Over the past few weeks AVEAC athletes have been taking part in the Derby 10km road race and several early season open track and field meetings at Nuneaton, Mansfield and Burton plus the North East Counties Indoor Pentathlon at Gateshead.
Derby 10km Road Race, Pride Park
The Derby 10km race started at the famous football stadium on Sunday 26th March, and looped around the city to finish back at Pride Park. The majority of the 2,465 runners who took part in the race were there to raise money for local charities. AVEAC had three members taking part, Geoff Lowry, Simon Turner and Isobel Szczepanski. Isobel was joined by her Mum, Dad and brother as well; all of them running as part of a larger team raising money for Age UK, Derby.
Coach Geoff Lowry who is a well established runner and has competed at World and European Masters level over 1500m and 5000m was taking part in his first ever 10km event and had set himself a target to run around 42 minutes. Geoff’s debut over the longer distance surpassed his predictions and he finished in 40:55 minutes, placing him 6th in the Men’s 50 to 60 age group.
It was smiles all round for Simon Turner and the Szczepanski Family as well who all completed the race having never previously ran this distance. Simon crossed the finish in 46:48 minutes, Isobel’s time was 51:10 minutes, her eighteen year old brother Samuel, ran an excellent 39:50 minutes to finish in 135th place overall while Marie Szczepanski and Robert Szczepanski were timed at 55:01 and 55:47.
Over £3200 has been raised by the AVEAC runners and friends which will enable Age UK Derby to provide more social events for their members. Great credit is due to Geoff, Simon and the Szczpanski family for their sterling efforts and particularly Marie Szczpanski who also ran a few cake sales at AVEAC training nights to raise additional funds.
Over $3200 pounds has been raised by the AVEAC runners and friends which will enable Age UK Derby to provide more social events for their members. Great credit is due to Geoff, Simon and the Szczpanski family for their sterling efforts and particularly Marie Szczpanski who also ran a few cake sales at AVEAC training nights to raise additional funds.
Nuneaton Winter Warm Up, Pingles Stadium – Sunday 19th March
Daisy Kaye and Freya Kirby made good starts to their 2023 season in the first outdoor meeting of the year at the popular midlands venue. Daisy won the Javelin throwing a personal best of 35.76m and then achieved another PB in the Shot with a fine effort of 10.84m placing fourth, an improvement of over a metre on her previous best. Under 15 thrower Freya competing in the same Javelin group as Daisy opened her account with a throw of 32.10m to finish fourth overall in the twelve strong field.
North East Counties Open Indoor Pentathlon, Gateshead – Saturday 25th March
Multi-eventer Alice Robinson finished sixth in the Senior Women’s Pentathlon at Gateshead scoring 2215 points. The five disciplines included 60m sprint, High Jump, Shot, Long Jump and 60m Hurdles. Her best scoring events were the Shot where she placed second overall with a distance of 9.55m and the 60m flat, also placing second in her heat in a time of 8.95 seconds. Her other scores were; Long Jump – 4.04m, High Jump – 1.28m and 60m Hurdles – 11.68 seconds.
Mansfield Spring Open, Berryhill Track – Sunday 26th March
The Club’s Javelin throwers were out in force at the Mansfield Open last Sunday week. Billed as a Spring Open, the weather conditions made it feel more like mid Winter with an icy wind affecting performances in many of the events.
Despite the cold, Jessie Brown opened up her 2023 account with an excellent 43.97m in the 600g Javelin to won easily by over 10 metres. Compared to the same time last year, she threw over 3 metres further, suggesting that the England U23 bronze medalist in 2022 is looking at some big throws later in the season. The windy conditions did affect our other three competitors who were a few metres down on their previous bests. In the U15 age group Gino Franco threw 32.26m, Freya Kirby’s best was 28.81m and Jasmine Shore’s distance was 19.40m.
Elsewhere on the track U15 Madeleine Turner won her graded 200m race knocking almost a second off her previous best from last year with a fine clocking of 29.47 seconds. Her first venture over 300m also saw her record a very respectable 46.06 seconds. In a tougher 200m graded heat, Jasmine Shore was marginally down on her PB from last year with a time of 29.47 finishing in fifth position.
Three of our younger athletes were also in action with U13 Isla Douglas recording personal bests in the 100m (15.54 seconds) and 75m Hurdles (15.04 seconds), Harvey Glover running a personal best of 2:51.3 minutes in the 800m to finish fifth while U11 Katherine Turner also recorded a PB when placing fourth in the 150m race.
Burton Athletic Club Championships, Burton – Monday 27th March
Three AVEAC athletes made the short journey down the A38 to guest in the Burton Club’s annual championships at the Shobnall Leisure Complex on Monday evening.
Decathlete Ben Pitts was in extraordinary form in his first competitive outing of the year registering three personal bests in the Javelin, Shot and Long Jump. His Javelin throw of 52.52m with the 800g implement added over eight metres onto his previous best from last year. A distance of 10.19m in the 6kg Shot added fifty centimetres to last year’s mark while a leap of 6.31m in the Long Jump bettered his 2022 best by eleven centimetres.
Two days after her Pentathlon exploits in Gateshead, Alice Robinson tackled five more events during the evening’s competition at Burton. She recorded a PB in the 100m hurdles with a time of 19.4 seconds and greatly improved her Long Jump from the Gateshead event with an effort of 4.49m. Another good Shot Put saw her heave the 4kg ball out to 9.30m while a solid Javelin throw of 32.06m was followed by a 200m time of 29.9 seconds.
Freya Kirby (U15) taking part in her third Javelin competition in just over a week produced a consistent throw of 31.40m to finish second in the Women’s Under 17 event.
Credits
Report – Joe McColgan
Derby 10k photos – Geoff Lowry
Javelin Photos – Chris Kirby