We were greeted with heavy rain and cold winds for the first Upper YDL match in Tamworth on Sunday, although those athletes that competed in the later events of the day were rewarded with a glimmer of sunshine! The 4 male and 4 female athletes performed brilliantly despite the challenging conditions and finished the day with 153 points. This puts them in 6th place out of the 8 teams in Midlands Division 1A. With a few more athletes in the squad, we are certain we will be climbing up the leader board.
Under 17s
The only U17 male athlete in attendance was AVEAC newcomer, William Stimson. Previously a successful school athlete, William tried his hand at the 100m, hurdles and triple jump. He finished 5th in the 100m A string race in a time of 12.7 seconds, then showed great maturity to run the 100m hurdles on his own as he was the only competitor. He finished in a PB time of 15.5 seconds. William followed this up with his first ever competitive attempt at triple jump, with his best jump of 10.77m edging the A string win from the only other athlete in the field. It looks like William will be a great asset to AVEAC and the Upper YDL team going forward.
For the U17 women, Ebony Longdon made the step up from her U15 mini-league appearances last year, with throws specialist Freya Kirby completing the line-up. Ebony was a little disappointed to finish 8th in her 100m race in a time of 14.8 seconds but more than made up for this by adding 80cm to her previous long jump PB. Her best jump of 4.17m was good enough for 6th place and should give her a big confidence boost going forward. Meanwhile, Freya contested 3 of the 4 throws events available, and was pleased that she seems to have recovered from a recent elbow niggle. Her best result was in the javelin where her throw of 34.10m won the A string event. In shot put, an attempt of 7.19m earned her 4th place, whilst her best discus throw of 15.74m was also good enough for 4th. Freya will be hoping to stay injury free in the build up to the County Championships when she will again be contesting the 3 throws events.
Under 20s
George Reynolds and Corey Tatum kicked off the day’s events for the U20 men with the long jump. George was hampered slightly by a couple of no jumps, but produced a best jump of 6.10m to finish in third place in the A string, whilst Corey took maximum points in the B string competition with a best jump of 5.30m. Shortly afterwards, and with little recovery time, they both competed in their preferred running distances. George finished 5th in the 100m with a time of 12 seconds dead and Corey took third place in the 400m in a time of 54 seconds. The final U20 male athlete was Ellis Carter who ran in the B string 100m race, finishing 2nd in a time of 12.1 seconds.
U20 women, Nicole Bonser and Daisy Kaye took on 3 events each to try and earn as many team points as possible. Nicole was pleased with her PB of 13.1 seconds in the 100m, which earned her third place, whilst her 200m time of 28.2 seconds was not quite a PB but also good enough for third place. She made a promising start to her outdoor long jump season, with a best jump of 4.79m just one centimetre short of the standard required for 3 extra jumps on the day – she will definitely be aiming for this at the next match. Daisy started the day with her first ever attempt at the 4kg shot put, having moved up an age group this year – her best put of 8.26m earned her second place. Dashing over to long jump, she barely managed a warm up but jumped a solid 4.02m to win the B string event. Later in the day, she was delighted to win the A string javelin with a throw of 41.51m, only a few centimetres shy of her PB set last weekend and showing the consistency which hopefully will see her through to a successful season.
Emails will shortly be sent out inviting athletes to match 2 which is in Stoke on 26th May, and Team Managers will be hoping for a bigger turn out to maximise our points potential!
Report – Sarah Kaye; Photos – Chris Kirby and Janine Bonser