Diary
for the week Tuesday 7th - weight training at Sackville from 7.30 Thursday 9th - training for all at Imberhorne from 7 Saturday 11th - horizontal jumps training at Imberhorne from 10 Sunday 12th - training at East Court from 10.30
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Monday, February 6th
The cold weather and then Saturday night’s snow had an adverse effect on a number of last week’s training sessions. It also put paid to Sarah Rusling and Chloe Hollamby’s plan to compete at an indoor meeting at Lee Valley. Lois Drummie did take part in the Horsham Indoor meeting on Thursday evening with a best performance of 9.0 seconds in her 50 metres hurdles.
Let’s hope the weather improves over the coming week to enable a full set of training sessions to take place.
A reminder to all athletes that the Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships take place over the weekend of March 3rd and 4th at the Sutton Indoor Arena.
Tuesday, January 17th
I am now able to bring you some news from some indoor meetings. We’ll start with some great news from the South of England Combined Events Championships held at Lee Valley last Sunday. Ryan Spivey was taking part in the under 17 pentathlon and he finished in second place – so very well done to Ryan. Of the 5 events Ryan was the top performer in
two – 11.01 metres in the shot and 2 minutes 51.35 seconds in the rather unusual 1,000 metres race. He recorded 9.11 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles, 5.35 metres in the long jump and 1.72 metres in the high jump. Overall this gave Ryan 3030 points – the event was won by Alex Law from the Havering Mayesbrook club in Essex with 3217 points.
At the same venue Tom Gardner was taking part in the South of England Senior Men high jump championships. His clearance of 2.00 metres earned Tom fourth place. The previous week Tom had cleared 1.98 metres in a meeting in Birmingham.
Nearer to home Lois Drummie went to Horsham last Thursday and, in her first year as an under 15, did three 50 metres hurdles races. Her best time was 9.3 seconds.
We also have news of the Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships. Both events are taking place at Sutton Arena over the weekend of March 3rd and 4th. Entry forms are available on the relevant County websites.
Monday, January 16th
Last weekend saw the Sussex County Cross-Country Championships and this last week has seen further cross-country activity. Firstly Wednesday the Mid Sussex Schools primary schools championships took place at Borde Hill Gardens, near Haywards Heath – the East Grinstead team was based on the results in our primary schools races held in October. A number of our members – Malcolm Green, Alf Smart, Lester Medcalf and John and Audrey Rogers – helped with the organisation of the race. A couple of our younger members were running with Hannah Sands an excellent 4th in the girls race: in the boys race Alfie Cubberley was a very good 8th.
There may be a Sussex race before the Easter holidays and both of these athletes can expect to take part in such an event, if it is held.
Then last Saturday saw the third round of the Sussex Cross-Country League down on the coast in Bexhill. Bethany Keen again ran well to come 17th in the under 13 girls race in 12 minutes and 56 seconds. Roisin Bell has picked up more than her fair share of injuries over the last few weeks, and was injured again during the race and wisely decided to pull out. Liam Rieley was our only under 13 boy and he did well to come 23rd in 12 minutes and 17 seconds.
The senior mens team had 6 athletes taking part. We are in division 3 of the league and as the races include athletes from divisions 1, 2 and 3 we expect our athletes to finish in the bottom half of the field. And that’s where they finished. Colin Day 70th in 34 minutes and 15 seconds, Lance Quirico 77th half a minute later. Tim Best and Steve Warner finished side by side in 88th and 89th places, followed closely by Tim Ivorson and Graham Taylor. Overall the team finished 4th in division 3, the best performance this season.
With the 2012 summer season edging into view the first Saturday long and triple jump training session was due to take place at Imberhorne School on Saturday morning. However the heavy frost left the sand frozen and the session was called off. We’ll hope to get started this coming Saturday.
Looking ahead
This coming Sunday, January 22nd sees the third Sportshall match of the winter, again to be held at Tanbridge House School in Horsham. Numbers have been a bit disappointing so far – let’s hope for a better turn-out this week.
Wednesday, January 11th
Following last Sunday's Sussex Cross-Country championships we have a few photos of our under 13 athletes (taken by Alf Smart).
Monday, January 9th
Firstly some news from the Sussex Cross-Country Championships held yesterday at Stanmer Park. We had 3 athletes in the under 13 boys race and they finished close together. Liam Rieley was 31st in 15 minutes and 40 seconds with Jake Gadd arriving 14 seconds later in 34th place and Alfie Cubberley 35th in 15 minutes and 59 seconds.
Roisin Bell was our only runner in the under 13 girls race. Unfortunately she twisted her ankle early in the race – but she showed a lot of guts to complete the course in just under 22 minutes. Bethany Keen was due to run, but she wasn’t at all well and took the sensible decision not to run.
We also had three runners in the senior mens race held over 12 kilometres (a little over 7 miles). Lance Quirico was the first of our runners to finish in just over 61 minutes. Steve Warner was about 4 minutes behind Lance and Tim Best completed the trio in about 66 minutes.
On Saturday Joe Domingues ran in the under 15 boys race in the Surrey Cross-Country Championships at Dorking. In a large field he did well to complete the course in just under 18 minutes.
Looking ahead
This coming week sees some sprint and sprint hurdles races in the Tube at Horsham on Thursday evening. And on Sunday afternoon a couple of our younger members – Maisie Gadd and Annabel Telfer – will be competing for Sussex in an under 11 inter-county Sportshall match at The Triangle in Burgess Hill. We wish them well for the match.
Sunday, January 1st
A warm welcome to 2012 and it starts with a fully active first week. The senior weight training group re-start on Tuesday evening at Sackville School, the Imberhorne groups re-start on Thursday evening and the Sunday morning groups will be in action at East Court from 10.30.
In addition the Sussex County Cross- Country Championships also take place next weekend on Sunday (January 8th) at Stanmer Park in Brighton. These races were originally due to take place on the Saturday but have been moved because Brighton & Hove Albion have an FA Cup match on Saturday afternoon. The new football stadium at Falmer is more or less next door to Stanmer Park.
As we move into the new year the 2012 track and field season is now closer to us than the 2011 season – indeed our first summer league match is only 3 and a half months away on Saturday, April 21st. The Olympic Games will of course be the major sporting event of the summer – I’ve heard that one or two of our members have actually got tickets for some of the athletics. Let’s hope tickets will be somewhat easier to get when the World Athletics Championships are held in 2017.
I wish you all a good and successful New Year and a 2012 that is full of personal bests.
East Grinstead AC wishes all its members - and everybody who reads the club's website - a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Along with all athletes we are looking forward to 2012 and, in particular, to the London Olympics.
Monday, December 12th
With Christmas fast approaching we will see some changes to our training sessions. This coming week will be the last normal week of 2011. However we will be putting on some extra sessions at East Court over the school holidays - these sessions are open to all athletes.
The timetable for the next few weeks is:
Tuesday, December 13th – last weights session of 2011 at Sackville School for senior athletes.
Thursday, December 15th – last Thursday evening session of 2011 at Imberhorne School.
Sunday, December 18th – normal training at East Court 10.30 to 11.45.
Wednesday, December 21st – training at East Court 10.30 to 11.45.
Sunday, December 25th – no training at East Court.
Thursday, December 29th – training at East Court 10.30 to 11.45.
Sunday, January 1st – no training at East Court.
Tuesday, January 3rd – first weights session of 2012 at Sackville School for senior athletes.
Thursday, January 5th – first Imberhorne evening session of 2012.
Sunday, January 8th – first East Court training of 2012 from 10.30 to 11.45.
Monday, December 5th
This coming Sunday (December 11th) we will take part in our second match in the Sussex Sportshall League. The match will again take place at Tanbridge House School in Horsham (RH12 1SR) and athletes should arrive at the school by 1 o’clock. Collette Cubberley will be the team manager.
Monday, November 28th
Last Sunday (November 20th) we took part in our first ever Sportshall match at Tanbridge House School in Horsham. We are one of the smallest clubs taking part and found that many of the other teams were able to fill up most of the events. So it was no great surprise that we were sixth in the match. Nevertheless all the athletes who took part enjoyed the match and, in particular, will have gained experience in the various events that take place.
We have the second match in a couple of weeks time on Sunday, December 11th and Collette Cubberley will be hoping for a few more athletes to be available.
On Saturday (November 26th) the second Sussex Cross-Country League match of the winter season took place at Plumpton College on an undulating course – a course which also saw a lot of long thick grass which made the going hard work. We had 5 junior athletes taking part – Bethany Keen and Roisin Bell in the under 13 girls, Liam Rieley in the under 13 boys and both Ellie Killick-Bird and Chloe Hollamby in the under 15 girls – and Bethany did well to come 14th in her race.
The senior mens team fielded 6 athletes and Tony Crossley was our first finisher, followed by Colin Day, Lance Quirico, Steve Warner, Graham Taylor and Tim Ivorson.
Monday, November 14th
Next Sunday sees our first match in the Sussex Sportshall League at Tanbridge House School in Horsham (postcode RH12 1SR) – athletes to be there by 1 o’clock. Collette Cubberley is busy organising the team and any queries should be addressed to Collette – 07941 371003 or indipops@sky.com. We hope all of our athletes enjoy the afternoon and produce some good performances. The match is for those in school years 5 through to 10.
Athletes competing in the afternoon should not train in the morning at East Court – however Sunday morning training will still be open to older athletes.
Monday, November 7th
Last week we said that we were thinking about entering a team in the Sussex Sportshall League. We have now decided that this will indeed happen. Colette Cubberley will be the team manager, with help from Simon Drummie.
The first match is on the afternoon of Sunday, November 20th and Colette will be in touch with our athletes over the next few days. The match takes place at Tanbridge House School in Horsham and all the matches over the winter will be there. The other matches will be on December 11th, January 22nd and February 19th – all on Sunday afternoon.
The matches are for those who are currently in school years 5 and 6 (under 11s), 7 and 8 (under 13s) and 9 and 10 (under 15s).
Monday, October 31st
Last Saturday (October 22nd) saw the first races in the Sussex Cross-Country league down in Goodwood. We had two under 13 girls running and they only arrived at the very last minute – they didn’t have a chance to warm up. So they both did well to finish in the middle of the field – with Bethany Keen 18th and Roisin Bell 23rd. Our 2 under 13 boys again found themselves in the middle of the field. Ewan Dallas’ first match for us saw him coming 24th with Alfie Cubberley 32nd.
The senior men were able to field 5 athletes for their division 3 match. All three divisions of the league run at the same time and so most of our runners finish in the lower half. With over 160 finishers Lance Quirico was our first finisher in 115th place with Colin Day one place behind. Tim Best was 137th and Tim Ivorson and Graham Taylor were among the last few athletes to finish.
The week before saw the Forest Row 10k race with Lance, Colin and Graham running. Lance was again our first finisher and was 8th overall – but first veteran.
Looking ahead
We are looking to enter a team in the Sussex Sportshall league. This is for those in school years 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. The first match is on the afternoon of Sunday, November 20th. However we do need a couple of people to act as team manager – please think about it.
Schools Cross Country 2011
The 2011 Primary Schools Cross Country races took place today, Sunday October 9th. It was another great day with lots of warm sunshine and lots of mums, dads and teachers cheering on the athletes.
Congratulations to St Peter's on winning the boys team trophy and to Notre Dame on retaining the girls team trophy. Annabel Telfer won the girls race having come 8th in 2010 while Alfie Cubberley improved on his 9th position in 2010 to win the boys race.
Thomas Bentley won the Year 7 and 8 boys race having been second in the 2010 Primary Schools race while Georgia Lunn won the girls Year 7 and 8 race.
Full results for both the Primary Schools and Year 7 and 8 races can be found here.
Monday, September 19th
The summer track and field season is all but over. Ryan Spivey was competing in the English Schools Combined Events Championships at Exeter over the weekend but I don’t have any results. Lois Drummie and Abby Beswick took advantage of some reasonable Sunday weather to do some jumping at the St Marys Open Meeting at Twickenham – Lois had her first attempt at the triple jump with a best of 8.96 metres, while Abby jumped 3 centimetres further for 8.99. I think Lois is our first ever under 13 female triple-jumper – if you know differently then please let me know.
Looking ahead
Next Sunday September 25th sees the second running of our East Grinstead Andy Ripley 10k race. The race starts at Imberhorne School at 10.30. If you can offer help then turn up at about 9.30 – or just simply come and watch the race.
With the summer athletics season at its end we are seeing some changes to our weekly training sessions.
Monday, September 12th
The weather for the Sussex and Surrey Multi-Events Championships yesterday wasn’t as bad as was forecast, although the wind was still fairly strong, especially in the afternoon. The high jumpers had the gusty wind blowing in their faces, and in the 800 metres the athletes found the wind against them in the back straight. We had Ellie Killick-Bird and Abby Beswick in the Sussex Under 15 championships and Lois Drummie in the under 13 event.
First event was the long jump where each athlete has three jumps. A bit nerve-racking, especially if the first jump is a no jump. Fortunately our three got a jump in the first round – in Lois’s case her 4.20 was her only valid jump. Abby’s first jump of 4.55 was also her best jump while Ellie improved to 4.38 with her last jump. Both Lois and Abby might have hoped for a few more centimetres. Then onto the hurdles. Lois again went under 12 seconds in her 70 metres hurdles race with 11.95 seconds, although she landed awkwardly off the last hurdle. In the 75 metres hurdles for the under 15s Abby Beswick found a flailing arm from the athlete in the next lane a slight problem as she recorded 13.00 seconds while Ellie’s time was 14.50 seconds.
Onto the shot putt over the lunch period – and we were entering unknown territory as Lois and Ellie haven’t done any shot putting this year. Lois threw a best of 6.09 metres and Ellie went out to 5.67 metres – perhaps both might have hoped for a bit further. Abby has a bit more experience of shot-putting and was slightly disappointed not to go beyond 7 metres with a best throw of 6.97.
With 2 events to go – the high jump and the 800 metres - we had Lois in first place in the under 13s. Abby and Ellie were third and fourth in the under 15 age-group, though the last two events were Ellie’s strengths, while Abby’s first three events had been her strongest. By the time the high jump started the wind was stronger and blowing into the faces of the athletes.
Under 15s high-jumped first and Abby went out after clearing 1.30 metres to equal her best. Ellie had an early failure but jumped better as the height went up. She was soon the only jumper left and eventually cleared 1.51 metres. In the under 13 section Lois had an early failure but, like Ellie, jumped better as the bar went up. Again like Ellie she was soon the only athlete left jumping as she cleared 1.39 metres. However the ankle that she hurt at the end of the hurdles was by now giving her a lot of pain and it wasn’t clear if she would be able to take part in the 800 metres which was to start 30 minutes after the high jump finished. And although she had a comfortable lead her nearest rival was a strong 800 metres runner.
The under 15s ran their 800 metres first and Ellie was soon at the front, and over the second lap she increased her lead to win by about 50 metres. Abby meanwhile found the run very difficult. And when the results were announced Ellie’s strong two events at the end of the day had pushed her into second place, while Abby slipped out of the medal position.
Then the under 13 800 metres. Lois started the race and her ankle didn’t seem to be troubling her. The 800 metres specialist took the lead early on and kept going further and further away. Lois seemed to be going slower and slower as the race unwound and was probably about 150 metres behind the winner at the finish. Had the 800 metres runner (Erin Bateman from Horsham) done enough to overhaul Lois, or had Lois managed to hold on ? It seemed to take ages for the results to be announced ..... and, by a margin of just 13 points, it was Lois in first place.
So a good way for our athletes to end the track and field season with a first place and a second place. Well done to all three girls.
Looking ahead
This coming weekend (September 17th and 18th) sees Ryan Spivey representing Sussex in the English Schools Multi-events competition at Exeter. Ryan will be doing 8 events in the octathlon and we wish him well. He isn’t 100% fit but we hope that he is fit enough to compete.
A reminder that Tuesday evening training has now finished for the summer, but Thursday evenings continue through the autumn and winter. Sunday morning sessions start this coming Sunday (September 18th) at East Court for those looking to do cross-country – 10.30 start and a finish at about 11.45. Please note that Sunday morning sessions for sprinters, jumpers and throwers start on Sunday, October 2nd.
