KTH star Hammer thrower Katie Gibson won her first regional title by winning the Midland Counties Championship U15 Girls Hammer competition with a 41.67m throw at a damp Nuneaton Pringles stadoium. Gibson who is UK ranked 4th, went into the competition as the favourite and in poor wet conditions for hammer throwing the bottom year athlete produced a fine throw a full 10m clear of second place Birchfield Harrier Mollie Mae Peniket-Aldridge to secure the title and take Gold. Gibson now look forward to the AAA U15 Championships at Bedford in a few weeks’ time where she will be competing for the English National title.
Katie Gibson first major medal in the U15G Hammer
The Sprint squad had six athletes from the sprint squad also travelled to Nuneaton this weekend to compete in the Midland U15/U17 Championships. They all put in creditable performances and came away with a total of four medals, one silver, three bronze, and two club records.
In the U15 age group, Cynthia Ike had an outstanding weekend, picking up a silver and bronze medal . On Saturday she competed in the 200m recording a new personal best of 26.08 seconds in the heat, and reducing this to 26.01 seconds in the final to finish 3rd. She followed this on Sunday by picking up the silver medal in the 100m in a personal best of 12.59 seconds and erasing Fiona Cole’s club record of 12.6 seconds that had stood since 1986. In her heat she had run a wind assisted time of 12.52 seconds. Max Mowforth, competing for the first time at this meeting, won his heat in a time of 12.00 seconds, and raised his game in the final to pick up the bronze medal in a personal best time of 11.85 seconds.
Cynthia Ike superb weekend with a 200m Bronze & 100m Silver
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Josh Gray led the way in the U17 age group, picking up a bronze medal, personal best and two club records. On Saturday competing in the 100m hurdles, he ran a personal best time of 14.13 in his heat to reduce his own club record set last year. Sunday saw him compete in the 400m hurdles where he was awarded the bronze medal in a time of 61.00 seconds.
Erin Healy, Alex Beale, & Berny Kwei-Tagoe all competed in the shorter sprints. Erin put in some strong performances and made the final in both of the events, posting times of 26.32 seconds in the 200m heat, followed by 26.14 seconds to finish fifth in the final of the 200m and she went one better in the 100m finishing just out of the medals in 4th place. She was joined in the 200m by Alex Beale who qualified for the final on her second time competing in this meeting. The 200m is her preferred event, and she recorded times of 27.21 seconds in the final, finishing in seventh position, having previously run 27.08 seconds in her heat. Meanwhile, Berny made the final of the 100m, running a time of 13.20 seconds to finish sixth, beating two athletes who had posted faster personal bests than herself.
Members of the Sprint Squad Erin Healey, Alex Beal, Berny Kwei-Tagoe & Cynthia Ike
Cynthia, Erin, & Josh have all qualified to compete in the National Championships over the bank holiday weekend in Bedford and are all likely to do very well competing against some of the best athletes in the country.
There was just one representative from the Endurance squad with Dylan Bowley competing in the U17M 800m, Bowley didn’t enjoy the best of races starting in lane 1 he was chopped at 200m and went from first to last, making up ground Bowley put in a concerted effort in the final 200m, hitting the front but ran out of legs in the final 60m finishing in 5th place in 2:01.5. Bowley will take heart in his first year in the AG with impressive new PB’s set ready to mount a challenge for English schools in 2019.
Well done to every one who competed.