Outstanding Performances at National Athletics

National Athletes

National Athletes

A record number of 10 athletes travelled to the Alexander Stadium on Monday to represent the East Area on the National Prep Schools Athletics Championships after qualifying through the regional round at Bedford a few weeks ago. In total, these athletes were competing in 9 events.

Every athlete that took part has a right to feel proud and pleased with their performances on what is those most demanding stage for this age group in athletics. They should also be commended for their team spirit as they cheered each other on throughout what was a long day.

Marcus Wong was the first to take the stage and he ran very well to finish second in his heat of the 75m hurdles although was unfortunate to narrowly miss out on the finals and finish 10th= overall, very creditable. Lukas Lakin had more success in the 70m hurdles and was able to qualify fastest for the final and he produced an excellent performance in the final to win comfortably in a time of 12.3 seconds.

Meanwhile, in the discus cage, Oliver Robinson was achieving a personal best of 23.82m to finish 9th overall which is a great achievement especially considering the arena and high cage in which he was competing.

Cosima Berry, fresh from her achievements at Bedford and the BG Sports Day, during which she broke the National and School record respectively, was next to compete in the high jump. Unfortunately, circumstances did not go in her favour as the high jump took an age to complete (1 hour 50 minutes) and therefore she ended up alternating her jumps between the high jump fan and the triple jump pit in which she was also competing. However, she was able to gain a creditable second place in the high jump with 1.46m and 8th in the triple jump with 9.00m. Both excellent achievements considering the efforts that she went through.

Lukas Lakin was competing, for the second year running, in the other pit as he looked to improve on last year’s performance which he certainly did in some style. He was able to take the lead early but showed excellent resilience as this was snatched from him with a fine jump of 4.66m. Lukas dug deep and produced a career best jump of 4.79m to win the event and gain his second gold medal of the day – already a fine achievement which he managed to improve on with a little bit of help from his friends (which will come later).

Guy Jamieson and Alice Bletsoe were competing in the 800m and they both put in good runs. Guy, unfortunately, had to pull out through medical reasons. Alice, however, ran an excellent race and ran at the front for the whole race and won her race in 2.41 minutes. She then had a nervous wait while the second race was on with the best time becoming the overall winner. Unluckily for Alice, the second heat was quicker and her time put her in a commendable 6th place overall.

While all of this was going on, Jack Rosser was going about his business in the shot circle. He was not quite able to beat his personal best but still produced a fantastic performance to finish in 6th place with a great put of 7.80m.

The final event of the day was the relay and this was the first time that I had taken a relay team to the National finals. Having produced the fastest time in the heats to qualify fastest for the final which was achieved due to a great last leg from Charlie who chased down a gap of at least 6 metres to win on the line, the quartet of Lukas Lakin, Freddie Wood, Rory Bennett and Charlie Bastable were looking for gold. Each member of ‘The Dream Team’ (what they call themselves) produced an excellent run with effortless handovers giving Charlie the baton only 1 metre down on Spratton Hall, their nemesis from the East Area meeting. Charlie was able to overturn this advantage relatively quickly and held on to win, despite a late surge from their runner. A fine way to conclude a thoroughly successful day.

Well done to all those who took part, it was a thoroughly professional performance from you all. It was the largest number that I have ever taken to Birmingham and also the first time that I have come back with medal winners – let alone 3 golds and 1 silver. It has capped off a great season during which 35 national standards have been set and 4 records broken on Sports Day.

Well done to you all – you have a right to be proud of your achievements – I am certainly proud of you!

CJH

 

Photos can be found in the gallery area of the website.


Tags: Athletics, Prep, Sport