Monday, September 5th
We went into the last ladies match of the season at Wimbledon on Saturday about 10 points behind Haywards Heath, hoping to overhaul them in order to win the league. A last minute injury to Janice Watts saw Gemma Akehurst taking to the hammer for the first time, and Tessa Martin also attempting the pole vault for the first time. Good examples of athletes filling places – and apart from the senior 3000 metres we had athletes in all the events.
The track events were somewhat spoiled by the lack of a starter – he had to be taken to hospital on the morning of the match – and the athletes and timekeepers found some of the early track races difficult. Things improved for the later track races. The sprint hurdlers in particular felt they were hard done by.
Our high jumpers were perhaps the pick of our performances, perhaps encouraged by the fact that the team was sitting on the grass immediately opposite the high jump bed. In the senior event Sarah Killick-Bird added 5 centimetres to her best to win the A string with 1.55 metres, with Amanda Lord’s 1.35 winning the B string. In the under 15 event Ellie for once lost the Killick-Bird high jump competition but still won the A string with 1.52 metres. And Lois Drummie won the B string with a new pb of 1.45 metres. All of this to cheers and shouts from the rest of the team.
In the throws we saw a double first in the senior discus from Hannah Peadon (21.56) and Izzy Turnbull (17.80). In the junior throws Emily Deville won the B string shot and discus and in the javelin Gemma Francis was second in the A string while Chloe Hollamby won the B string event – though both girls will be a little disappointed not to get beyond 20 metres.
And back on the track the under 15s saw double firsts in the sprints from Chloe Hollamby in both races and Abby Beswick (B string 100) and Ellie Killick-Bird (B string 200). While the best track event in the seniors saw a double first in the 400 from Jo Lister and Izzy Turnbull - Jo also won the A string 800, an event she hasn’t done for a number of years. And our under 17 hurdlers – Amy Hewitt and Sarah Rusling - won their 3 races, despite the starting problems.
All afternoon it looked as if we would win the match, but would we do so with enough points in hand over Haywards Heath ? And the final results saw us first with 339 points, 60 ahead of Haywards Heath. All of which meant that, over the season as a whole, we were the champions by about 50 points. So congratulations to all the ladies and girls on their performances over the season and we look forward to competing at a higher level next year.
I will give you further details of Sunday’s under 13 final when I get the full results.
Looking ahead
This coming weekend (September 10th and 11th) sees the Sussex and Surrey Multi Events competition at Sutton. We have Lois Drummie (under 13) and Abby Beswick and Ellie Killick-Bird (both under 15) taking part on Sunday. So we wish them well. In addition this Tuesday will see the last Tuesday evening training session until we get to next spring. Thursday evenings, however, continue through the autumn and winter.
Tuesday, August 30th
We’ve had some problems updating the website over the last week or so, but we hope it’s sorted out now.
The last week has been a very light one with no league matches. A few of our athletes went to Sutton Valence last Wednesday evening for some triple-jumping in the Medway & Maidstone Open meeting. Then on Saturday Tessa Martin and Sarah Killick-Bird were representing Sussex in an Under 20 inter-county match at Abingdon in Oxfordshire – Tessa did both the long and triple jumps while Sarah did the high jump and, very much to her surprise, the 400 metres. Both girls found the competition hard. Then yesterday some of our athletes took part in the last Crawley Open Meeting of the summer.
While this weekend has been light next weekend is very different with three of our teams having their last matches of the season. On Friday evening our under 15 team go to Brighton for the final match in the Sussex Under 15 League. Then some of those athletes will go to Wimbledon on Saturday for the last match in the Southern Womens League – we are second in the league and we will be hoping to get in front of Haywards Heath. And then on Sunday the team for under 13 boys and girls goes to K2 for the last Sussex Under 13 league match of the season.
Monday, August 22nd
The senior ladies and under 15 girls team went down to Hastings on Saturday for the fourth match of their league season. Summer holidays affected all the teams and we looked to have one or two more gaps than we would have liked. Hastings clearly benefited from having the match at their home track – they had three non-scoring under 15 relay teams !!
We gained our fair share of first places but it was the gaps we left in the longer senior ladies races and in the two B string senior hurdles races that eventually cost us the match – both Hastings and Haywards Heath managed to fill these events. And at the end of the match we were in third place with 293 points – 30 points behind Haywards Heath’s 323 and another 5 points behind Hastings’ 328 points. As a result we have been knocked off the top spot in the league and, with one match to go, are in second place behind Haywards Heath.
Though still an under 13 Lois Drummie had a successful afternoon against the older under 15 athletes – a new pb of 1.42 metres gave her first place in the A string high jump. She then combined with Abby Beswick to make it a double first in the 75 hurdles and she finished off by throwing the javelin over 15 metres to win the B string event. Bethany Keen, our other under 13 competing, did the 1500 metres when it was very warm and helped fill a hole in the discus. Elsewhere in the under 15 group Abby Beswick had lots of run-up problems in the long jump but eventually came first (4.19 metres – which is not a distance she was happy with) with Sarah Bentley also first in the B string (3.94 metres). Chloe Hollamby ran a new personal best time of 27.3 seconds to win the 200 metres and, in a busy day of throwing, Emily Deville won the B string shot and was second in the A string javelin.
Among the seniors our 200 metres runners – Yasmin Rashid (29.8 seconds) and Gemma Akehurst (30.0) – secured a double first and this was repeated in the 400 metres with a very impressive 60.2 seconds from Jo Lister in the A string with Izzy Turnbull winning the B string in 66.5 seconds. In the field first places were a bit thin on the ground. Cat Shin got closer to 10 metres in the shot with a winning throw of 9.85 metres, while Tessa Martin marked her return to the high jump with a winning B string jump of 1.35 metres. Cat found a new personal best of 4.96 metres in the long jump only good enough for third place –and then found her triple jump of 10.85 metres being beaten by the last jump of the competition. Jo Lister reminded us all that while she is a good 400 metres runner she is also a competent high jumper – 1.45 metres for second in the A string. And a shot putt of 6.85 metres in the shot for a good B string second place.
But as I have said the gaps we left in the senior ladies match put us off the pace of Hastings and Haywards Heath. The team face their fifth and last match in a couple of weeks with the trip to Wimbledon on Saturday, September 3rd.
Looking ahead
A quiet week coming up. However some of our triple jumpers are looking to compete at Sutton Valence on Wednesday evening and on Bank Holiday Monday there are lots of Open Meetings around – in particular there is one at K2.
Monday, August 15th
The senior mens team had their last match of the season on Saturday afternoon at K2 in Crawley and again found themselves rather low in numbers - a common theme in what has been a rather disappointing season. However, as always, the athletes who were at the match did all they could to fill as many gaps as they could. Perhaps the best performance came in the high jump where Ryan Spivey set a new personal best of 1.78 metres to come second in the A string with Wayne Gadd’s 1.65 metres gaining a win in the B string. Wayne (9.02 metres) also teamed up with Phil Spivey (10.57 metres) to make it a double first in the shot, and Phil and Eddie Vermeer added a double first in the hammer with 52.17 and 31.34 metres respectively. Wayne’s all-round abilities extended to the 400 hurdles and the 110 hurdles as well as the discus.
The track events were very hard work with only one first place - Tim Ivorson’s 70.5 seconds winning him the B string 400 hurdles. Lance Quirico found himself running all afternoon - in the 800 and 1500 as well as his more usual the 5000. Richard Wares had another busy afternoon on the track. Unfortunately Lincoln Campbell wasn’t at all well and was unable to compete after his 100 metres. Dan Medcalf, back from honeymoon, looked much more comfortable in the horizontal jumps than he did in the 200 metres.
By the time we got to the relays our athletes had nothing left and we were unable to compete in either the 4 x 100 or 4 x 400. Overall we finished third in the match, some way behind Horsham and Herne Hill but comfortably ahead of Bracknell.
Yesterday Ryan Spivey was competing for Sussex in an under 17 inter-county match but I don’t have the results as yet. Sarah Rusling was due to compete for Surrey in the same match, but holidays ruled her out.
During this last week we held athletics sessions at the John Pears Playing Fields in Ashurstwood as part of the village’s summer sports day. The weather was fine and three of our coaches – Malcolm Green, Lester Medcalf and Alf Smart – were helped by two of our athletes – Lois Drummie and Abby Beswick – to make it an excellent day for those children who came along.
Looking ahead
This coming Saturday (August 20th) the senior ladies and under 15 girls team go to the seaside in Hastings for their fourth match of the season. We are just in first place in the league, with Haywards Heath very close behind. Summer holidays are likely to have an effect on all the teams, and some athletes may find themselves doing events they don’t normally do.
Sunday, August 7th
A quiet week for once with no league matches over the weekend. However there are some results that I missed for the previous weekend. Wayne Gadd took part in the Eastern England Veterans Championships at Kings Lynn. He is now a 40 year old veteran and on a busy day he took part in 5 events – and he won all 5 !! So very well done Wayne
In the 110 metres hurdles he did 17.3 seconds and there then came a 5.68 metres long jump and 1.71 metres in the high jump – these three performances beat his own veteran club records which he set earlier in the summer. As well as those three performances his winning shot putt was 9.76 metres and then Wayne triple jumped 10.08 metres.
Looking ahead
On Saturday (August 13th) the senior mens team have their last league match of the season when taking the short trip down the road to K2 in Crawley. They are up against Horsham, Herne Hill Harriers and Bracknell’s B team. Herne Hill and Horsham are likely to be much stronger than us, but we will hope to beat Bracknell.
As well as normal Tuesday and Thursday evening training sessions we are also providing some athletics sessions on Wednesday (August 10th) at the Ashurstwood Summer Sports Day. This is the third year we have been involved with this event which will see lots of children taking part in a number of sporting activities over the day. The athletics sessions will take place at the John Pears Playing Field. If you’d like to come along to help our coaches then please do so – we start at about 9 o’clock.
Monday, August 1st
I’ll start with some news from yesterday’s Under 13 Inter-County match at Kingston where Lois Drummie was representing Surrey. In her best event, the 70 metres hurdles, she came third in the A string with a new best of 11.85 seconds – 0.03 faster than she did at Brighton in the Sussex Championships. It is yet again a new club record. In the B string long jump she was also third with a good jump of 4.41 metres.
On Saturday the senior mens team went to a brand new track at Sutton Valence School just outside Maidstone for their fourth league match of the season. Lots of athletes were unavailable and things looked a bit grim, especially as we might have won the match with anything like a full team. As it turned out things went rather better than we feared and with everybody mucking in we finished second out of the 4 teams. Tom Gardner nearly accomplished something very unusual in the high jump – he nearly jumped twice as high as the athlete who came second. The second athlete jumped 1 metre exactly and Tom had three good attempts at 2 metres. He had earlier cleared 1.95 metres despite hitting the bar hard as he went over. Tom then tried the triple jump for the first time in 3 or 4 years and he won with a very impressive 12.91 metres – this puts him number 6 on our triple jump listing. And Tim Ivorson, much to his surprise, won the B string triple.
Also in the jumps Colin King was a good winner of the pole vault with 3.20 metres – it’s a couple of years since he last did that height. But there was a big hole in the long jump as this was one of the events we were unable to fill.
On the track Wilem Fields-Jewell took over 2 seconds off his previous best in the 800 metres with 2 minutes 5.7 seconds. He then won the 1500 metres with 4 minutes 36.4 seconds with Richard Wares supporting well by winning the B string race. There was a division 1 match alongside our division 2 match and the 5,000 metres was a combined race – some clubs even had non-scorers in the race. So there was a field of 17 or 18 athletes and it’s quite possible that Lance Quirico doesn’t know that he came second in our A string race.
We were without Phil Spivey, but the throwers kept things ticking along. In particular the discus saw Colin King second in the A string with 26.30 metres and Eddie Vermeer winning the B string with 25.11 metres. Elsewhere Graham Taylor had completed four events before the match was an hour old. This included his first run over hurdles since his accident last year – but this time it was the lower 400 hurdles. And he came through safely. And Lincoln Campbell found younger athletes just pipping him at the finish of the two sprints.
And when the points were added up Invicta East Kent came out on top with 114.5 points with us a rather distant second on 86 points. This left Sutton third on 80.5 points with Medway & Maidstone unable to field a team.
Looking ahead
A quiet week ahead with no fixtures over next weekend. The following Saturday (August 13th) the men are back in action, but this time only down the road at K2. This will be their last league match of the season.
Monday, July 25th
We’ll start with a quick summary of the Young Athletes match last Sunday down in Eastbourne on a very windy day which was mainly dry until the last hour. Those who were competing in that last hour or were helping with the javelin judging know how hard it rained. With the help of the wind there were lots of personal bests among the sprints and horizontal jumps. In addition, though throwing into the wind, there was some good discus throwing from Ellie Peadon and Emily Deville. Overall we came third, a long way behind Holland Sports and Eastbourne.
Thursday evening saw the third Sussex Under 13 League match at K2. With schools breaking up we were fearing that we’d be short of athletes – but as it turned out the athletes turned up in good numbers and we had 9 boys and 10 girls. It was good to see Jack Ford and Emily Adamson (Lucy’s twin sister) competing for the first time. As is normally the case first places were a bit thin on the ground. Lois Drummie again won the sprint hurdles with another quick time of 12.0 seconds. Peter Jenkins won the B string high jump with 1.30 metres with Nils Kerneis second in the A string with the same 1.30 metres. And there were further B string first places for Alex Spraggett in the javelin (13.29 metres) and Matt Hennessy in the discus (13.60 metres)
However more importantly it was good to see the progression of a number of athletes, especially those in their first year, as they continued to improve on their performances in previous matches. For example William House was over 18 metres in the javelin and down to 16.0 in the hurdles, Jake Gadd under 3 and a half minutes in the 1000 metres, Charlotte Baker improving in the javelin to go over 15 metres and Bethany Keen down to 3 minutes 36 in the 1000 metres – and one or two others that have slipped past me. This is what the coaches hope for – as the season progresses and the athletes learn more about their events we hope to see the improvements. And they have been coming.
For the third time this season we finished third behind Crawley and Horsham.
This last weekend saw no matches for any of our teams, although a match of another sort took place in East Grinstead on Saturday when the captain of our senior mens team, Dan Medcalf, married Jodie. Our very best wishes to them.
Looking ahead
The senior mens team (without their honeymooning captain) have their fourth match of the season this coming Saturday (July 30th). They go to a brand new track at Sutton Valence School near Maidstone for their match against Medway & Maidstone, Sutton and Invicta East Kent. They will be hoping for one or two more athletes this time.
On Sunday Lois Drummie will be representing Surrey in an under 13 inter-county match at Kingston – she will be doing the 70 metres hurdles and the long jump. If you’re wondering why Lois is competing for Surrey rather than for Sussex it’s because she was born in Surrey and lives in Surrey, about 100 yards from the Sussex/Surrey border.
Monday, July 18th
Another busy few days. Firstly we had day 2 of our own club championships last Tuesday evening and we again had a good turn-out, especially from the younger athletes. Results will be available at training this week. This was followed by the Crawley Open meeting on Wednesday evening where a number of our athletes took part. Friday evening saw 9 girls and 4 boys go to Broadbridge Heath for the third match in the Sussex Under 15 league.
And yesterday we had the last Young Athletes League match of the season, again at a very windy Eastbourne. Fortunately the rain managed to hold off until the last hour or so of the match – but when it came it was horrible. However we were very disappointed with the number of athletes who came to Eastbourne. Having had 12 under 13 boys at the club championships earlier in the week we had just one - Matt Hennessy - at Eastbourne. Similarly there was just one under 15 boy in Adam Lord and 3 under 13 girls – Sarah Hennessy, Bethany Keen and Lois Drummie. And even the under 17 girls were a bit down on normal.
Results from these various matches aren’t yet available.
Looking ahead
This coming Thursday (July 21st) sees the third Sussex Under 13 league match of the season as we go to K2. Athletes should meet there by 6.15. We have no matches over next weekend and, with the start of the school holidays, we enter a relatively quiet period. The next league match will be on Saturday, July 30th when the senior men go to the new track at Sutton Valence School near Maidstone.
Monday, July 11th
Because of holidays we haven’t been able to update the website for a couple of weeks. But we’re now back. There has been a lot of athletic activity over the last 2 or 3 weeks and I’m not going to go into everything in any detail. However there have been some excellent performances from our athletes which we do need to tell you about.
