all the rage as Katherine leapt 1.20m in the high jump and LoRo, jumping for the first time, made 1.10m. In the throws, Harriet shot putted 5.66m, with Katherine winning the B string with a 5.04m throw. Finally, Sophie threw 8.50m in the javelin.

Our girls’ relay team of Harriet, LoRo, Sophie and Katherine came 4th with a time of 63.50.

Unfortunately, we only had 3 athletes in the boys, but they all put in good efforts. The team was Elliott Wright, Leo Durrant and Adam Banton.

Adam ran a personal best of 11.90 in the 75m; Elliott also brought his time down with a 11.30 sprint. Adam followed up with another PB in the 150m – 23.08 and he was joined in the ‘best run’ category as Leo came home in 25.80. Our sole 800m runner was Elliott – 3.04.30 was his time in a good effort.

In the jumps, Elliott leapt 3.53m in the long whilst, in the high type, unfortunately Leo came in a little late and the bar was already a bit too high – very good efforts though. Our sole thrower was Adam, who got 4.12m in his shot.

No relay team I’m afraid as we only had 3 boys.

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Under 15s

Another strong show for the U15 girls at AVEAC as nine athletes wore the yellow, some for the first time at YDL and, in the case of Amelie Wheatley, her first time competing at all.

In the 75m hurdles, Erin Beresford ran a 12.90 to come third whilst Isla Douglas was 2nd in the B String with a 15.30 run. Moving to the 100m, Bibi Mulholland sprinted a strong 13.80 as A runner, whilst Charlotte Slater gave a good performance with a 15.40. Moving to the 200m, Olivia Irvine took on the longer sprint and saw a score of 29.50; teammate Ruby Hill completed the distance in 30.70. At YDL, the 300m is also a sprint for the U15s, and we had 2 more competitors. Bibi (who has run the fastest 300m in the U15 girls at AVEAC this season) came 4th in 45.60 whilst Maggie completed her first 300m in a good time of 50.60.

In the middle-distance, Isla ran a 2.43.20 in the 800m, assisted by Amelie who ran a 3.16.40. For the longer 1500m, Lucy was 5 seconds quicker than she had been in Nottingham, coming 3rd in 5.20.80.

In the field, we managed to get 2 athletes in each throw/jump which was good to see. In the discus, Ruby came 2nd in 17.06m; Charlotte won the B String with a 16.52m. Moving to the hammer, Biscuits took home first place with a 20.38m throw; Charlotte was 2nd overall with an 18.15m. Finally in the javelin, Erin threw 21.13m to come 2nd; Lucy was second in the B String with a 11.05m chuck.

We were again able to put in 2 relay teams: in the 4x100m and in the 4x300m. In the shorter run, the team of Maggie, Ruby, Charlotte and Olivia came home in 57.70 (quicker than Notts) whilst the longer sprint team of Isla, Lucy, Erin and Bibi again won their race with an even better time of 3.06.40.

The boys’ team was smaller in number than the girls, but despite some absences, it still had six members: Joe Stimson, Harvey Glover, Marcus Parsons-Loades, Alfie Ray, Jonah Buchanan and Gabriel Parr.

For the hurdles, Harvey came second with a 16.20 in the A String; Joe S ran a credible 16.80 in the B String. On the flat, Alfie ran a PB 13.3 in the 100m – our sole short sprinter. In the 200m, the debutant Jonah ran a strong 27.90, whilst Harvey was on the long sprint duty – he came home in 46.30. Joe S stepped up to the plate in the 800m and ran a 2.22.00, the fastest by an AVEAC U15 boy at the time of the event. Harvey did the 1500m – his time was a good 5.02.20.

In the field, Joe S continued a good day with a 4.71m leap in the long jump; Alfie scored a 4.25m. In the high jump, Jonah jumped an impressive 1.57m to take 2nd place; Alfie won the B String with a 1.40m. On to the throws, Gabe shot 6.27m in his YDL debut and then joined Marcus for the discus as the latter came second with a 22.80m spin with Gabe launching a 13.62m. Marcus then came 2nd in the hammer (his first time) with an 18.52m throw and Gabe threw 13.50m in the javelin.

Unfortunately, due to injury, the boys did not have a scoring team but Amelie stepped up to help and joined Alfie, Harvey and Joe S as they ran 54.90 to come 4th out of the six teams.

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Standards

YDL announced, in the results, the athletes that have reached a PB Award standards. Those who achieved a level 5 or above are:

  1. Katherine Turner (U13G) : L5 (800m), L5 (high jump)
  2. Sophie Humphrey (U13G) : L5 (long jump)
  3. Olivia Irvine (U15G) : L6 (200m)
  4. Bibi Mulholland (U15G) : L6 (300m), L5 (high jump)
  5. Erin Beresford (U15G) : L5 (75mH), L5 (long jump)
  6. Jonah Buchanan (U15B) : L7 (high jump)

 

Standings

At the end of the competition as mentioned, AVEAC came 3rd. The points were shared as follows:

  1. Notts AC : 416 points
  2. Burton AC : 406 points
  3. AVEAC : 342 points
  4. Mansfield Harriers : 306 points
  5. Rushcliffe AC : 299 points
  6. Derby AC : 221 points

 

Going into the final fixture, we sit 3 match points and 69 total points ahead of 4th placed Mansfield Harriers whilst we sit 2 match points and 83 total points behind Burton AC. Considering the issues we have had with numbers, that is a remarkable achievement. Let’s go out on 29th in Burton and try and cement that 3rd place finish!