News from South London Harriers
January 19th, 2008: U11s Fun in Athletics Competition
Posted by Ian Field at 10:07 amOn Saturday 19th Jan, SLH sent 2 teams, 14 boys and 14 girls, to the Westcroft Leisure Centre, Carshalton to compete in the annual London Area “Fun in Athletics” team challenge. This is the first chance for many of our youngest athletes to compete. It was a nervous but exciting day for all.
There were 8 teams ready and itching to get started. Anne Roden had devised a complicated but fool-proof sticker system, to make sure all athletes knew exactly what events they were in, and at what time. This meant that she was only asked about 300 times, “when’s my next event ?”, ”what time’s the Long Jump ?” or ”who is in my relay team ?”. It could have been a lot more !
The athletes mixed well, with a rivalry starting to appear between the Boys and the Girls teams who would be the more successful. This did not stop them encouraging each other though. With the teams a mixture of Coulsdon and Crystal Palace athletes, this was a good team-bonding excercise.
Boys
With 24 athletes in each individual Field event, there were still many top ten achievements for the boys. Saul Tompson 2nd in the Chest Push, and 9th in the Triple Jump. Aaron Wells 4th in the Javelin, Thomas Harrington 10th in the Sitting Throw, and 5th in the Speed Bounce. Louis Rossi-Jones was 8th in both the Long Jump and Javelin. Harry Wilson 3rd in the Speed Bounce, and Matthew Rook 6th and Alex Chung 10th in the Balance Test.
Our main strengths seem to show in the various relays where the boys performed particularly well. Mitchell Scott and Alex were excellent in the relays, particularly through the tunnels. Daniel Harrington, Andrew Aubertin, Will Flook and Harry Wilson all ran good legs. Our youngest competitor, Tiernan Quantrill did excellently over some very high looking hurdles. We were 3rd in the 2×1 lap relay and the Paarlauf, 2nd in the Obstacle relay and a brought the house down with a fantastic, but very close (0.1secs) victory in the final event, the Grand Prix. This event is run on an oval track, incorporating Tunnels and Hurdles and brings the crowd to a crescendo.
Girls
The girls also had many top ten individual finishes in their Field events. Ellie Gomez was 8th in the Long Jump, Amy Ayres and Bronte Rowlands were 1st equal in the Balance Test with the maximum possible score ! Danielle Igor was 4th in the Chest Push and 7th in the Vertical Jump. Excellent for a girl who only started at Coulsdon 2 days earlier ! Rebecca Oliver was 10th in the Triple Jump, with Alex Roberts 7th. Alex was also 8th in the Javelin. Leanne Cooper did superbly to be was 3rd in the Vertical Jump and 9th in the Speed Bounce. Maya Bruney was also outstanding coming 7th in the Sitting Throw and 6th in the Long Jump.
Like the boys, the girls were excellent in the relays. Maya and Leanne looked really good in the 2×1 relay, coming 2nd. We were also 2nd in the Hurdle relay, and 3rd in both the Over/Under relay and the Obstacle relay. Emma Doyle was everywhere, competing well not only in her own 4 events, but also showing enormous enthusiasm to fill in 3 other events as we were 2 gilrs short. Our youngest athelete, newcomer Tianne Gibson-Bartlett also showed promise in her relay legs. Well done all, and particular thanks to those that competed in extra events.
Overall
Well, what can I say !! With 4 of the teams representing whole London Boroughs, Brent, Wandsworth, Waltham Forest and City of London, we should really have been competing for 5th place with Kingston, Sutton and All Saints School. Actually, the Boys came a superb 5th place, beating one of the Borough teams, and the Girls went one better to finish 4th. We were clearly the top club team there, so congratulations to all the athletes, and Anne and I look forward to seeing your progression over the coming months and years. Hopefully many of you will continue on to compete for the club at more events as you move through the age groups.
Thanks to Anne for all her organisation and coaching. We both noticed that our clear superiority in the Speed Bounce gained us several places in the relays, so her coaching is paying off. Big thanks also to Mrs Harrington who helped again as a time-keeper throughout the event.
Well done all, and hope to see you all training hard throughout the rest of the Winter, and we can’t wait to see some of you on the track in the Summer. See Anne or myself for ideas on what events may be available to you all.
Cheers, Ian Field
Posted in Young Athletes, Sportshall
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