At a national level Ellie Killick-Bird represented Sussex in the English Schools Championships at Gateshead in the under 15 girls high jump where she jumped 1.49 metres. She was also part of the Sussex 4 x 100 relay team and she helped them to come fourth in their final. Also competing at national level, in the British Masters Championships in Birmingham, were Lincoln Campbell and Wayne Gadd – Lincoln was third in the over 45 100 metres in 11.80 seconds and Wayne was third in the 110 metres hurdles for over 40s in a time of 17.48 seconds.
Ryan Spivey was also representing Sussex Schools - this time in the South East England Multi Events Championships at Winchester. As Ryan is now an under 17 this meant he was doing the 8 event octathlon over 2 days. And he produced personal bests in all 8 events !! Overall he was third and this means he will go the English Schools Multi Event finals in September in Exeter.
We have also seen the Sussex Under 13 Championships taking place at Brighton where Lois Drummie was our star turn with two gold medals – in the 70 metres hurdles in a new club record of 11.88 seconds followed by success in the high jump. In the same championships there were good fourth places for Bethany Keen in the discus and Liam Rieley in the 1200 metres.
And of course there have been league matches for our various teams. There was a re-arranged Sussex Under 13 league match at Crawley where we had an excellent turn-out which gave us third place. And this last weekend the senior mens team, though very short of athletes, managed to come third out of the 4 teams . The ladies and under 15 girls team was also competing last Saturday – and we were beaten into second place by Haywards Heath by 1.5 points. Haywards Heath scored 324.5 points and we scored 323 !! We still top the table - with two matches to go.
And to complete a busy few weeks last Thursday also saw the first night of our own club championships at Imberhorne School – with nearly 50 athletes taking part this was the most successful club championships we’ve had for many years.
Looking ahead
The next few days are also very busy. This coming Tuesday July 12th sees the second day of the club championships at Imberhorne. On Wednesday some of our athletes will probably go to the Crawley Open Meeting. Then Friday sees the Sussex Under 15 league at Broadbridge Heath and Sunday sees the final Young Athletes League match of the season for those in school years 6 to 11 – once again we take the trip to Eastbourne.
Sunday, June 26th
We now have the results from last weekend’s Young Athletes match down in windy Eastbourne. In both previous matches I have been able to tell you about Lois Drummie’s achievements and I really thought she would not be able to improve on them. But at Eastbourne she did. In the first track race of the day she beat her own club record in the 70 metres hurdles when she won in 12.1 seconds. This was followed by a 38 centimetres improvement in her long jump when she jumped 4.56 metres (though this only put her second in the event) and she finished the day with another clearance of 1.40 metres in the high jump. A number of other athletes produced new bests in the long jump – Ryan Spivey 5.43 metres, Sarah Rusling 5.09, James Telfer 4.48, Matt Rieley 4.41, Andrew Easton 4.33, Olivia Golton 3.71, Will Surtees 3.89 and a 4.50 no jump – with the strong wind undoubtedly having its effect.
As well as a PB in the long jump Ryan Spivey used the meeting to test out his throws which will be part of his combined events competitions later this year – 11.12 in the shot and 27.57 in the discus for a couple of first places. Matt Rieley also produced a shot putt first place in the under 15 group with 7.94 metres. Andrew Easton added to his long jump performance with two strong runs in the under 13 sprints. And Nils Kerneis just got up in the last few yards to win the under 13 hurdles – and later his 1.20 metres jump won him the B string high jump
Among the under 17 girls Hannah Peadon won her three throwing events and was over 21 metres again in the discus – an event where the wind was trying to blow the discus back towards the thrower. Amanda Lord set a new best with 1.40 metres in the high jump and Amy Hewitt marked her last appearance in the league – she’s too old in 2012 – with three wins - in the 200 metres and then in both hurdles races.
In the under 15 girls group Chloe Hollamby set two new pbs in the sprints with 13.4 in the 100 metres and 27.8 in the 200 while Ellie Killick-Bird was again jumping 1.50 metres in the high jump. Natasha Barnes had a long 5 hour wait for her javelin - she then threw over 26 metres to win with Gemma Francis winning the B string.
And we end back with the under 13 girls group. As well as Lois’ 2 first places there was a first place for Sarah Hennessy in the B string shot (6.15 metres) – after she had tackled the 1500 metres. And a number of second places including Roisin Bell’s 22.2 seconds in the 150 metres and Bethany Keen in the 1200 metres.
And to round the day off all three girls teams won their 4 x 100 metres relay, as did the under 13 boys team.
Looking ahead
We have a busy week for our young under 13 athletes. This coming Tuesday (June 28th) we have a re-arranged Sussex Under 13 league match at K2 in Crawley. Athletes should meet at K2 by 6.15.
Because of this match there will be no training for the 7 pm group that evening. However there will be training for the 7.30 group, although there won’t be too many coaches present.
Looking to the weekend the Sussex Under 13 championships will take place on Sunday, July 3rd at Withdean Stadium in Brighton. You are now too late to enter these championships, but we believe we have quite a reasonable number of athletes going.
Moving to the following week we will have the first night of our own club championships on Thursday, July 7th. And then on Saturday, July 9th the ladies and under 15 girls team will be competing alongside the senior mens team in their third league matches of the season. The match is at K2 in Crawley and starts at 11.30.
Monday, June 20th
Yesterday was a very windy but dry day down in Eastbourne for the Young Athletes team. The sprinters and horizontal jumpers loved the wind, but some of the throwers found it very unhelpful. And anybody who had to run into the wind down the back straight - well done to you all. It was good to see lots of parents. When we have lots of athletes and parents at matches cheering on our athletes it really does make a difference.
I haven’t got the results yet and so I’ll not make any further comment for now. However we know we came third in the match behind Holland and Eastbourne.
Looking ahead
This coming Friday June 24th we have a Sussex Under 15 league match at Broadbridge Heath. We have only just entered this league and all under 15 athletes should do their best to attend. You should meet at the track by 6.15 – unless you want to try the hammer or pole vault, in which case you should arrive by 5.30. There is a charge of £2 for each athlete. As you can do three individual events plus a relay £2 is good value for money.
And the under 13 team for athletes in years 6 and 7 will be at K2 in Crawley next Tuesday June 28th. This replaces the cancelled Worthing match from a couple of weeks ago.
And I’ve just been reminded that there is an Open Meeting this Wednesday June 22nd at K2.
Thursday, June 16th
Some news about the Under 13 match which was cancelled last night. It has been re-arranged for Tuesday, June 28th and will take place at K2 in Crawley.
And some news about Jo Lister - she has recently run 2 personal bests in the 400 metres. Jo ran 59.71 seconds many years ago at Crawley. Last Saturday she ran 59.17 seconds at Hendon and last night in an Open Meeting at Watford she ran 58.65. (The club record is 58.4 seconds.)
Tuesday, June 14th
Important news about the Under 13 match at Worthing on Wednesday evening (June 15th) - the match has been cancelled. So please don’t go to Worthing tomorrow evening.
We don’t expect the match to be rearranged but if it is we’ll let you know. The next match in the league is on Thursday, July 21st at K2 in Crawley and then the final match is on Sunday, September 4th, again at K2.
Sunday, June 12th
It was the various Schools County Championships on Saturday and we had athletes competing in three different Counties. The selection for these events is all to do with the schools and is nothing to do with us as a club. We were rather disappointed that we had only 5 of our athletes selected for the Sussex Championships – there were at least another 5 or 6 who we think were of the right standard to compete.
However those who did take part produced some great results – none more so than Ellie Killick-Bird in the junior girls high jump. Ellie went into the event with a best of 1.50 metres – one of the other athletes had a best of 1.57 metres. (1.57 metres is a significant height as I will explain later.) Ellie went safely over 1.50 metres, and then over 1.55. The bar then went to 1.57 with just two athletes left. Ellie went over first time and the other athlete knocked the bar off with her first attempt before clearing it second time. 1.60 metres was out of reach for both girls and so it was first place to Ellie. Why does 1.57 metres matter ? Because this is the entry standard height for the English Schools Championships to be held in Gateshead at the beginning of July – and, having obtained that height, we hope Ellie will be selected.
Sarah Killick-Bird made it a great day for the K-Bs by winning the senior girls 400 metres hurdles in 72.4 seconds. Elsewhere at Crawley Yasmin Rashid took second place in the senior girls 100 metres in 13.6 seconds (and then ran the 200 metres shortly afterwards where she came a tired-looking fifth). Ryan Spivey, in his first year as an intermediate boy, was third in 15.0 seconds in the sprint hurdles. And our fifth athlete at Crawley was Abby Beswick in the junior girls long jump. Her recent problems with the run-up continued – but even so she was fourth with 4.32 metres. Abby has another year in the age-group.
More excellent news came from elsewhere. In the Kent Schools Championships at Ashford Natasha Barnes took the junior girls javelin title with 28.80 metres – not quite the entry standard but she has another year in the age-group. And at Kingston for the Surrey Championships Sarah Rusling was second in the intermediate girls long jump with 5.00 metres. (Looking at the Surrey results she might have won the triple jump if she had entered ......)
As a result of these performances we expect that Ellie, Sarah Rusling and Natasha will all be representing their counties at Saturday’s inter-county match at Erith. Well done to them all – and here’s hoping for a few more centimetres.
Looking ahead
This coming Wednesday (June 15th) the under 13 team for those in school years 6 and 7 will travel down to Worthing for their second match of the season. Athletes should be there by 6.15. Then Sunday (June 19th) sees the last Young Athletes match of the season at Eastbourne – meet there by 10.30. (As well as the inter-county match on Saturday some of our athletes will be part of the Imberhorne School girls team taking part in a national cup match at Croydon on Friday.)
Friday, June 10th
It’s taken me a little while to catch up with the results from last Sunday’s Young Athletes match at the Wimbledon Park track. The rain kept off for most of the match and most teams seemed to be suffering from absent athletes following the school half-term holiday. We were missing a number of boys, with only 2 under 17s, 3 under 15s and 2 under 13s – although the girls were well represented. With the last match next weekend let’s hope for a few more boys next time.
So let’s have a quick summary of how the boys did. In the under 17 age-group Daniel Rusling produced two new big personal bests – 5.10 in the long jump and 10.33 in the triple jump – to re-open the battle with twin sister Sarah. Ryan Spivey won his sprint hurdles and produced a new best in the 400 metres of 56.0 seconds.
The three under 15 boys – Barry Ademujimi, Ioannis Gabrielides and Adam Lord – found their competition hard but they all produced new bests in their various events. And the 2 under 13 boys came up with the goods in the long jump. Andrew Easton and Liam Rieley were both late arriving – in Liam’s case because he was doing the 1500 metres at the same time. They arrived during the second round and so missed their first round jumps, they didn’t have time to take any practice runs – and they both jumped new personal bests to secure a double first. Andrew 4.08 metres and Liam 3.81 metres. Good stuff.
In the under 13 girls Lois Drummie again produced a number of outstanding performances – she’ll find it hard to top this in the next match !! In the first race of the day she equalled her own club record when winning the 70 metres hurdles in a time of 12.3 seconds. Then came 4.18 metres in the long jump – before adding 8 centimetres to her previous best to jump 1.40 metres in the high jump. Cydney Richardson-Imbert came up with 2 new bests – 11.2 in the 75 metres and a 6.74 metres shot putt. And it was good to see Bethany Keen running so well in the 1200 metres – with Alex Spraggett and Olivia Golton also scoring good points.
The under 17 girls were out in force. Amy Hewitt recorded the same time of 13.6 seconds in two of her events - 100 metres and 80 metres hurdles – and made it three wins with the longer hurdles. Sarah Rusling matched brother Daniel with wins in the long and triple jumps – with a new best of 10.12 metres in the triple jump – and was first in the B string 80 metres hurdles. Charlotte Bidgway continues to impress and also had three first places – in the A string 800 metres and the B string 200 and 300 metres. Hannah Peadon won both the shot and the discus, and managed to get the discus well clear of the 20 metres mark with a best of 22.65 metres – there’s more to come Hannah. Izzy Turnbull picked up a couple of B string throws wins, and Amanda Lord did her first triple jump.
The under 15 girls were also out in good numbers with Ellie Killick-Bird especially prominent. She equalled her previous best in the high jump with 1.50 metres. A strong run in the 800 metres gave her a win in the A string (2 minutes 33.9 seconds) and, together with Abby Beswick, she helped to make it a double first in the 75 metres hurdles. Abby was also part of a surprise double first in the shot together with Sarah Bentley – and Sarah threw the furthest. Abby had another surprise when she did three no-jumps in the long jump – as they say you aren’t a proper athlete if you have never had three no-jumps or three no-throws !! Chloe Hollamby (16.00 metres) and Ellie Peadon (13.15 metres) also had a double win in the discus.
And so how did the points end up ? Well host club Holland Sports were on top with 620 points. We had finished third in the first match of the season, but we were able to come second in this match with 554 points. Eastbourne had come second in the first match but we pushed them down into third place – they scored 481. Only one point separated the two remaining teams – Fleet scored 364 and the combined Dorking/Reigate team 363.
Monday, June 6th
I was away for the weekend and so didn’t get to either of our matches. I have just caught up with the mens match from Saturday, but am still catching up with the Young Athletes match at Wimbledon on Sunday.
The mens match at Crawley would have been a difficult one at the best of times, against two of the league’s strongest teams in Kent AC and South London as well as Crawley’s B team. We were helped by Wayne Gadd and James Crittell competing again, together with a first appearance from Richard Wares, but we are still not able to field a very strong team – especially on the track. Indeed on the track we produced no wins and only one second place – from James Crittell in the B string 400 metres hurdles.
The field events were a little better with a double first from Wayne Gadd and Ryan Spivey in the high jump (both clearing 1.60 metres), with Colin King keeping the vertical theme going by winning the pole vault (3.00 metres). Phil Spivey also produced a win in the hammer by going over 50 metres again with a throw of 54.12 metres. Another first place came with Wayne Gadd’s throw of 40.19 metres in the A string javelin.
It was no huge surprise to find ourselves in last place with 67 points behind Kent (112), South London (92) and Crawley (80). However with Wayne Gadd having passed his 40th birthday and Phil Spivey his 50th birthday in the last couple of weeks we may have got some new club age-group records – I must investigate. The next match for the men is on July 9th at Crawley – let’s hope we’ll be able to field a few of our younger athletes this time.
I know one or two results from the Young Athletes match at a rather wet and cool Wimbledon track, but I’ll wait till I have the full results before I write anything more substantial. This is the first time in many years that the Young Athletes League have arranged a fixture for the Sunday at the end of half-term week and all the clubs seemed to be suffering from missing athletes – athletes either on holiday or heavily into revision for the many school exams which take place in June. Let’s hope the league thinks differently next year.
Looking ahead
This coming Saturday June 11th sees the various Schools County Championships taking place. As a club we have no say in who gets chosen for these Championships, but we will have members competing at Crawley in the Sussex Championships, Kingston for the Surrey event and at Ashford for the Kent Championships. We wish them all well and perhaps one or two will produce a performance good enough to get them to the English Schools Championships at the beginning of July.
Monday, May 30th
Last Thursday evening saw our under 13 boys and girls (school years 6 and 7) take part in the first match of the Sussex Under 13 League at Broadbridge Heath. For many of the athletes it was their first experience of a club athletics match, and it was great to see that we were able to fill most of the events.
Lois Drummie secured two first places for the girls with wins in the 70 metres hurdles in 12.4 seconds and a 1.30 metres high jump. Cydney Richardson-Imbert provided good support in the high jump with second place and 1.20 metres. She also came an excellent second in the 75 metres sprint in 11.1 seconds. Charlotte Baker also earned two second places in two throwing events – the javelin (10.92 metres) and the B string shot (5.39 metres). Bethany Keen, in her first match, also earned two second places in the B string 1000 metres and the B string discus (11.09 metres) with Katie Byrne also earning a good second place in the B string javelin (10.37 metres). The squad was completed by Olivia Golton, Sarah Hennessy, Lucy Adamson, Megan Garner and Roisin Bell who all contributed valuable points to the team. And the relay team produced a good run to come third in 61.6 seconds.
