RUGBY, HEART OF ENGLAND
The club battled hard to finish in fifth place of the eight clubs in the first of this year’s Heart of England fixtures at Rugby on Sunday. In conditions that varied with contrasting wind changes and rain as the afternoon progressed outstanding performances came at a premium.
The under seventeen boys all gave their best to gain first place on the day.In the sprints both Liam Grieveson and Alfie Rowett produced winning runs. Younger brother Nathan did likewise in the long jump and also gained high in the throws.
In the female’s older age group they also battled hard with a lack of numbers Shana and Shannon gained excellent points in the long jump.
The pick of the under fifteen boys came in the discus this with once again Michael Dawes exceeding 30metres and Charlie Sheppard obtaining a personal best. Jordon Dunn battled hard also in the sprints against good opposition.
The under fifteen girls produced their solid team performances this started with an excellent time by Emily Thompson in the 1500m, with a time of 5m 06.4s. Helen Dubber and Paige Cooper both ran good races in the 75m hurdles and Rebecca Scott a good third place in the high jump.
The under thirteen boys matched the best in both the 100 and 200metres and Jack Kempton finished in an excellent second place in the 800metres.
In the girls in this age group there were good all round performance’s came from Tia Williams, Victoria Harte, Zoe Pollock and Shannon Dawes.
In the under eleven age group Matilda Donaghy and Emelina Darvell recorded the second and third best throws with the howler. Darvell also produced an leap of 3m 15cm in the long jump to finish second.
Mike
I know Banbury athletes were not involved, but my highlight was officiating at the high jump.
Our last event was the U17 boys high jump. By this time the rain had set in for the day and the athletes were sheltering under umbrellas when not competing. No gazebos or tents on the infield in this league. If you cannot find a competitor for their next jump a good place to look is under the metal cover for the high jump mat. For us however it was rain down the back of your neck, cold hands and wet score cards. We only had 4 competitors out of a possible 16 but we need not have been worried about not being part of a great event.
The event naturally split its self into 3 sections. In the first was a lad who had to go off to his next event so after easily clearing the opening height of 1.3m he went off to his dad who said “thank them then” so we had a “Billy Wizz moment as he sped around every athlete and official shaking hands before rushing off to his next event. The other athlete in this “mini event” cleared 1.30m but just failed at 1.35m. the next athlete also came in at 1.30 but cleared each 5cm increase in height up to & finally boughing out at 1.57. It turned out later that he had only been high jumping for a couple of weeks and had broken his PB 4 times in the wet and cold conditions. I expect to see him jumping much higher later in the season.
Our last mini event was the lad who came in at 1.75m. His first jump cleared the bar easily and he carried on up clearing all heights at the first attempt to 1.95m. 2m was his PB. He just failed at that height on all 3 attempts but he gained a well deserved round of applause at the end. When you stand close to a 2m jump, it is amazing to see them jump way above your head
Phil