BANBURY HARRIERS YDL FINAL
Banbury Harriers under fifteen girls 4x100relay team added icing to the cake in an excellent day of athletics at North Oxon Academy on Sunday in the YDL U15/13 Lower Midland Promotion Final.
Against seven other clubs who were Amber Valley & Erewash, Derby, City of Stoke, Royal Sutton Coldfield, Solihull & Small Heath, Saffron and Telford, they battled hard and finished fourth behind Solihull, Amber Valley and Stoke.
The 4x100 relay climaxed a successful day for several of the clubs young athletes and such strong opposition. The Harriers quartet lined up in lane eight with Regan Sellars taking the first leg she led and handed to Maddy Dowden. The back straight still saw them leading, then onto Tegan Armstrong on the bend she increased the lead handing newer member Vanessa Ankoma who ran away farther to finish thirty metres clear in a club record of 52.4seconds.
The day started well for Harriers on the track in the opening hurdles events. Both Dowden and Armstrong justified their recent English Schools appearances at Birmingham easily both winning the “A” and “B” string under fifteen 75metres. This was followed by Christopher Charles doing likewise in the same age group 80metres distance. Elmear Moss finished an excellent second in the under thirteen girl’s 70metres hurdles “A”race. Armstrong would later follow this with two “A”string second places in the long jump and javelin, as did Charles in the boy’s version and discus.
In the under fifteen girl’s 100metres races new girl Ankoma produced an excellent winning time 12.8seconds in the”B”race. This only one-tenth slower than English Schools medalist in the “A” race
Isobel Male from Royal Sutton, both girls would then repeat this in the 200metres before the Ankoma win the day in the relay.
Leo Anderson in the under thirteen boys gained an excellent second place in the”A”100metres then win the long jump. In the same age group Benjamin Rymarz won the “B”shot and then came second “B”200. More good points came in the under thirteen boys from Mathew Daenen winning “A” javelin and third in the shot. Ellie Williams won the under thirteen girl’s javelin and Riley Pledge came third in the under fifteen boys shot.
The 300metres under fifteen girls towards the end of the meeting produced a double win for the club Sellers taking the “A” and Shannon Gilkes the “B” string.
Fourth place was more than justified and who knows gaps in some events if filled a top two promotion place may have been secured.
Mike Hughes