The boys had rather more athletes making their first appearance and it was good to see one of them, Matt Hennessy (Sarah’s twin brother) winning the A string discus with 14.31 metres – with Thomas Beswick making it a double first by winning the B string with 13.06 metres. Peter Jenkins has recently discovered that he can high jump and he produced 1.25 metres to win the A string event and Liam Rieley produced another first place by winning the B string 1000 metres. The 75 metres hurdles saw a pair of good second places thanks to Nils Kerinis (15.3 seconds) and William House (17.5 seconds) and another second place came from Andrew Easton going over 4 metres for the first time in the long jump with 4.03 metres. Third places came from Jake Gadd in the 1000 metres in 3 minutes 34.7 seconds and both Thomas Beswick (23.43 metres) and William House (13.20 metres) in the javelin. And Thomas Dean gained a good third in the B string 150 metres. Will Surtees produced an excellent non-scoring long jump of 3.78 metres.
Overall we came an excellent third on 153 points with Crawley and Horsham ahead us – but Worthing, Chichester and Haywards Heath behind us. The girls scored 74 of our points and the boys 79 – but well done to everybody who competed. Full results will be shown on the information boards at training this week.
The next match is on the evening of Wednesday, June 15th with a trip to the seaside at Worthing. Let’s have another full turn-out with lots of mums and dads there to cheer the athletes on.
Looking ahead
While this weekend has been quiet it gets busy once again over the coming weekend. On Saturday (June 4th) the senior mens team are at K2 for their second match of the season, and the next day – Sunday, June 5th - the Young Athletes team (for school years 6 to 11) also have their second match when they go to Wimbledon. The following Saturday will see the various County Schools Championships.
Monday, May 23rd
Another busy weekend for our athletes, and for our track and field judges as well, with two matches over this last weekend – one of which we hosted.
Saturday saw the ladies and under 15 girls team down the M20 in Ashford in Kent at the excellent Julie Rose Stadium. There’s normally a wind at this stadium and our visit was no exception. In particular the sprinters didn’t enjoy their races. We just about had enough athletes to fill most of the events (except for the longer races) but with little spare if there were any injuries during the afternoon – although when Abby Beswick was injured while winning the under 15 long jump (4.55 metres) we just about covered things. Hastings had more athletes this time, but Haywards Heath weren’t quite as strong as in the first match.
Our high jumpers again did well with the Killick-Birds both achieving personal bests – Ellie 1.48 metres and Sarah 1.46 metres. (Ellie was to add another 2 centimetres on Sunday to make it 1.50 metres – can we find another 7 centimetres over the next three weeks to get the English Schools qualifying height ?) In the horizontal jumps Sarah Rusling went over 5 metres for the first time with 5.06 metres and Cat Shin at last set a new club triple jump record with 10.89 metres – to beat the old record of 10.79 metres set in 1995 by Eve Webster.
On the track Izzy Turnbull’s first 400 metres run saw her just hold onto first place as she suffered over the last 50 yards. But a good time of 64.5 seconds. Our under 17 hurdlers picked up their more or less expected first places, but otherwise first places were a bit thin on the track – Chloe Hollamby in the under 15 200 metres and Hannah Jenkins in the under 15 B string 100 metres and that was it.
The under 15 throws produced a number of good performances and were only prevented from taking 6 first places by the failure of one of our athletes to get the javelin to stick in the right end. Gemma Francis’ discovery of the javelin saw her win the A string (and on Sunday she repeated the success with a throw of over 22 metres). The seniors had success in the shot where Cat threw exactly 2 metres below her triple jump distance for first place and she and Janet Hollamby were both second in the discus.
And when the points were added up it was Haywards Heath in third place with 264 points, Hastings second with 292 points and we were on the top with 301 points. Well done everybody.
On Sunday it was over to Broadbridge Heath for the first Young Athletes match of the year – and we were the home team. (Is it my imagination but is the Broadbridge Heath track beginning to look its age ?) The first hour of the first Young Athletes match is always chaotic and this was no exception. Team managers trying to work out who should do what event, filling up spaces when athletes don’t turn up, and then trying to find them events when they turn up late.
The match started with a bang for us. In the very first track event – the under 13 girls 70 metres hurdles – Lois Drummie set a new club record with a time of 12.3 seconds to beat Sophie Ely’s time of 12.57 seconds in 2005. Lois completed an excellent day with wins in the long jump (4.01 metres) and high jump (1.26). Gemma Francis continued the long jump success with 4.15 metres to win the under 15 girls event and Sarah Rusling (4.90 metres) and Amy Hewitt (4.68) won the A and B strings in the under 17 event. Sarah went on to win the triple jump. The boys were not quite as successful in the sand-pit but a good-looking 4.25 metres from Josh Drummond saw him second in the under 15 boys long.
On the track Joe Domingues produced an excellent run in the under 15 boys 400 metres to win in a time of 61.8 seconds. The 800 metres saw a double win in the under 15 girls event – Ellie Killick-Bird in the A string (2 minutes 32.5) and Sophia Gabrielides (2 minutes 50.9) with Thomas Dean looking good as he came second in the under 13 boys 800 metres in a time of 2 minutes 41.3.
The throws saw a double first in the under 13 girls shot from Sarah Hennessy (6.29 metres) and Cydney Richardson-Imbert (5.99) – and in the last field event of the day there was another double first in the under 15 girls javelin with Gemma Francis (22.17 metres) and Lucy Hatswell (14.23).
As I have said the track events started well - and they finished well, especially for the girls. All three girls teams won their relays. The under 17 team of Sarah Rusling, Cara Burgess, Poppy Roberts and Amy Hewitt in 56.8, the under 15s with Ellie Peadon, Ellie Killick-Bird, Gemma Francis and Chloe Hollamby in 58.9 and then the under 13s of Cydney, Lucy Adamson, Alex Spraggett and Lois in 60.5 seconds.
Overall we finished in third place in the match. Holland Sports were on top with 590.5 points, Eastbourne second on 528 points while we scored 501 points. The team's next match is on Sunday, June 5th at Wimbledon. It would be good to see a few more boys next time.
Looking ahead
This coming few days are less busy but the under 13 team (school years 6 and 7) have their first league match on Thursday (May 26th) at Broadbridge Heath. Athletes should meet at Broadbridge Heath by 6.15 and the match will end by 9. For the first time in 5 weeks there are no matches over the weekend.
Monday, May 16th
A busy weekend of athletics with County Championship meetings taking place all over the country. For most of our athletes that meant sharing K2 in Crawley with the British Judo Association and (on Saturday) with a swimming gala. However we also had athletes at Kingston for the Surrey championships.
Saturday morning at K2 saw some early medals in the ladies’ triple jump – Cat Shin’s 10.70 metres gave her second place in the senior ladies event and Tessa Martin’s 9.99 metres gave her third place in the under 20 ladies competition. At much the same time Sarah Killick-Bird’s run of 19.7 seconds gave her second place in the under 20 ladies 100 metres hurdles. Izzy Turnbull, in her first under 17 300 metres race, just missed out on a medal when she was fourth in 45.8 seconds.
During the afternoon Conall Freeman produced a couple of good personal bests in the under 15 throws. 8.77 metres saw him fifth in the shot and, a couple of hours later, he threw the discus 23.46 metres to gain second place. Ellie Killick-Bird gained a good third place in the under 15 high jump with 1.45 metres – a couple of her attempts at 1.50 metres were very close. Meanwhile Lois Drummie was working her way round the three events that made up the under 13 girls minithon. She started with a high jump of 1.32 metres, followed with a discus throw of 16.17 metres – and then produced a time of 22.4 seconds in the 150 metres. When all the points were added up she had come second. And when I got home after the Saturday events I had the excellent news from Kingston that Sarah Rusling had won the Surrey under 17 long jump with 4.81 metres.
Sunday turned out to be another successful day. In one of the early track events Sarah Killick-Bird added a gold medal to her Saturday silver medal when she won the under 20 400 metres hurdles in 71.9 seconds. And for a while that looked as if that was all that we would win, despite some good individual performances. But in the later part of the afternoon Tom Gardner woke us up with a high jump clearance of 2.05 metres in the under 20 event. This was a new personal best for Tom and it equalled the best championship performance in Sussex. He wasn’t that far away from 2.07 metres. (For those of us who still work in feet and inches 2.05 metres is just under 6 feet and 9 inches – that’s higher than the doors in my house.) And then the under 15 girls got going in the javelin. We had four athletes taking part. It was Natasha Barnes, in her first competition since breaking a thumb, who got the gold medal with a best throw of 27.77 metres – and it was great to see Gemma Francis not far behind with a throw of 26.62 metres for second place. Chloe Hollamby was 5th and Emily Deville 6th to make 4 of our athletes in the top 6 – well done to the javelin coach. And in the last race of the day our under 17 ladies relay team came third in the 4 x 100 relay – Amanda Lord, Cara Burgess, Izzy Turnbull and Amy Hewitt – with 55.9 seconds. A couple of other performances of note during the day – though not winning medals – saw Ellie Killick-Bird running strongly in the under 15 girls 800 metres to achieve a new best of 2 minutes 30.1 seconds and Peter Jenkins coming fifth in the under 13 boys minithon. The best of his three events came with a high jump of 1.29 metres. And when I got home I had more great news from Kingston where Sarah Rusling made it a double gold medal with a win in the Surrey under 17 triple jump with 10.09 metres.
Looking ahead
Athletics events are coming thick and fast at this time of the year. After the busy weekend at the County Championships I know a lot of those at school have school events during this week. And then next weekend we have two matches. On Saturday (May 21st) the Southern Womens League team for senior athletes and under 15 girls have their second league match of the season down in the Julie Rose Stadium in Ashford in Kent. The team are meeting at Imberhorne School at 9.45. Then on Sunday (May 22nd) we are hosting the Young Athletes League match for those in school years 6 to 11 at Broadbridge Heath. As this is our home match we will be looking for support and help from mums and dads to make sure the meeting goes smoothly.
But before we get there we are having a Parents’ Evening on Thursday (May 19th) evening at Imberhorne School. This doesn’t mean that the parents have to join in with the training sessions – it is an evening where parents are invited to see their children training, to see the coaches in action and to ask any questions about the running of the club.
Monday, May 9th
A difficult opening of the season for the Southern Mens League team in their match at Lewes with a number of athletes missing for various reasons – mainly football and/or injuries. The hammer throw gave us our usual good start with a double win for Phil Spivey (49.34 metres) and Eddie Vermeer (30.01 metres). However Phil had come into the match with injuries which he aggravated in the hammer which meant no more throwing. He filled in with the B string high jump alongside Ryan who was in his first senior mens match – a very rare father/son combination. Ryan’s first appearance saw personal bests in the long jump (5.21 metres) and 57.8 seconds in the 400 metres.
Wilem Fields-Jewell’s hard work in the winter was rewarded with an excellent finish to win the A string 1500 metres in 4 minutes 36.2 seconds. An earlier 2 minutes 8.7 seconds saw him second in the 800 metres. He was then rushed into a leg of the 4 x 100 metres relay. Dan Medcalf was a bit uncertain as to how he would go, having missed all of last season, but he was happy (and probably a bit surprised) to win both the long jump (5.80 metres) and triple jump (11.65 metres). Tim Ivorson ran in the 400 metres flat and 400 metres hurdles as well as the relay and the rest was left to our older athletes – Graham Taylor, Lance Quirico and Lincoln Campbell.
An interesting statistic from the 100 metres B string where Graham ran as a non-scorer alongside Lincoln – the combined age of our two runners in the race was more than 100 !!
Third place (out of 4) was all we could hope for – and that’s what we got. Behind Haywards Heath/Lewes and Epsom but ahead of Swale. The team will be back in action on June 4th – let’s hope the footballers will be back and the injuries will be healed.
The Young Athletes match on Sunday was cancelled and we therefore put on a number of events for our own athletes at Imberhorne School on Sunday afternoon. It was good to see about 40 athletes turn up, with lots of mums and dads – plus the odd grandparent – and it was a good afternoon. The wind was slightly uncomfortable at times but it was good to see so many athletes taking part, and trying out one or two events that they wouldn’t normally do.
Looking ahead
This coming weekend sees the various County Championships taking place. It’s good to see many more than usual of our athletes taking part in the Sussex Championships at K2. We also have 1 or 2 athletes taking part in the Surrey Championships at Kingston, and Lincoln Campbell in the Kent Championships at Ashford.
Monday, May 2nd
The 2011 summer season got underway on Saturday with the Southern Womens League match at K2 in Crawley. The parking was even worse than it normally is with a swimming gala and a baton-twirling competition taking place in the K2 leisure centre plus Crawley Town’s last football match of the season. Fortunately all the teams did find enough spaces for their cars and the match started on time on a sunny but windy day.
As expected Haywards Heath and ourselves were the two strongest teams with the third Sussex side - from Hastings - not too far behind. We had a number of athletes making their first appearance in the league. Hannah Jenkins played her part in the successful high jump squad who brought home four first places. Hannah won the B string under 15 event with 1.30 metres with Ellie Killick-Bird winning the A string with 1.40 metres. Ellie’s sister Sarah won the senior A string high jump with 1.45 metres supported by Amanda Lord’s winning 1.30 metres in the B string. Two of our younger throwers also came first in their events – Ellie Peadon in the B string discus with 14.03 metres and Lucy Hatswell’s 15.48 B string javelin throw. Emily Deville made it a double first in the javelin with an A string throw of 16.18 metres. Sarah Bentley gained good points in her three under 15 events – 200 and 800 metres on the track, and then as a last minute replacement in the long jump.
Charlotte Bidgway in the senior section also made her first appearance and she ran a sensible race in the B string 800 metres to come second. She was then part of the successful 4 x 400 metres relay team along with Izzy Turnbull, Sarah Rusling and Sarah Killick-Bird. This successful 4 x 400 race came only a few minutes after the senior 4 x 100 metres relay team had also won their race in 55.0 seconds. The senior team also produced a couple of double first places with wins in both A and B strings in the triple jump (Tessa Martin 10.12 metres and Sarah Rusling 9.84 metres) and in the 200 metres (Yasmin Rashid 27.8 seconds and Izzy Turnbull 28.4 seconds). Sarah Rusling also set a new best in winning the senior long jump with 4.94 metres – 5 metres can’t be far away, can it ? And Amy Hewitt was again quick in the 80 metres hurdles which she won in 13.0 seconds.
But all the athletes played their full part in an excellent afternoon which saw Haywards Heath just edge ahead of us to win the match with 312 points, just 14 ahead of our 298 – with Hastings third on 266 points.
The ladies and under 15 girls team are back in action later in May when they go to Ashford in Kent on Saturday, May 21st.
Looking ahead
The Senior Mens team start their season this coming Saturday (May 7th) with the relatively short trip to Lewes for a match against Epsom & Ewell, Swale and a combined Haywards Heath and Lewes team. And the Young Athletes team for those in school years 6 to 11 are in action on Sunday, May 8th. The final details for this match are not yet settled and athletes will be given more information during the coming week.
Monday, April 25th
We’re nearly there – the first league match of the 2011 summer season takes place this coming Saturday, April 30th when the Southern Womens League team are in action at K2 Crawley. For athletes and coaches it is the first chance to see the effects of a good winter’s work in a competitive environment. Let’s hope for some reasonable athletics weather and lots of personal bests.
As the match is at Crawley we hope that there will be lots of mums and dads to cheer on our athletes. We are meeting at K2 at 11.30.
A number of our athletes have been warming up for the season over this Easter weekend at Crawley (on Sunday) and Tonbridge (on Monday). I don’t have all the results as yet, but I have had news of personal bests from Lois Drummie with 12.79 seconds in the under 13 70 metres hurdles, Amy Hewitt 12.88 seconds in the under 17 80 metres hurdles, Sarah Rusling’s 10.06 metres in the under 17 triple jump and Thomas Beswick with 22.66 metres in the under 13 javelin. Well done to you all and I’m sorry if I have missed anyone else out. I will update you when I get the full results.
Sunday, April 17th
Some excellent results from our younger athletes last week where there were a series of mile races alongside the Brighton Marathon. In a large field for the under 13 girls race Bethany Keen came 8th and will have another year in this age group next year to do even better.
The under 11 boys race saw Alfie Cubberley coming home in an excellent third place. But the best performance came in the under 11 girls race where Roisin Bell ran away from the rest of the field in her race to come in first, some way ahead of the rest of the athletes.
Looking ahead a final reminder that entries for the Sussex Championships must be sent by this Friday – April 22nd.
