With the 2023 track season all but done, the Sprint Squad have been busy with the final league meeting and championships.
Midland League, Solihull, 19th August.
The curtain came down on this year’s Midland League meetings with a trip to Solihull.
The 200m was the first event held for the sprinters on the day. William Rawcliffe and Lewis-Morgan Barton competed in the men’s event. Running into strong headwinds, they won their races in 24.0 seconds and 23.3 seconds respectively. The women’s races weren’t as badly affected by headwinds, and Elizabeth Reading, Sonal Rathod, and Holly Abbott competed in the scoring races. Elizabeth finished 4th in the A race in a time of 27.5 seconds, Sonal finished 2nd in 28.3 seconds in the B race, and Holly also finished 2nd in the C race in 29.3 seconds. Ellie Warboys competed in the non scoring race and finished 2nd in 30.3 seconds. Ellie also competed in the long jump and high jump during the day. In the long jump, she set a PB of 4.10m to finish 5th, while in the high jump, she finished 3rd with a jump of 1.40m.
Josh Gray and Lewis-Morgan Barton stepped up to make their debut’s in the 400m with both athletes winning their races in 55.9 seconds and 57.1 seconds respectively. Lewis-Morgan also competed in the A 100m, winning in 11.9 seconds, after contending with a fierce minus 4.7 headwind. In the B race, Jamie Shaw ran a PB of 12.6 seconds, running into a headwind of minus 0.6 mps. It was his 3rd PB of the day, having also competed in the long jump and triple jump. He won the long jump with a jump of 5.27m, and 2nd in the triple jump with 11.02m.
The women’s 100m A and B races were affected by headwinds of minus 1.3, with Elizabeth Reading finishing 2nd in the A race behind Nuneaton’s Jessica Tuckley in 13.1 seconds. Sonal Rathod also finished 2nd in her race in 14.0 seconds. Culley Cleaver, C race, and Holly Abbott, non scoring, were both hit by headwinds of minus 2.7 in their races, with Culley finishing 2nd in 15.4 seconds, and Holly running 14.5 seconds to win her race.
The day ended with the athletes competing in the 4 x 100m relays. The men were untroubled in their race, winning comfortably in 47.0 seconds, with Banbury following them in in 48.5 seconds. The women’s 2nd changeover was problematic, resulting in them finishing 2nd in 54.6 seconds, to Solihull & Small Heath’s winning run in 51.3 seconds.
The 4 x 100m relay teams - two great performances on the day.
Midland U15/U17 Championships, & Senior/U20 Combined Events Championships, Nuneaton, 12th & 13th August, & England U17 Championships, Alexander Stadium, 27th August.
Three athletes travelled to Nuneaton to compete at this year’s meeting, with a superb bronze medal won by U23 multi eventer, Matilda Braithwaite.
Competing in 7 events over 2 days, she put together a good series of performances, particularly in the throws, which she has been concentrating on recently to improve her technique. Her performances rank her 18th in the UK U23 heptathlon rankings.
Matilda Braithwaite - a successful, busy weekend.
Also competing in multi events over the weekend was U13 athlete, Matilda Abbott, who competed in the U13 quadrathon. Competing in four event on the Saturday, her best performance came in the 100m in which she ran a wind assisted time of 14.79 seconds.
U17 athlete, Elizabeth Reading, competed in the 100m and 200m over the weekend. On the Saturday, she competed in the 100m, finishing 4th in her heat in a wind assisted time of 12.61 seconds, progressing through to the final in which she finished 8th in 12.70 seconds, once again wind assisted.
On the Sunday, mistakes made when seeding the athletes in the 200m, resulted in 2 time trialled finals being run after the heats, with the fastest 3 athletes being awarded the medals. In the heat she ran a time of 26.28 wind assisted, to finish in 4th place. In her time trialled final, she finished 3rd in 26.36, wind assisted. Her time ran in the heat allowed her to compete at the England Athletics U17 Championships a fortnight later. It was her first time competing at that level of competition, and the experience will prove invaluable. Drawn in heat 4, lane 6, she had a great run to finish 7th in 26.95w.
Elizabeth Reading - great England Championship debut run
Well done to everybody who competed, the squad now take a well earned short break before starting the winter preparations.