Surrey Combined Events

1500m & 5000M Champs

With additional lighting and electronic timing Track Coulsdon was ready to host some great races in our 1500m and 5000m club championship on Thursday 7th. September (writes Anne Roden).

The evening started with two 1500m races. The first race was won by Mackenzie Bull in a new PB of 5.18. He was followed home by Katie Jefferson in 5.34.1 and Ian Cotton in 5.41.8.The second race was won by Sam Sheppard who took the junior championship for the second year in a time of 4.22.7. He was followed home by Harley Norman from Epsom and Ewell who ran 4.24.2, Alex Lyne in 3^rd in 4.25.6, Toby Phillips in 4^th in 4.26.4, both U20s, and then a fine run by Rowan Fuss U15 in 5th in 4.26.8. Felix Vaughan from Reigate was next in with a time of 4.29.2. There were solid runs from U15s,  Nick Smith, Jack Burton and Joe Seal who filled the next slots, and then Thomas Porter who ran a new PB of 4.38.3.  It was great to see Gianluca Ercolano running and he was next to finish in 4.41.2, hopefully we will see him competing on the country this season. Owen Waite was next in with a new PB of 4.50. Brandan Morrell was the first U13 boy and although he was disappointed with his time on the night he has had a very good track and field season.

As with the 1500m there were two 5000m races. The first race was won with a strong run by Paul Mitchell V50 in 18.55, with Steve Vincent having an excellent run to take 2^nd in 19.18 and Declan Flynn was 3^rd in 19.24. Ian Kitching V65 finished 5^th in a great time of 19.47. Katie Wills was the first lady home in 6^th place in 19.51. The second race saw a real battle at the front. For the whole of the race Ryan Evans, Tom Higgs, and Andy Hamilton were in the lead and it was difficult to tell who was going to take the title. Coming down to the finish the three were locked together, but with metres to spare Ryan just managed to get the better of Tom with Andy in 3^rd place.  A great race. Alex Penfold from Croydon was next to finish in 4^th place and he was followed home by Alix Ramsier in 5^th. Billy Casserley had a fine run in 6^th place as did Neil Reissland in 7^th.   John Foss V55 was 11^th. Mary James had a great run to finish in 18.16.

A very good evening of racing. Thanks must go to Ben Noad who gave me lots of assistance in organising the event and who did a great job of pace making over the evening and to the people who came along to help set up  the timing and lights in the early afternoon, and to the people who stayed to help put all the equipment away. Also our track judges and timekeepers who did such an excellent job.     

English Schools T & F Champs

We had 3 athletes qualify for these very prestigious championships at Alexander Stadium Birmingham on 7^th and 8^th July 2017 and what great performances they all managed. Starting with Oli Preest who was representing Surrey Schools in the Junior boys 200m and was part of the Surrey 4x100m relay team. Oli got to the final of the 200m where he finished joint 6^th in a new personal best 23.08 having also run personal bests in the heat and semi-final. He then was part of the Surrey team that won the gold medals in the 4x100m relay.

Julia Tomzcak who had such an outstanding cross country season continued her great form into the track season where she has looked outstanding while representing the club in the Southern Athletic League. In her first English Schools Championship and representing London schools, Julia had an amazing run in the Senior girls 3000m where she took the silver medal in a new personal best time of 9.32.49, knocking 25 seconds off her previous best.

That leaves us with Philip Bartlett who has also been performing really well this year and who was representing Surrey Schools in the Intermediate boys’ discus. Philip knows what it is like to win a medal at the English schools having previously won gold as a Junior boy in the discus, and he repeated the feat taking gold with a new personal best of 49.46m.

This performance earned Philip an English vest for the International Competition held in Dublin on the 15^th July 2017. This boy is definitely a big time performer as he won the competition with a new personal best of 52.57m, what a performance!

Congratulations to all of these young athletes for some really stunning performances and thanks to the coaches who have worked so hard with them.   

Southern Athletics League Match 4

An outstanding team performance ensured our 4^th win of the season with both the track and field performing well at Twickenham on 8^th July.

Shanice Harrison completed her third sprint double of the season, winning the 100m and 200m A string races, with Lohita Allen-Aigbodion winning the B string 100m, and Leah Teibowei, a welcome return to the team, winning the B string 200m. We had a clean sweep of wins in the middle distance races with Amy Billups winning the A string 400m and 800m, Laura Manning the B string 800m, April James-Welsh the B string 400m and A sting 1500m, and Mary James the B string 1500m. In the 5000m Laura Manning was 2^nd in the A string race with Linda Ingram winning the B string race. Lohita Allen-Aigbodion was a close second in the 100m hurdles and Ella Price won the B string race, her first attempt at this distance. In the field Ella jumped 4.40m for the third place in the A string long jump, with Lohita second in the B string. Ella set a new PB in the javelin of 25.14m for third place with Joanna Barnaby winning the B string with 21.30m also a PB. Joanna also won the B string shot with 9.25m a new PB, and was second in the A string discus. Frankie Evans won the A string hammer and was second in the A string shot. Team captain Jill Lula won the B string hammer. We won both the 4x100m relay, and the 4x400m relay, despite dropping the baton in the short race, well done Shanice!

For the men despite setting new PBs in the sprints Bill Porter had to settle for second places, being beaten by a very good  St.Marys sprinter (10.5 and 21.5).Gift McClaren comfortably won both the B string 100m and 200m races. Charlie Goriup and Sam Birch won both 400m races, Sam finished 2^nd in the A string 800m with James Lyne winning the B string race.We also had double wins in the 1500m with Alex Lyne and Billy Casserley, and in the 3000m races with Ryan Evans and Tom Higgs, all looking very impressive. Andy Tindall improved on his  V55 British record in the 3000m steeplechase with 11.12.9 congratulations tohim, with Simon Manning winning the B string race. Richard Morris and Simon Manning won both the 110m and 400m hurdle races. In the field the Mens team captain Darren Brown had a seasons best of 12.09m in the triple jump to win the A string, and was second in both the A string long and high jumps. He was ably assisted by Simon Manning who won the B string triple and long jumps, and was second in the B string high jump. Simon was second in the A string pole vault with hurdler Richard Morris second in the B string! Erasmus Dwemoh won the A string shot with 13.21m and set a new PB in the hammer with 37.52m  to finish second in the A string, Ben Myburgh comfortably won the B string hammer. Nathan Fergus won both the B string shot and B string discus, with Tom Bullen winning the A string discus and finishing second in the A string javelin with a new PB of 40.19m. Simon Manning was second in the B string javelin. Although given the same time as the winners our 4x100m relay team were placed second, and our 4x400m team looked really good and won by half a lap. 

This was a very strong team performance, well done to all of our athletes.