And with the Easter weekend nearly with us here’s a reminder that there are 2 local Open Meetings. On Sunday (April 24th) there is a meeting at Crawley while on Easter Monday (April 25th) the Tonbridge Open takes place at Tonbridge School. And before we know where we are the first league match of the season will take place on Saturday, April 30th at the K2 track in Crawley. Summer is nearly here.
Sunday, April 10th
The recent glorious weather is another sign that the summer is coming. And letters for the first ladies and under 15 girls match on April 30th at K2 are being given out as well.
For those looking to compete in the Sussex County Championships on May 14th and 15th a reminder that entries have to be in by this coming Friday, April 15th. You can send them in the few days after April 15th but it will cost you more.
A reminder that we continue training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings through the school Easter holidays. And if you haven’t paid your annual membership fees then try to pay over the next couple of weeks – you can pay when you come training.
Sunday, April 3rd
The 2011 Summer athletics season is getting ever closer. Starting this week Tuesday evening training at Imberhorne School will be open to all members – as well as Thursday evenings. The evening light does not currently allow us to get onto the grass playing fields in the evening, but it won’t be too long before we can use the grass track. And at the end of April we have our first league match of the season – the ladies and under 15 girls team will be at K2 on Saturday, April 30th.
And a reminder that annual subscriptions are now due. You can pay on training nights.
Sunday, March 27th
Last Wednesday we had our 2010 Presentation Evening and Annual General Meeting at Imberhorne School. The following athletes gained awards:
Under 13 Girls: Abby Beswick, Sophia Gabrielides, Lucy Hatswell, Olivia Golton, Lois Drummie, Becky Saffery and Cydney Richardson-Imbert.
Under 13 Boys: Joseph Domingues, James Telfer, Thomas Beswick, Conall Freeman, Liam Rieley and Joe Trigg.
Under 15 Girls: Chloe Hollamby, Ellie Killick-Bird, Sarah Rusling and Hannah Peadon.
Under 13 Boys 1500 metres trophy: Andrew Easton
Senior Men 1500 metres trophy: Wilem Fields-Jewell
Senior Men 3000 metres trophy: Lance Quirico
Senior Men 100 metres trophy: Will Rodgers
Senior Men Long Jump trophy: Gareth Owens
Vets 1500 metres trophy: Lance Quirico
Ladies 800 metres trophy: Ellie Killick-Bird
Senior Ladies 1500 metres trophy: Becky McKay
Ladies 100 metres trophy: Yasmin Rashid
Ladies Long Jump trophy: Amy Hewitt
Ladies Cross-Country trophy: Ellie Killick-Bird
Under 13 Endeavour trophy: Sarah Hennessy and Adam Lord
Throws trophy for young athletes: Natasha Barnes
Throws trophy for senior athletes: Phil Spivey
Road Runners trophy: Lance Quirico
Male Athlete of the year: Will Rodgers
Female Athlete of the year: Sarah Killick-Bird
Club Person of the year: Janet Hollamby
In the Annual General Meeting Tessa Martin was elected as Team Captain for the ladies team, taking over from Janice Watts who was standing down after a considerable number of years as Captain. We thank Janice for her enthusiasm in the role over these last few years and wish Tessa well in this new job.
Sunday, March 20th
This coming Wednesday sees our Presentation Night for 2010 followed by our Annual General Meeting in the Bullen Hall at Imberhorne School. The Presentation Night will start at 7.30 and will see a number of awards given to winners of our under 13 club championships held last July, together with a number of awards for older athletes. Please come along to support your fellow athletes – and you never know but you might win one of the awards. When the Presentation of the awards has finished – which we expect to be a little after 8 o’clock - we will hold our Annual General Meeting.
With the much improved weather over this weekend our Saturday and Sunday training groups were able to put in some good work. In particular on Saturday we had an excellent turn out for the visit of Keith Farndon who was able to run a first class javelin session for us. Thanks Keith.
Sunday, March 6th
Results of a different kind this week. The winners of the East Grinstead Sports Awards for 2010 were announced at a dinner held last week at Lingfield Park racecourse. The Awards are organised by the East Grinstead Observer and Courier and we are pleased to tell you that Lester Medcalf was voted the East Grinstead Unsung Hero for 2010. (John Rogers won the same award 4 or 5 years ago.) Lester would very much like to thank those of you who voted for him.
The winner of the East Grinstead Sportsperson Award for 2010 also had a connection with the club. The winner was Emily McLoughlin. Emily is a national standard triathlete and is in her first year at Birmingham University. What’s all that got to do with us ? Well Emily competed for us for a year as an under 13 athlete, before moving to Crawley Athletic Club. She lives in East Grinstead and used to go to Sackville School.
Looking ahead
We have a visit from an experienced javelin coach – Keith Farndon - on Saturday, March 19th from 10 to 12. Alf Smart will be contacting athletes who we believe would benefit from this visit.
And a further reminder that our Presentation Evening for 2010 and our Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 23rd at Imberhorne School.
Wednesday, March 2nd
We now have the full results from last weekend’s Surrey and Sussex Indoor Championships, held in the Sutton Indoor Arena. In the Sussex Championships Tessa Martin brought home a gold medal in the under 20 ladies 60 metres hurdles in a time of 10.98 seconds. She also came fourth in the long jump with a best jump of 4.67 metres (although her first jump looked longer, except that it was a no-jump).
Ryan Spivey had a hat-trick of second places in the under 17 mens events. 1.60 metres in the high jump was followed by 9.45 seconds in the 60 hurdles. And at the end of a busy day he came second in the long jump with 4.93 metres.
Abby Beswick looked to be heading for a bronze medal in the under 15 girls long jump when she jumped 4.48 metres in the second round. But she was eased down to fourth place late in the competition. Alex Pownall had problems with his long jump run-up and ended up fourth in the under 20 mens event with 5.24 metres. He also did 8.11 seconds in his heat of the 60 metres sprint, but this didn’t get him through to the final.
We also had one athlete in the Surrey Championships and Sarah Rusling brought home our second gold medal with her best jump of 4.82 metres in the under 17 ladies event. She followed this with third place in the triple jump with a best jump of 9.95 metres.
Rather further away, in Birmingham, Tom Gardner was taking part in the UK Under 20 Championships. He will be a little disappointed that he only cleared 1.96 metres in the high jump.
Looking ahead
A further reminder that from this weekend Sunday morning training will take place at Imberhorne School. And our Presentation Evening for 2010 and our Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 23rd at Imberhorne School.
Sunday, February 27th
With a number of our members away for the school half-term week we were a bit short on athletes at the Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships which were held over this weekend. I don’t have a full set of results of our 5 athletes who took part and so can’t give you too many details. However I believe we had a couple of first places and a couple of other top-three places. I‘ll give you fuller details when I have them.
Looking ahead
As we move into March the summer season gets ever closer. One good sign that the summer can’t be too far away is that the Sunday morning groups will this week move their training from the East Court playing fields to Imberhorne School. This will give us more opportunity towards the end of March and through April to make the training more event specific.
In addition you will soon be receiving details of our Presentation Evening for 2010, and of our Annual General Meeting. Both of these evenings will take place on Wednesday, March 23rd at Imberhorne School. The Presentation part of the evening will get under way at 7.30 pm and the Annual General Meeting will follow on at about 8 pm. Letters giving you more information will be sent out this week.
Sunday, February 20th
We have a bit of catching up to do from last weekend’s athletics. On Saturday (February 12th) the last Sussex Cross-Country league match of the winter took place at Lancing Manor. We had a good turn-out from our younger athletes with three athletes in both the boys and girls under 13 races. This included first appearances from two of our Sunday morning regulars – Roisin Bell in the girls race alongside Sophia Gabrielides and Becky Saffery and Alfie Cubberley in the boys race alongside Liam Rieley and Michael Turnbull. Ellie Killick-Bird and Chloe Hollamby ran in the under 15 girls race.
The senior men had their biggest turn-out of the season but they were still unable to climb out of the bottom two in their league. I fear it might mean relegation from division 2 to division 3 next winter ??
Also taking place last weekend were the British Masters Indoor Pentathlon Championships at Lee Valley in North London. Wayne Gadd was taking part in the 35 to 40 age-group and he was indeed the oldest of the athletes in that age-group. So a second place was an excellent performance. Well done Wayne.
Moving to this weekend Tom Gardner is competing for Loughborough University in the British University Indoor Championships in Sheffield. Yesterday he qualified for the high jump final clearing the required 1.95 metres. And in today’s final he jumped 1.98 metres.
Looking ahead
Next weekend (February 26th and 27th) sees both the Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships taking place at the Sutton Indoor track. Half-term ski-ing holidays mean that we don’t have quite as many people competing as we normally do. I’ll bring you results when I have them.
Sunday, February 6th
Yesterday some of our primary school members took part in the Sussex Primary Schools Cross-Country championships at Stanmer Park in Brighton – representing Mid Sussex Schools. Bethany Keen came an excellent 4th in the girls race with Roisin Bell also running well. Among the boys Jake Gadd was 7th just ahead of Alfie Cubberley in 8th place, with Harry and Josh Bryant and Charlie Francis also doing well. All of these athletes have gained from the Sunday morning training that Alf Smart and Malcolm Green have been providing over the last few months.
The Mid Sussex Boys team were beaten into first place by one point in the team race, but the Mid Sussex Girls won their team race.
This coming Saturday February 12th gives another sign that the summer athletics season can’t be too far away when the last Sussex Cross-Country league match of the winter season takes place at Lancing.
And the Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships take place over the weekend of February 26th and 27th – both championships taking place at Sutton Indoor Arena. See Lester Medcalf for further details.
Sunday, January 23rd
Some news from Loughborough where Tom Gardner took part in his first indoor competition of the winter. He has had a back problem but was fit enough to clear 2.01 metres in the High Jump. He will be hoping to go higher at this coming weekend’s meeting at Lee Valley.
Sunday, January 16th
We’ve had a busy last week as I’ll now describe.
South of England Indoor Championships
Last Sunday Ryan Spivey took part in the South of England Under 17 indoor pentathlon championships at Lee Valley – Ryan is a first year under 17. So third place was an excellent achievement. His 1.68 metres high jump was his best individual performance on the day.
Open Meeting at Eton
At the same time as Ryan’s pentathlon Wayne Gadd was competing at the Windsor Slough & Eton indoor open meeting at Eton. Some hurdling, some shot and a good 5.51 metres long jump was all good work as Wayne prepares to take part in the UK masters indoor championships in February.
Horsham Hurdles
Nearer to home Lois Drummie went to the Horsham indoor event on Thursday evening for three 50 metres hurdles races – a best time of 9.1 seconds for her.
Mid Sussex Primary Schools Cross-Country
Last Tuesday saw 6 of our older members helping to organise the Mid Sussex Primary Schools cross-country races at East Court. Heavy overnight rain meant that coming down the East Court hill was likely to be dangerous and so adjustments had to be made to the planned course on the morning of the race. The day itself was dry, although very wet underfoot, and everything went very well.
We had a few of our own athletes taking part in the races. So it was great to see Jake Gadd running with great confidence as he ran away from the rest of the field in the boys’ race to win by about 50 metres. Alfie Cubberley, who has another year in this age-group, was 5th and Charlie Francis 14th. In the girls’ race we saw Bethany Keen battling hard at the front of the girls’ race before coming second, with Roisin Bell finishing 13th.
The top 15 in each race will now go on to represent Mid Sussex in the Sussex Championships in February.
Sussex Cross-Country League
And yesterday saw the third match of this winter’s Sussex Cross-Country league down in Bexhill. As yet I don’t have any results to give you.
Looking ahead
Another week of training ahead with the Sussex Secondary Schools Cross-Country Championships taking place at Stanmer Park on Saturday. The Veterans Cross-Country Championships will also take place at the same venue, having been postponed following December’s snow.
Sunday, January 9th
A number of our younger athletes took part in the Sussex County Cross-Country Championships yesterday at Stanmer Park in Brighton, although results are not yet to hand. I’ll give you more information when I can.
Looking forward to this week we have our normal training sessions. We are also helping with the Mid Sussex Primary Schools cross-country championships on Tuesday at East Court – as explained in more detail in last week’s news.
And the cross-country runners will be back in action on Saturday as the third round of races in the Sussex Cross-Country league takes place in Bexhill.
Sunday, January 2nd
Now that we’ve got December’s snow out of the way let’s hope that we can get back to a more normal training pattern as we enter the New Year. The snow led to a number of cancelled or restricted training sessions, but we are back to all the normal training sessions this coming week – Tuesday weights at Sackville, Thursday evening at Imberhorne and Sunday morning at East Court – as we build up to what we hope will be a successful 2011 summer season.
Cross-country runners will soon be back in action and next Saturday (January 8th) will see the Sussex County Cross-Country championships at Stanmer Park in Brighton. We’ve got 6 or 7 of our younger athletes taking part (plus, I expect, one or two of our older athletes) and we wish them well.
Looking into the following week we will be helping with Mid Sussex Primary Schools cross-country championships on Tuesday, January 11th. You will be aware that we have organised the local East Grinstead Primary Schools Championships for the last 30 years or so - races which take place in October. The successful Sussex-based athletes from this race then go on to represent East Grinstead in the Mid Sussex races – and this year the Mid Sussex race is to be held at East Court. We will mark the course out in the morning of January 11th and then help with the races in the early afternoon. The successful athletes in these Mid Sussex Championships will then go onto represent Mid Sussex in the Sussex Primary School Championships to be held later in the year in Brighton.
(Notre Dame School from Lingfield have produced a number of successful athletes in our own East Grinstead races – but as they are a Surrey school their athletes are not eligible for the Mid Sussex Championships or the Sussex Championships.)
Monday, December 13th
The snow and ice meant that last Thursday’s training at Imberhorne School had to be cancelled. Sorry that we were a bit late in telling you. However the Sunday morning group found the track OK yesterday and were able to train.
This coming week sees the last weights session of 2010 on Tuesday and the last Thursday evening session of 2010 at Imberhorne School – we hope you will all be wearing something Christmas-y. We will have two weeks off before we re-start in early January. However we are running a couple of extra East Court sessions during the school Christmas holidays – on the mornings of Thursday, December 23rd and Thursday, December 30th.
Full details of training over the next few weeks can be found in the diary section to the right of these notes.
Sunday, December 5th
With much of this week’s training cancelled because of the snow it was good to see 7 of our younger athletes turn up for today’s morning training at East Court. We managed to find enough space free from snow for them to have a good work out, together with the occasional throwing of snowballs.
Looking to this coming week we hope things will recover to allow normal training sessions to take place. Please note that this coming Sunday (December 12th) training will take place at Imberhorne School.
Wednesday, December 1st
Training at Imberhorne School on Thursday, December 2nd has been cancelled because of the snow. We’ll let you know about Sunday morning at East Court later in the week.
Senior Ladies and under 15 girls match on Saturday, August 7th
Now that we have received the full results for the match I can give you more details of our ladies and under 15 girls match last week. We had a few athletes missing for this trip to the track at Wormwood Scrubs, but were still able to fill most of the events we normally fill. In particular in the under 15 section two of our under 13s made their first appearance in this league – Natasha Barnes and Lois Drummie – to join fellow under 13 Abby Beswick, who has competed all season in this league.
Natasha followed up her win in the Sussex Under 13 league last Thursday evening with an excellent win with the heavier under 15 javelin – her best throw was 23.84 metres. And Chloe Hollamby made it a double first in the javelin with a throw of 17.67 metres. In the long jump Lois (a first year under 13) reached 4 metres for the first time with a jump of exactly 4 metres. Abby Beswick also jumped a new pb with 4.56 metres. The club under 13 record is 4.67 metres – will Abby break that record before the end of the season ?
Among the rest of the under 15 girls the only other first place came from Izzy Turnbull in the B string 800 metres with 2 minutes 42.0 seconds. Ellie Killick-Bird’s 1.45 metres in the high jump gave her second place in the A string high jump and Amanda Lord’s 12.91 metres gave her a second place in the B string discus. Hannah Peadon found another couple of centimetres to record a new pb of 7.27 metres for third in the A string shot and was again over 18 metres for third place in the A string discus. The sprints were rather hard work for our athletes with Chloe Hollamby and Izzy Turnbull doing best with a couple of third places in their 200 metres races.
