Athletes in the sprint squad have shown some outstanding early season form. The first meeting of the season was the Rugby open meeting, held on Saturday 12th April. 19 athletes competed on the day, with 12 athletes achieving personal bests.
Athletes in the U13 age group started the day by competing in the 75m races on the day. Sophie Bridgeman won her race in 10.77 seconds, running into a minus 1.1 headwind. Amelie Chymcakova finished 5th in her race in 10.95 seconds. Jayden Opoku also won his race in 11.64 seconds. All 3 athletes ran personal bests.
In the 100m, the 1st race featured Robyn Evans, Lucie and Darci Cleaver, who are all in the U15 age group. Running into a slight headwind of minus 0.5, in race 1, Robyn Evans finished 3rd in 14.57 seconds, just outside of her personal best, while sisters Lucie and Darci finished 5th and 7th respectively, in personal bests of 14.82 and 14.97 seconds. Matilda Abbott, competed in race 3, finishing 4th in 14.15 seconds, and Olivia Humphrey was drawn in heat 4, finishing 6th in 14.33 seconds.
U15 athlete, Harry Smith, was drawn in race 6, and ran a PB of 12.29 seconds to finish 2nd. Also finishing 2nd in race 7 was U7 athlete, Laura Goldberg, with an automatic timed PB of 13.98 seconds. Veteran athlete, Wilika Carr, followed Laura home in 3rd place in 14.21 seconds. Aidan Hooks, Reuben Sloley, and Oliver Davies, all U17, competed in race 8. Aidan won the race in a PB of 12.34 seconds, with Reuben, who was making his debut over the distance, finishing 2nd in 12.69 seconds. Oliver finished 4th in 13.36 seconds, a personal best.
The final 2 athletes to compete in the 100m were Aaron Ampofo and Jacob Smith. U15, Aaron, finished 3rd in race 9 in a time of 12.31 seconds. The wind speed, however was plus 2.1, which was just over the 2.0 legal limit. Jacob, U20, also finished 3rd in race 10, in a personal best of 12.09 seconds, into a slight minus 0.3 headwind.
Sophie Bridgeman and Amelie Chymcakova both competed in the 150m later in the day. Sophie once again won her race, setting a new personal best of 20.74 seconds into a minus 0.9 headwind. Amelie was 3rd in the same race, in a time of 21.97 seconds, in what was her first time competing over that distance. Also competing in a further event that day was Harry Smith in the 300m. He had a strong run, setting a personal best of 39.14 seconds, to win his race.
Sophie Bridgeman in outstanding early season form, setting PB's in both the 75m & 150m
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Loughborough Open
This meeting was the season opener for 6 of the U20, U23 and Senior athletes. They, however, had to contend with strong headwinds on the day, the bane of any sprinter’s career. The 100m races were turned around due to this, with athletes competing on the back straight of the track. The only race not affected by a headwind on the day was Zorhann Giraud’s, an U20 athlete, who had a strong finish to win his race in a personal best of 11.25 seconds.
Elizabeth Reading, (U20)and Harriet Cleaver, U23), were the next athletes who competed. The wind was plus 2.3 in their race, with Elizabeth finishing 3rd in 12.75 seconds, and Harriet 6th in 13.28 seconds. Abina Funy Soares da Gama, U20), and Culley Cleaver, (U20), had the strongest winds behind them on the day. Abina finished 3rd in 12.85 seconds, and Culley was 5th in 13.27 seconds, assisted by a plus 2.7 wind. The final athlete to compete in the 100m was Holly Abbott,(U23), who finished 2nd in her race, with the wind speed of plus 2.1 only just over the legal limit. All of their 100m races indicate that the athletes should be able to lower their personal bests as the season progresses.
Austin Ideh, Senior, was the first to compete in the 200m, which started from the normal start line. Running into a minus 1.9 headwind, he finished 6th in 24.41 seconds. Next to compete was Elizabeth Reading, who had to run into a headwind of minus 4.8, the strongest headwind of the day. Her time of 27.05 seconds to finish 6th, showed the strength that she has gained during the winter months.
Abina Funy Soares da Gama also had a strong run in the 3rd women’s race of the day, finishing 2nd in 27.56 seconds, into a minus 4.4 headwind. The final athletes to compete were Culley Cleaver and Holly Abbott who finished 2nd and 4th respectively in 27.95 and 29.11 seconds respectively. Thankfully, the wind had dropped considerably by then to minus 0.8 and both of their times weren’t far off their personal bests.
Well done to everyone who raced.