The senior ladies found things rather tough in their events. We weren’t helped by an early injury to Cat Shin in the 100 metres, although Laura McGarty in her first appearance of 2010 did her best to fill some of the gaps. The only win for the senior ladies came in the high jump. Jo Wykes jumped 1.35 metres before she had to disappear for the 100 metres hurdles, but it was enough for first place in the B string to support Sarah Killick-Bird’s 1.45 metres for third place in the A string. The triple jump brought us a third (Tessa Martin 9.87 metres) and second (Laura 9.22 metres) and Jo Wykes earned a second place in the sprint hurdles B string. Otherwise it was a question of picking up what points we could, especially in the throws.
However the under 17 hurdlers continued their successful run in the league this season. Sarah Killick-Bird won the opening track event - the 300 hurdles - and later in the afternoon she and Amy Hewitt doubled up for two wins in the shorter 80 metres hurdles.
It wasn’t a great surprise to find that we couldn’t quite maintain the performance of the last two matches where we finished first and second. Thames Valley won the match on their home territory with Haywards Heath second. Ealing edged ahead of us in the last few events to leave us fourth in the match (out of the 8 teams competing). Overall in the league, with one match to come, we are lying third.
Our fifth and last match of 2010 is on Saturday, September 4th at Wimbledon. We hope to finish the season with lots of athletes.
Looking ahead
A quiet week ahead with normal training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. However those of you looking for competition will find some at the Horsham Open meeting next Sunday, August 22nd. First field events at mid-day and track events from 12.30. This is always a good meeting – so let’s see lots of you there.
Sunday, August 8th
Sussex Under 13 League on Thursday, August 5th
A good turn-out from our girls with 10 athletes able to compete, while we had 5 boys taking part. And a very encouraging performance from all those who took part as we finished third out of the 6 teams – our best performance this summer. Crawley were first with 202 points, Horsham second with 154 – then came us on 120, Haywards Heath 108 Worthing 103 and Chichester 92.
There was a good double act in the girls javelin from 2 athletes appearing for the first time– Natasha Barnes throwing 23.18 metres in the A string and Lucy Hatswell providing excellent support in the B string with 15.51 metres (Natasha also picked up a win in the B string discus.). We also had a double first in the girls long jump with Abby Beswick jumping a pb of 4.34 metres and Lois Drummie 3.74 metres. (Both girls went even further two days later in the ladies match at Wormwood Scrubs – 4.56 and 4.00 metres respectively.) Abby and Lois also earned second places in their sprint hurdles. Cydney Richardson picked up good points in the 75 metres and discus, but all the athletes worked hard for their points.
Among the boys Thomas Beswick’s javelin throwing continues to impress as he went over 20 metres for the first time with 20.89 metres. He also picked up a good B string first place in the shot to support an excellent second place in the A string from William Jefferies (6.69 metres). It was also good to see Joseph Domingues competing for the club for the first time in a couple of fast races.
The results for our own athletes will be put on the notice board at training.
The team have a final match on Sunday, September 5th at K2 in Crawley and we will be hoping to field full teams in both the boys and girls events – school holidays should be over by then.
Southern Womens and Under 15 girls match on Saturday, August 7th
We don’t have the individual results from yesterday’s match at Wormwood Scrubs. Rather to my surprise none of the teams seemed to be badly affected by school holidays. With the benefit of a home match Thames Valley won the match with 325 points – their third win out of the 4 matches. Haywards Heath were not far behind on 310.5. We couldn’t keep up with that and our 256 points wasn’t quite enough to hold off Ealing Southall & Middlesex whose score of 264 pushed us into fourth place.
I’ll give more details of individual performances when I get the full results. The team has one more match this season – on Saturday, September 4th at Wimbledon.
Looking ahead
With no more league matches until early September we have a relatively quiet period, although some of the coaches will be busy this Wednesday, August 11th at the Ashurstwood and Forest Row sports day. We will be organising some athletics coaching at Michael Hall school.
Sunday, August 1st
Senior Mens match on July 31st
With two first places and one second place in the previous three matches it was extremely disappointing to find so few athletes available for the last match of the season at Hastings, especially as we were facing the top two teams in our division. And the weather for the first half of the match seemed a perfect match for this sense of disappointment – thick cloud, cool wind and bits and pieces of drizzle. However the weather did pick up over the last couple of hours as the sun came out.
We had no athletes at all in three of the track events and there were no B string athletes in another 4 track events – and so most of the points we scored came from the throwers. Indeed our hammer throwers got us off to a good start with two first places – Phil Spivey going over 50 metres for the first time this year and Eddie Vermeer with 33.30 metres in the B string. And these first places were our only first places until the very last event of the day when Colin King’s 26.50 metres won him the B string discus. On the track Will Rodgers again looked good in some fast sprint races with two second places – his 23.0 in the 200 equalling his pb from earlier in the summer.
Not surprisingly we finished fourth of the four teams, although only two points below Epsom in third place – we were both a long way behind Eastbourne and Dartford.
Looking ahead
This coming Thursday, August 5th the Under 13 team have their third match of the season at Horsham. Holidays will inevitably take their toll on all the teams – why on earth there is fixture for this age group in the summer holidays I don’t understand. Janet Hollamby had made every effort to contact athletes. If you can be there then meet at the Broadbridge Heath track by 6.15.
And on Saturday, August 7th the ladies and under 15 girls team travel to the Linford Christie stadium in West London for their fourth match of the summer. The team is meeting at Imberhorne School by 9.45.
Sunday, July 25th
Young Athletes League on July 18th
Let’s catch up with last Sunday’s match at Wimbledon – the last of the season for the Young Athletes. We had Joe Trigg and Conall Freeman making their first appearances for the club in the under 13 boys section – and Conall provided our only first place in that age-group with a win in the B string 75 metres hurdles. Well done to both of them and also well done to Andrew Easton who was on the track most of the afternoon, including a rather warm 1500 metres run.
In the under 15 boys there were a couple of personal bests for Daniel Rusling in the high (1.40 metres) and long (4.66 metres) jumps which got him B string first places. Ryan Spivey won the sprint hurdles and, for once, we had 4 athletes – Daniel, Ryan, Matt Rieley and Barry Ademujimi – for the sprint relay.
Wilem Fields-Jewell was again our only under 17 athlete and this was his last Young Athletes match – he will be too old next year.
Perhaps the best performance of the day came in the under 13 girls 70 metres hurdles where Lois Drummie won the B string race in 13.0 seconds – more importantly she managed 3 strides between each hurdle for the first time. Abby Beswick had already won the A string race and the two of them combined again to win two first places in the long jump – Abby jumping 4.19 metres. Abby completed a good day with a second in the A string shot (6.89 metres) supported by Sarah Hennessy’s second place in the B string with 4.73 metres.
The under 15 girls again produced a number of good performances. Sarah Rusling was close to her best to win the long jump with 4.75 metres and a surprising win came at the end of the day for Chloe Hollamby with 18.08 metres in the javelin. The other throws saw good efforts from Hannah Peadon with a new best of 18.84 metres for second place in the discus with Amanda Lord’s 13.30 metres winning the B string. The same two athletes earned second places in the shot with Hannah’s 7.24 metres one centimetre down on her best. Ellie Killick-Bird and Izzy Turnbull earned second places in the 800 metres and Ellie followed this with a 1.45 metres high jump.
Our two under 17 ladies earned new personal bests in the 80 metres hurdles – Amy Hewitt 13.3 and Sarah Killick-Bird 13.4 – and they picked up two first places in the longer 300 metres hurdles.
Overall we finished fourth of the 7 teams – the match was won by Sutton with Walton second and Hercules Wimbledon in third place.
Full results from the match will be pinned on the notice board at the track.
Club Championships on July 15th and 20th
The club championships took place in good weather conditions and we had an excellent turn-out of athletes, helpers and parents. For example we had 15 entrants for the under 13 girls 75 metres (although only 5 for the long jump for the same group), 10 entrants for the under 15 girls javelin and 10 entrants for the under 13 boys long jump. These are some of the biggest fields we have had for the club championships.
The under 13 girls high jump turned out to be an exciting competition with the top three girls all reaching 1.20 metres or more. And the under 13 boys long jump saw some exciting twists and turns in the last round. Perhaps the best performance of the two evenings came in the under 13 girls javelin when Natasha Barnes threw 24.93 metres – this is about the 20th best throw this year in the UK by an under 13 girl.
However we can’t all win and it was good to see so many athletes competing in all of the 6 events available to them, even those events they don’t really like. So well done to Sarah Hennessy, Lois Drummie, Abby Beswick and Natasha Barnes who did all 6 events in the under 13 girls: to Adam Lord, Conall Freeman, James Telfer, Joe Trigg, Joseph Domingues, Michael Turnbull and Thomas Beswick in the under 13 boys who again did all 6 events; and Amanda Lord, Charlotte Bidgway, Chloe Hollamby, Ellie Killick-Bird, Izzy Turnbull, Sarah Rusling and Matt Rieley in the under 15 age-group.
The full results will be pinned on the notice board at the track but the top three placings were:
Under 13 girls 75 metres: 1st Abby Beswick 10.9 2nd Natasha Barnes 11.6 3rd Rachel Didon 11.7
Under 13 girls 800 metres: 1st Natasha Barnes 3:12.9 2nd Sophia Gabrielides 3:15.1 3rd Abby Beswick 3:17.4
Under 13 girls discus: 1st Natasha Barnes 16.65 2nd Abby Beswick 13.65 3rd Cydney Richardson 13.57
Under 13 girls javelin: 1st Natasha Barnes 24.93 2nd Lucy Hatswell 12.34 3rd Becky Saffery 11.81
Under 13 girls long jump: 1st Abby Beswick 4.28 2nd Lois Drummie 3.78 3rd Natasha Barnes 3.43
Under 13 girls high jump: 1st Abby Beswick 1.28 2nd Lois Drummie 1.23 3rd Lucy Bycroft 1.20
(Please note that as Natasha was not a club member at the time of the events she entered the events as a guest.)
Under 13 boys 75 metres: 1st Joseph Domingues 11.2 2nd Michael Turnbull 11.7 3rd Joe Trigg 11.7
Under 13 boys 800 metres: 1st Joseph Domingues 2:42.4 2nd James Telfer 2:57.6 3rd Joe Trigg 3:03.2
Under 13 boys discus: 1st Conall Freeman 18.91 2nd James Telfer 14.82 3rd Joseph Domingues 12.89
Under 13 boys javelin: 1st Thomas Beswick 18.67 2nd James Telfer 17.92 3rd Joe Trigg 15.27
Under 13 boys long jump: 1st Joseph Domingues 4.02 2nd Peter Jenkins 3.84 3rd James Telfer 3.81
Under 13 boys high jump: 1st James Telfer 1.30 2nd Josh Drummond 1.25 3rd Michael Turnbull 1.20
Under 15 girls 100 metres: 1st Chloe Hollamby 13.6 2nd Sarah Rusling 14.1 3rd Gemma Akehurst 14.7
Under 15 girls 800 metres: 1st Izzy Turnbull 2:42.2 2nd Ellie Killick-Bird 2:45.0 3rd Chloe Hollamby 2:52.2
Under 15 girls discus: 1st Amanda Lord 13.55 2nd Emily Deville 13.33 3rd Sarah Rusling 13.18
Under 15 girls javelin: 1st Sarah Rusling 17.90 2nd Emily Deville 14.66 3rd Chloe Hollamby 14.43
Under 15 girls long jump: 1st Sarah Rusling 4.56 2nd Izzy Turnbull 3.87 3rd Ellie Killick-Bird 3.81
Under 15 girls high jump: 1st Ellie Killick-Bird 1.35 2nd Sarah Rusling 1.30 3rd Amanda Lord 1.20
Looking ahead
This coming Saturday, July 31st sees the senior mens team in action for the last time this season when they travel to the seaside at Hastings. The team currently lie in fourth place in the league (out of 16 teams) but in this last match we are up against the top 2 teams (Eastbourne and Dartford) as well as Epsom & Ewell. As always much will depend on who is available – but it makes a nice change not to have to worry about relegation this year.
The following week sees the Under 13 team in action on Thursday, August 5th at Horsham, and the ladies and under 15 girls team at the Linford Christie Stadium on Saturday, August 7th.Monday, May 10th
The cold weather made this weekend’s County Championships rather unpleasant for both the athletes and for those judging the various events. It was good to see an increase in the number of our own athletes taking part – and an increase in the number of medals that we won.
Most of our athletes were at the Sussex Championships at Crawley’s K2 and within the first couple of hours on the Saturday morning we had our first two medals. In the senior ladies triple jump Cat Shin was not at her best after recent injury problems but her jump of 10.27 metres won her third place. In the under 20 Ladies triple jump Tessa Martin nearly spoiled her day with her first two jumps being fouls – but she qualified for an extra three jumps and won the event with a best jump of 10.18 metres.
Later in the sand-pit Ryan Spivey brought home a medal when his 4.90 metres earned him second place in the under 15 long jump – this at much the same time as Sarah Rusling’s 4.35 metres was winning a third place medal in the under 15 girls long jump in the Surrey Championships in Kingston.
A fifth medal came along when Hannah Peadon added a few more centimetres to her previous best in the shot putt – her 7.25 metres gaining her third place. And medal number six arrived in the under 20 ladies 100 metres when Yasmin Rashid came third in 13.0 seconds.
Near misses came from Abby Beswick in the under 13 minithon. She came fourth place overall but with a long jump of over 4 metres at last – 4.14 metres. Lois Drummie, a first year under 13, also took part in the minithon and performed well with 3.65 in the long jump and 5.65 in the shot.
The weather on Sunday might have been drier but it was probably colder. One of the first track events of this second day brought us another medal when Sarah Killick-Bird came third in the under 17 ladies 300 metres hurdles – her time of 51.4 seconds broke her own club record. Ryan Spivey added to the medal haul with another second place – this time in the 80 metres hurdles (12.9 seconds). And our final two medals came in the high jump events. Firstly Tom Gardner in the under 20 event where his only clearance of 1.90 metres gained him second place. And then Ryan Spivey in the under 15 high jump finally gained a first place with a personal best jump of 1.66 metres – Tom Gardner’s under 15 club record of 1.69 must be in danger.
Peter Jenkins and Liam Rieley both did well in the under 13 boys minithon, as did Liam’s bother Matt Rieley in the under 15 boys javelin in fourth place with 18.55 metres. Amy Hewitt was close to 5 metres again with 4.95 metres for fifth in the under 17 ladies long jump – she was also fifth in the 200 metres. Emily Deville and Chloe Hollamby both threw 16.93 metres for fifth and sixth place in the under 15 javelin and Eleanor Killick-Bird took a large chunk off her previous best 800 metres when running 2 minutes 38.4 seconds in the under 15 girls event. And Alex Pownall improved on his previous bests with 5.19 metres in the long jump and 11.35 in the triple jump.
And from Kingston came news of two new bests for Daniel Rusling in the Surrey Championships with 4.52 metres in the long jump and 1.35 metres in the high jump.
Looking ahead
This Tuesday evening we have invited parents of our junior athletes to come along to Imberhorne – not to do the training but to see what their children do when they come training. It will be an opportunity for parents to talk to the coaches and to the club’s administrators. The session will last a little longer than normal – from 7 to about 8.15. Senior athletes will train as normal but mainly out on the field.
This coming weekend sees the senior mens team in action in their second league match of the season at Woking against Crawley, Horsham and London AC. The team will hope for a few more athletes for this match, although it will again be a difficult match. The Young Athletes team – for school years 6 to 11 – are due to have their second match although final details are not yet known. We will keep you informed on the website and at training.
Monday, May 3rd
After the friendly weather we had for the ladies match last week it has been rather unkind for this weekend’s matches. In fact the weather for the mens match at Sutcliffe Park on Saturday wasn’t too bad. We must have been the only place in the South of England which didn’t see any rain on Saturday. Lots of dark clouds from time to time and quite cool when the sun disappeared. But it kept dry. But for the Sunday match at Sutton for the Young Athletes the weather was miserable – heavy rain for the first two hours followed by a strong cold wind.
Back to the mens match on Saturday, which was rather marred by an accident to Graham Taylor. Graham did the London Marathon last weekend and started the mens match with a first place in the B string pole vault, as well as helping in the hammer and the shot. However in the 110 metres hurdles Graham fell awkwardly and broke his wrist. After help from the first aid people at the track he was taken away to hospital. We wish Graham a full recovery but we know it will take time. For those of you who don’t know Graham he won’t mind me telling you that he is 58 years old !!
The mens team was rather short on athletes with many not available, although the position was helped by the late availability of Gareth and Scott Owens. They secured an excellent double first in the high jump with Gareth clearing an outstanding 1.93 metres – the third best jump by one of our athletes. Gareth also helped in the javelin and 1500 metres while Scott long-jumped well and also did the 400 metres. In his first match for us Will Rodgers also produced some excellent results. A win in the B string 100 metres was followed by a winning 12.41 metres triple jump – the step phase, which he has been working hard on, really flowed – and then he was just pipped in the last few yards in the 200 metres. Phil Spivey won the hammer as usual, but surprised himself by making it a double first with Graham Taylor in the pole vault. You can find the full results by clicking on here. The gaps you will see meant that – despite the above excellent performances and the whole-hearted work by the other athletes – we were going to struggle. And unfortunately we ended up fourth against teams who managed to fill many more events than we were able to do.
The Young Athletes match suffered very much from the weather, although the indoor facilities at Sutton were used for many of the field events – but the track people had to do their events outside where the wind was blowing strongly into the faces of the sprinters. We had a reasonable number of athletes available with many of the under 13s taking part in their first match for the club – well done to them. I’ll put up the full results when we have them. Overall we came third out of the 7 clubs performing and that represents a good performance. It was good to see Hannah Peadon going over 7 metres in the shot for the first time, while Sarah Rusling high-jumped 1.40 metres – both of these indoors. Ryan Spivey did a good 1.60 metres in the high jump – his event taking place outside in the wind and the rain. But all of the athletes who battled with the conditions deserve praise.
| Southern Mens League | Match: | 1 | ||||
| Venue: | Sutcliffe Park | Date: | 01-May | |||
| A string | B string | |||||
| Name | Posn | Perf | Name | Posn | Perf | |
| 100m | Lincoln Campbell | 4th | 12.3 | Will Rodgers | 1st | 12.0 |
| 200m | Will Rodgers | 3rd | 23.8 | Lincoln Campbell | 3rd | 25.1 |
| 400m | Tim Ivorson | 3rd | 56.4 | Scott Owens | 3rd | 59.0 |
| 800m | Wilem Fields-Jewell | 4th | 2:11.4 | Lance Quirico | 4th | |
| 1500m | Gareth Owens | 4th | 5:29.6 | Lance Quirico | 4th | 6:11.0 |
| 5000m | Lance Quirico | 4th | 21:06.0 | |||
| 3000SC | ||||||
| 110H | ||||||
| 400H | ||||||
| LJ | Scott Owens | 3rd | 5.55 | Alex Pownall | 3rd | 5.10 |
| TJ | Will Rodgers | 1st | 12.41 | |||
| PV | Phil Spivey | 1st | 2.60 | Graham Taylor | 1st | 2.20 |
| HJ | Gareth Owens | 1st | 1.93 | Scott Owens | 1st | 1.75 |
| Shot | Phil Spivey | 2nd | 10.31 | Graham Taylor | 4th | 7.94 |
| Discus | Phil Spivey | 3rd | 29.60 | |||
| Hammer | Phil Spivey | 1st | 48.80 | Graham Taylor | 4th | 17.17 |
| Javelin | Gareth Owens | 3rd | 33.52 | |||
| 4*100m | disqualified | Lincoln, Tim, Alex, Will | ||||
| 4*400m | 2nd | 4:05.2 | Alex, Scott, Gareth, Tim | |||
| Match Result | ||||||
| Cambridge Harriers | ||||||
| Bracknell | ||||||
| Tunbridge Wells | ||||||
| East Grinstead | 58 | |||||
Sunday, April 25th |
This coming week
The coming weekend sees two league matches. On Saturday, May 1st the Senior Mens team start their season with a match at Sutcliffe Park in Eltham. They compete against Cambridge Harriers, Bracknell and Tunbridge Wells in what looks like a difficult opening match. On Sunday, May 2nd the Young Athletes team for school years 6 to 11 have their first match – although the venue is not yet known.
To All Members
I have had considerable problems with my computer lately and, as a result, lost all my e-mail address books. So I have built up a new EGAC Members e-mail address book and am testing it out. I would appreciate it if you could acknowledge that you have received this e-mail. Please also let me know if there is a more appropriate e-mail address that I should be using.
Annual Membership
Many of you have already renewed your membership as at 1st April. However if you haven't yet renewed could I ask you to do so by the end of April. Fees are £26 if you are in full-time education and £31 if you aren't. (Special family membership fees are available - ask Jenny Medcalf if you would like to know more.) These fees include an amount of £5 that we have to pay to UK Athletics. Please note that if you do not pay fairly quickly we may not be able to renew your membership.
Summer's nearly here
Just a reminder that the competitive athletics season is not far away. This coming Saturday, April 24th the Senior Ladies and under 15 girls team have their first league match at Perivale. All athletes that have been selected for the match have been contacted by now. If you haven't heard anything and would like to take part in the match please let Jill Ely know on 01342 314323.
The Senior Mens team start the following Saturday, May 1st with a match at Sutcliffe Park in South East London. But the match that will involve many more of our members will take place on Sunday, May 2nd at Wimbledon with a match for everybody in school years 6 up to 11. Further details of this match will soon be available.
Your coaches and club officials wish you a successful summer season and hope to see lots of personal bests - otherwise known as PBs.
(Can we just remind you that we expect our members to compete in most of our league matches. If you are unable to do so without good reason, we may not be willing to renew your membership in 2011.)
Training on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Just a reminder that training continues on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at Imberhorne School and will do so until the end of the summer.
Any questions or queries arising from this newsletter should be addressed to me.
Lester Medcalf.
Sunday, April 18th This coming week
Sunday, April 11th This coming week sees training as normal, but with an additional all-day Training Day on Wednesday, April 14th at Imberhorne School for our junior athletes. Each athlete will do 5 different events during the day. The day, which will cost athletes £3, starts at 9.30 and will finish at about 4.30. There are still some places available – if you’d like to come then contact Lester Medcalf. Tuesday, April 6th. I have some results for you from a couple of recent Open Meetings, but before I do that I can bring you news of further success in indoor athletics. In the UK Masters Championships held at Lee Valley Lincoln Campbell earned himself a bronze medal in the over 45 60 metres final in a time of 7.49 seconds. We have had a successful indoor season with a number of excellent performances. But we are now getting towards the proper season for track and field athletics – the outdoor summer season. At this time of year it’s too much to hope for proper summer weather but conditions haven’t been too bad for the Crawley and Tonbridge Open meetings. Last week at Crawley (March 28th) a number of our younger athletes took part. Sarah Rusling won the under 15 long jump with 4.45 metres and also ran a strong 150 metres in 21.60 seconds. She completed a good day’s work by equalling her best of 1.30 metres in the high jump. Chloe Hollamby also did the 150 metres and in her race she recorded 21.85 seconds. Both Gemma Francis (3.97 metres) and Abby Beswick (3.89 metres) came close to the 4 metres barrier in the long jump. Daniel Rusling won his 300 metres race in 46.36 seconds and Wilem Fields-Jewell was close to his best time in the 800 metres in 2 minutes 15.13 seconds. The Tonbridge Easter Monday (April 5th) meeting was held in a rather blustery wind which blew across the long and triple jump runways. Alex Pownall marked his first appearance in club athletics with a long jump of 4.77 metres and a triple jump of 10.14 metres. Tessa Martin started her season with 4.62 metres in the long and 9.80 metres in the triple. Cat Shin produced a good 10.57 metres with her first triple jump, but wasn’t able to improve on that. Amy Hewitt found the wind awkward in her hurdles race but later produced 4.49 metres in the long jump, while younger brother Will ran in the under 13 600 metres race – though I don’t have the details of his performance. Looking ahead A reminder that we carry on training at Imberhorne School on both Tuesday and Thursday evenings during the school Easter holidays. We are holding a training day at Imberhorne on Wednesday, April 14th from 9.30 to 4.30. Places are still available. If you would like to come then please speak to Lester Medcalf – there is a charge of £3 for the day. And a reminder that the league season for our various teams is getting ever closer. The senior ladies and under 15 girls team have their first match in a couple of weeks – Saturday, April 24th. And the senior men and the Young Athletes league start the week after on May 1st and 2nd respectively. We now have news of the National Under 20 Indoor Championships from Birmingham. Tom Gardner earned himself a bronze medal with third place in the high jump. He also jumped a personal best and beat the 2.00 metres he jumped in the same competition last year - this year he cleared 2.03 metres. Get out a tape measure and see how high that is. So congratulations Tom - well done.
Tom will be jumping at the Sussex Indoor Championships this weekend.
Sunday, March 21st A quiet week behind us, but a busier week ahead of us – as the summer season gets closer and closer. In particular we see the club’s Annual General Meeting on Wednesday evening at Imberhorne School. The meeting will be preceded by the presentation of medals and trophies for our successful athletes from 2009. The Presentation part of the evening will begin at 7.30, and we expect this to be completed by about 8pm. In addition we start Tuesday evening training at Imberhorne for those who normally train at 7.30. The following Tuesday (March 30th) training will also be available to the junior athletes who normally train at 7.00. There are further signs next weekend that summer is coming. Firstly the clocks go forward next weekend – this means that we will it will be lighter for longer in the evenings. And secondly there is an Open Meeting next Sunday (March 28th) at Crawley’s K2. There will be further Open Meetings as we go through April and all athletes should try and do one or two Open Meetings before the league season starts. And the league season starts in just under 5 weeks for the Womens Team (which includes under 15 girls). The summer athletics season will soon be here. Sunday, March 14th After last weekend’s activity it has been a much quieter week. However there is one performance from last week that I need to catch up on. Cat Shin’s triple jump at Cardiff last weekend was 10.65 metres while representing Bath University. However there have been a couple of important mailings during this week. If you haven’t had them then please contact Lester Medcalf on lestermedcalf@btinternet.com. Firstly you should have all received details of the club’s Annual General Meeting at Imberhorne School on Wednesday, March 24th. Immediately before this meeting we will present the club’s various awards for the 2009 summer season. The second mailing was to the Thursday evening junior training group. This mailing is to tell you about a Training Day which we will be running during the school Easter holidays – on Wednesday, April 14th at Imberhorne School. Again if you haven’t had this mailing please contact Lester Medcalf on lestermedcalf@btinternet.com. Lester Medcalf has had some recent computer problems. If you have sent him an e-mail using lester@egac.co.uk in the last two weeks he will not have received it – his other e-mail address as above is OK. So if you did use lester@egac.co.uk can you please send your e-mail again to the btiinternet address. Monday, March 8th We had a successful couple of days at the Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships over this last weekend at Sutton. Tom Gardner got us off to a good early start when he won the Sussex Under 20 high jump with 1.95 metres – he’ll be a bit disappointed that he didn’t make 2 metres. The Rusling twins have a keen long jump rivalry and at the close of last season Sarah’s best was a little better than Daniel’s. Daniel was the first to jump in the Surrey Under 15 boys event and he took the opportunity to overtake Sarah with a best jump of 4.48 metres for 6th place. Would Sarah be able to respond when the Surrey under 15 girls event came along a bit later ? Well yes she could as she jumped 4.56 metres to take the lead in the Rusling household – however even better news was that this enabled Sarah to win the Surrey title. In the last jumping event of the first day another medal came our way in the Sussex Under 13 girls event when Abby Beswick jumped 3.99 metres to come third – another centimetre would have been great. Our three sprinters were less successful, with none of them progressing from their first round races. The Sunday saw us with only two athletes, but they both brought home a medal. Emily Deville was first up in the Sussex Under 15 girls shot putt where her 5.54 metres gained her third place. Later in the day Tessa Martin, who is now an under 20 lady, came second in the triple jump with 9.93 metres. Meanwhile in Sheffield Ryan Spivey was taking part in the National Under 15 combined events championships and he brought home a medal as well – a third place bronze medal. An excellent achievement. His 5 individual performances were as follows – 60 metres hurdles in 9.86 metres, a 5.12 metres long jump and 1.63 metres in the high jump. However the shot putt saw him over 10 metres for the first time with 10.07 metres and another personal best came in the gruelling final event – 2 minutes 21.99 seconds in the 800 metres. This gave him total points of 2375. Cat Shin was competing for Bath University in Cardiff but I don’t have any details as yet. Sunday, February 28th I need to catch up with last week’s Sussex Cross-Country league match at Lancing Manor. The senior mens team was missing a few athletes but we still had 5 people running. Simon Moore was our first athlete to cross the finishing line in 43rd place (34 minutes and 51 seconds). Lance Quirico followed in 63rd place (37:06) and then we had three athletes in the 80s. Tim Best celebrated his 40th birthday in 81st place (40:42) and then Tim Ivorson in 85th and Graham Taylor just behind in 86th place. All this meant that the A team came 6th in division 2 of the league, the place they have held for the last 3 or 4 years. This ensures another year in division 6 when the 2010/11 winter season starts. In the under 13 age-groups we had four athletes making their first appearance in the league – we had a number of our more usual runners on school ski-ing trips. In the girls race Emma Garner and Lauren Nightingale took to the mud for the first time and ran sensible races to finish 31st and 32nd respectively. While for the boys it was Peter Jenkins and Liam Rieley – who both ran in the primary schools cross-country race at East Court last October – who tasted club cross-country racing for the first time. Keeping each other company they finished in 30th and 31st places respectively.
I also have some indoor news. Catherine Shin was representing Bath University in a match in Birmingham on Wednesday and she added a couple of centimetres to her previous best triple jump with 10.75 metres. And Tom Gardner has been competing in the high jump in the National Under 20 indoor championships, again in Birmingham. However at the time of writing these notes I don’t have any details. This coming weekend (March 6th and 7th) sees the Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships at the Sutton Indoor Arena and we hope those of our athletes competing have a successful time. Ryan Spivey will be travelling slightly further for his weekend activity as he is taking part in the National Under 15 Combined Events Championships in Sheffield – again we wish him well. For those not competing there will be Sunday morning training at Imberhorne School. Sunday, February 21st First there’s a bit of catching up to do. Last weekend (February 14th) saw the Southern Counties veterans indoor championships taking place at Lee Valley. In the male over 45 category Lincoln Campbell ran in the 60 metres and 200 metres. Second place in the 200 metres in 25.26 seconds was good going but was bettered by his gold-medal winning performance in the shorter sprint which he won in 7.54 seconds. The Sussex Cross-country League had its last match yesterday at Lancing, but I don’t have all the results to hand. I’ll let you know when I hear more. Looking ahead February 24th is the closing date for entries to the Sussex Indoor Championships – so please send the forms NOW. A sign that the summer season is getting ever closer is that the Sunday morning groups who have been training on the hills at East Court since the end of September will move to Imberhorne School from next Sunday. This Sunday training at Imberhorne will continue through March and April in preparation for the summer season.
Sunday, February 13th This coming Saturday, February 20th sees the last Sussex Cross-Country league match of the season – the match will take place at Lancing Manor. The fact that it is the last match of the season can only mean that the summer track and field season is getting ever closer. A reminder that, even though the coming week is half-term week, all our training sessions go ahead as normal – in particular the Thursday session at Imberhorne. And another reminder of the Sussex Indoor Championships which are to be held on March 6th and 7th at the Sutton Indoor Arena. Entries have to be in by February 24th.
Sunday, February 6th We’ve had a quiet week. All the training groups went ahead as normal, including the new Saturday morning session for long and triple jumpers. Indoors Tom Gardner went to the indoor track at Eton and came away with a win in the high jump. Last week at Lee Valley he jumped 1.90 metres but this week he went higher with 1.95 metres – and came extremely close to going over 2.00 metres. The coming week All the normal activities this coming week. And a reminder, ahead of half-term week, that all the sessions continue over the school break. This includes the Tuesday weights session at Sackville and the Thursday evening sessions at Imberhorne School.
Sunday, January 31st News from indoor meetings held over last weekend (January 23rd and 24th) reached us too late to include in last week’s news. A couple of weeks after telling you about Ryan Spivey’s success in the South of England Under 15 pentathlon I can now tell you about another gold medal performance – this time in the British Over 35 indoor pentathlon championships held at Lee Valley. Wayne Gadd was our successful athlete here and he lead from the first event. 9.75 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles was followed by a 5.26 metres long jump and 9.11 metres in the shot. This was followed by the high jump with 1.60 metres with the 800 metres the final event of a busy and gruelling day. A time of just over 3 minutes and 10 seconds was enough to give Wayne the gold medal. Meanwhile Ryan and his dad Phil were busy down in Bath in an Open meeting. Ryan did 5 events. He just beat his previous 60 metres sprint best with 8.46 seconds and followed this with 9.65 seconds in the final of the 60 metres hurdles. His long jump of 5.20 metres and shot putt of 9.48 metres were a few centimetres down on his best, but an excellent high jump of 1.63 metres beat his previous best by 5 centimetres. Phil was also active down in Bath with 4.75 metres in the long jump and 1.41 in the high jump. He added 2.77 metres in the pole vault but his best performance came in the shot where he threw 11.25 metres – the first time he has gone over 11 metres since joining the club. Ryan and Tom Gardner were also in action last Thursday evening in the Horsham indoor meeting but at the moment I don’t have any details of how they did.
The coming week Usual activities this coming week. Let’s hope the weather looks after us. Sunday, January 24th Sussex Cross-Country League The third meeting of the Sussex Cross-Country League was due to be held on January 9th, but the snow and ice put paid to that. So they re-convened last Saturday afternoon (January 16th) at Bexhill on a surprisingly muddy course. The girls under 13 race was the first off and our three girls were not looking forward to the mud. However after a slow start they began to move through the field. Eleanor Killick-Bird was our first runner home in 16th place in 13 minutes and 46 seconds with Chloe Hollamby a minute behind her in 25th place. Gemma Francis wasn’t 100% well but struggled round the course in 15 minutes and 30 seconds for 36th place. The senior men had 6 runners taking part. Tony Crossley (34 minutes and 30 seconds) was 50th with Simon Moore two places behind. Lance Quirico was the third finisher in 82nd place in 39 minutes and 19 seconds and Tim Best completed the A team in 92nd place in just over 42 minutes. Graham Taylor and Tim Ivorson completed the race a little bit further behind. The results meant that the A team maintained their 6th position in the second division of the league. The fourth and last race will be held on Saturday, February 20th in Lancing. The coming week We look forward to another week free of snow and ice with the normal training sessions. It was good to see the healthy numbers at training at Imberhorne School last Thursday.
Sunday, January 17th Another week of cancellations except for the Sunday morning session which we moved to Imberhorne School – East Court was very very wet but the snow had disappeared at Imberhorne. And with the sun shining on a mild morning it made for good training conditions. The weather looks as if we will be kinder to us this week – and we expect that all our sessions will go ahead this week. Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships We now have information about this year’s Sussex and Surrey Indoor Championships. The two counties get together to hold both of their championships at the Sutton Indoor Arena. This year the championships will be held on Saturday, March 6th and Sunday, March 7th. These championships are open to everybody to enter and your coaches will give you more information over the next few weeks. It would be great to get a large number competing. 13th January 2010 Due to snow and ice there will be no training this Thursday 14th of January at Imberhorne School.
(We will wait until the weekend to decide if Sunday morning training can go ahead at East Court.)
Here is some excellent news about one of our athletes. Ryan Spivey entered the South of England Under 15 Indoor Pentathlon championships at Lee Valley in North London last Sunday (January 10th). And I am pleased to tell you that Ryan came first. Included in the 5 events Ryan produced a couple of personal bests - in the long jump he went over 5 metres for the first time with 5.25 metres, and in the shot he threw 9.50 metres.
So congratulations to Ryan. In March he will take part in the UK Indoor Pentathlon Championships in Sheffield.
January 2010 The Sussex Cross-Country Championships were held on Saturday on a sunny but very cold day in Brighton’s Stanmer Park. Much of the course had benefited from the effects of the sun, although some parts were still frozen. The under 13 girls race was first and we had two athletes taking part in a race over 3,000 metres. Gemma Francis finished 28th in a time of 16 minutes and 53 seconds with Eleanor Killick-Bird 33rd in 17 minutes and 28 seconds. We only had one runner in the mens race – Tony Crossley. Tony is twice the age of many of the athletes taking part and 67th place out of 109 finishers was a good result. This race was held over 12,000 metres (about 7 and a half miles) and Tony finished in 55 minutes and 46 seconds.
Looking ahead After the Christmas/New Year break we start training again this week. The weights group re-start on Tuesday evening at Sackville School and we will be back at Imberhorne School on Thursday evening. The weather is due to remain very cold all week and so you should remember to wear plenty of warm clothing at Imberhorne – gloves and a hat are recommended as well as your normal training clothes. Our cross-country runners find themselves back in action this coming Saturday when the third match in this season’s Sussex Cross-Country League takes place in Bexhill.
Calendar for this week Tuesday – weights group at Sackville School Saturday – Sussex Cross-Country League at Bexhill Sunday – East Court training 10.30 to 11.45
Sunday, November 29th, 2009 (4:45pm) The Sussex Cross-Country League match at Plumpton saw a wet course, although one that was not quite as muddy as had been feared. The senior men were able to field two teams of 4 athletes each. Tony Crossley was our first runner home in 60th place (36 minutes and 55 seconds) with Ben Ivorson 69th (37:45) just ahead of Simon Moore in 72nd place (38:01). Lance Quirico was the fourth runner in the A team in 99th place (40:27). The B team's runners were Steve Warner (123rd), Tim Best (124th), Graham Taylor (132nd) and Tim Ivorson (135th). In earlier races Gemma Francis was 22nd and Chloe Hollamby 31st in the under 13 girls race, while Izzy Turnbull was 13th in the under 15 girls race. Earlier in the week I was able to attend a Sportshall indoor athletics
match at Sackville School between 5 of the local primary schools.
This was organised by Jake Endersby from Sackville School and some
of our own members who go to Sackville School were there to help
the primary school children. It was a fantastic 90 minutes as the
primary school children took part in a number of relay races, and
then in a range of field events designed for an indoor sports hall.
The noise coming from the children as they cheered on their team-mates
bounced round the hall. The enthusiasm that was shown was hugely
encouraging - how as a club could we harness that enthusiasm ?? Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 (9:00pm) This coming Saturday, November 28th sees the second round of matches in this year's Sussex Cross-Country League. This fixture takes place at Plumpton and is normally a rather muddy course - after all the recent rain another muddy afternoon looks likely. Further information about this match is available from Lance Quirico for the senior mens team and Alf Smart for the other age-groups. We are having to put a temporary hold on new athletes joining our
junior group for Thursday training as the numbers currently attending
are as many as we are able to handle. We will put any new prospective
new athletes from school years 6, 7 or 8 onto a waiting list - and
will contact them when space becomes available. Monday, November 16th, 2009 (8:30pm) Last Thursday saw the first bad weather of this year's winter training when we had a wild wet and windy night at Imberhorne School. Nevertheless we had 20 junior athletes and15 older athletes turn up for the sessions in which everybody got soaking wet. Let's hope we all got a nice hot bath when we got home. In contrast to the above (and the continued bad weather on both Friday and Saturday) the Sunday morning groups at East Court had some warm sunshine to train in - and there were 11 athletes in Alf Smart and Malcolm Green's group. Looking ahead This coming Friday, November 20th sees the under 13 athletes from
the summer of 2009 (and some of the under 15 athletes) getting together
for an end-of-season celebration. Details available from Janet Hollamby. Monday, November 9th, 2009 (8:00pm) Six of the club's road runners took part in the Reigate Priory Cross Country Relay yesterday on a glorious sunny autumn day and finishing in 27th place. This is the first time in many years that we have been able to field a team. The runners were Simon Moore (16 minutes and 40 seconds), Dan Thomas (21:08), Tim Best (19:23), Lance Quirico (18:07), Steve Warner (20:15) and Tony Crossley (17:02) - making a total time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 35 seconds. So well done to them and let's hope for similar numbers at the
next Sussex Cross-Country league match at the end of November. Sunday, November 1st, 2009 (7:00pm) I'm writing this just after coming back from this morning's training session at East Court - pouring with rain and horribly windy. While I sat in the car 6 of our younger athletes - Hannah and Ellie Peadon, Izzy and Michael Turnbull, Amy Hewitt and Sarah Killick-Bird - together with Izzy and Michael's mum and dad went for a 30 minute run through the East Court woods. They all arrived back with a healthy glow and very wet feet. Well done to all of them - and when you produce some personal bests next summer you will be able to look back on today as one of the main reasons. While we expected last week's half-term school holidays to have
an effect on the numbers at Imberhorne School for Thursday's training
we were surprised at how many of you couldn't be there. Maybe you
assumed we wouldn't be training…… well we were. Sunday, October 25th, 2009 (8:00pm) The first of this season's Brooks Sussex Cross-Country league matches took place on Saturday at Goodwood on the South Downs. The races for the young athletes took place in a very heavy mist - so thick was that a Land Rover with all its lights on had to drive round in front of the runners to show them where to go. By the time the adult athletes were running the mist had disappeared and so the older athletes were able to run in reasonable conditions. We don't have the full results yet. We had Gemma Francis in the under 13 girls race, Michael Turnbull in the under 13 boys race while Izzy Turnbull and Charlotte Bidgway ran in the under 15 girls race. In the very difficult conditions all four athletes finished their races and are to be congratulated on doing so - especially for Charlotte who ran for us for the first time. The other three junior athletes competed for us regularly through the summer. The senior men found themselves well down on numbers. In the last match last winter we had 8 athletes. But for a variety of reasons we were only able to field three athletes - Tim Best, Tim Ivorson and Graham Taylor. Looking ahead Many of you will be on half-term holidays this week (and some of
you may be on holiday). However training continues as normal with
weight training on Tuesday, Imberhorne School on Thursday and East
Court on Sunday morning. Sunday, October 18th, 2009 (7:00pm) Our road-runners have been busy over the last few weeks as they prepare for the winter season ahead. So far conditions have been good, but we know that rougher conditions lie ahead in the coming months. The Lewes Downland 10 mile race saw 5 of our athletes taking part. Tony Crossley was our first runner to finish in 68 minutes and 58 seconds - first vet 55 and 30th overall. Lance Quirico next in 74 minutes and 17 seconds for 70th place with Tim Best in just over 86 minutes. Steve Warner, back racing after breaking his shoulder, was round in 89 minutes and Graham Taylor completed the squad with a time of 97 minutes. Dan Thomas made his first appearance in club colours in the London Royal Parks Half Marathon - a race taking the runners through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, St James Park and Green Park. Dan set a new personal best of 1 hour and 53 minutes. More locally the Forest Row 10 kilometres race saw Lance Quirico in fourth place with Colin Day close behind in sixth place (with a new pb of 41 minutes and 52 seconds). Tim Best was 16th in just under 47 minutes. Looking ahead This coming Saturday the Brooks Sussex Cross-Country League starts
with the first match at Goodwood. The senior men will be well represented,
we hope, and Alf Smart will be encouraging younger athletes to take
part. Sunday, October 11th, 2009 (7:20pm) 2009 Primary Schools Cross Country Races Another hugely successful and enjoyable afternoon at East Court for this year's East Grinstead Primary Schools Cross-Country Championships with students from Sackville and Imberhorne Schools helping the club to make the afternoon run smoothly. Cloud and occasional very light rain meant that it wasn't as warm as we have had in many of the recent years - and probably made for better running conditions for the athletes. The full results can be found here and you will see that it was again Notre Dame who came out on top in both the boys and girls races. So very well done to them. Two of our own athletes earned fourth places - Dannique Duggan in the girls race running for Lingfield School, and Peter Jenkins in the boys race running for St Marys. And a big vote of thanks to our own members who made everything happen as well as it did. Sunday, October 4th, 2009 (6:15pm) This coming Sunday, October 11th sees us again organising the East Grinstead Primary Schools Cross-Country championships at East Court. The girls race is at 2pm with the boys starting half an hour later at 2.30. We need help throughout the day, starting at 10 am when we begin to mark out the course. Then the athletes will start to arrive shortly after 1 o'clock and we need helpers to make sure the athletes have got their numbers and are ready for their races. And a number of marshals need to be in place round the course to make sure the runners know where they have to go. This is always a great afternoon and let's hope the weather is on our side again. We will aim to get the full results on the website by 8pm next Sunday. We have over 130 entrants in both races. Before the 2009 summer season disappears some late action from Exeter where Ryan Spivey included two big personal bests in a late season pentathlon - 4.83 metres in the long jump and 1.57 in the high jump. Looking ahead Training is now following its winter pattern. This Tuesday, October 4th the weight training group start their winter work at Sackville School, starting at 7.30pm. Normal Thursday training at Imberhorne School follows and the Sunday groups at East Court will still train even though some of the coaches will be busy with the preparations for the Primary School Cross-Country. Looking further ahead the club's Presentation Evening to celebrate
the successes of the 2009 summer season will be held on Wednesday,
November 18th at Imberhorne School. More information in the
next couple of weeks. Monday, September 28th, 2009 (8:45pm) The 2009 summer track and field season is just about at its end
with the Sussex (and Surrey) Combined Events Championships bringing
the competitive season to its end. Phil Spivey was competing in the veteran men's pentathlon and after a reasonable javelin throw an injury forced him out of the competition as he was preparing for the long jump. And finally Tom Gardner took on 10 events spread over the two days in his under 20 decathlon. Tom spent some time two days before the event learning the basics of pole vaulting and he did well to come fourth in the event. His pole vault pb is now better than his high jump pb. Away from these championships Tessa Martin took part in an Open Meeting at Twickenham and set a new club record in the under 17 ladies' triple jump. Her 10.52 metres beating Heather Driscoll's record from 2001 by one centimetre ! Looking ahead Training is now moving to its winter pattern. This coming Thursday, October 1st we will see a number of new school year 6 members coming along for the first time, joining in with our existing under 13 athletes from 7 pm to 8 pm. At the same time year 9 and 10 athletes will move to the later 7.30 to 8.45 session. Next Sunday, October 4th sees the start of winter training at East Court. We meet at the mansion in East Court for a 10.30 start. While all athletes are welcome the training is intended for those wishing to take their athletics seriously, and wishing to train all of the winter, regardless of the weather !! A reminder of the primary schools cross-country races to be held
on Sunday, October 11th at East Court. Your help is needed
- in the morning getting the course ready and then in the early
afternoon in helping the various school teams get ready for the
races. Plus we will be running a tea bar for athletes and parents.
So please do your best to help us on the day. Sunday, September 13th, 2009 (6:15pm) The ladies and under 15 girls team started the season at Wimbledon at the end of April and finished it last week at Wimbledon. With wins in the previous 4 matches we wanted to be greedy and make it a clean sweep. And with 7 senior athletes and 9 juniors we had our biggest team for some time. The juniors in particular were able to field A and B strings in all 10 of their individual events - I cannot ever remember that happening before although I suspect one or two older members will remember previous occasions. The seniors again couldn't fill the longer races but we filled all the throws and jumps. Our full results can be found here. The highlights for me came from another strong run by Izzy Turnbull in the junior 800 metres and Hannah Peadon's junior discus throw win. Plus Sarah Killick-Bird's high jump pb, Chloe Hollamby in the 100 metres and a new pb from Sarah Rusling in the high jump - if only we can get Sarah to do the flop rather than scissors !!! All in all a good afternoon and we came out on top by a substantial margin to complete an excellent season for the ladies and girls. Hannah McGarty started the season by doing the first throw in the first event in April and finished it by running the last leg of the 4 x 400 metres relay in this last meeting in September. The Under 13 team had their Sussex league final on Sunday at K2 in Crawley. We had 9 girls, but only 4 boys, and it was good to see the encouragement our athletes gave each other. Full results are available here. Looking ahead With the track and field season more or less at its end we are now training only on Thursday evenings. Many of the senior athletes are taking a rest at the moment and will start their winter work in October. The Tuesday evening weights sessions starts at Sackville School on Tuesday, October 6th and the East Court Sunday morning sessions re-start on October 4th. And while we are talking about October the primary schools cross-country races will be held on Sunday, October 11th and - as ever - we will need help with this event. In the morning getting the course ready and then in the early afternoon in helping the various school teams get ready for the races. Plus we will be running a tea bar for athletes and parents. So please do your best to help us on the day.
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