ATHLETICS: Tom Pinks relays
With 60 athletes aged 8 to 13 competing in this fun and fast annual event of over 500 competitors at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena, the Rugby and Northampton AC team had a great day.
The young athletes enjoyed competing and cheering on their team mates in a series of track relays and field events against teams from all over the midlands and beyond!
The continuous relays; where baton changing and track position was key, were toughly fought battles with each athlete running 3 or 4 times to try and beat the pace set by Paula Ratcliffe for 1000m, Kelly Holmes and Steve Cram for 1500m during their record-breaking runs over these distances.
In a stunning display of speed and endurance running by the Under 13 club athletes, powering all the way through heats and finals, both the girls and boys 'A' teams took gold and set new UK records for the event.
The boy's team of Caleb Downes, Amit Patel, Luke Bromley, Timothy Kerr-Chin and Adam Wright became only the second team ever to beat Steve Cram's time for 1500m of 3m.29.67 seconds, smashing the record held by Manchester by over 3 seconds to charge round in 3m25.6s.
With an equally strong girls' team of Hattie Vessey, Simone Ager, Regan Traynor, Kirsty Dickinson and Meg Sly, great runs and strong baton changing from the start the girls destroyed the opposition – taking 8 seconds out the Birchfield team in second spot, smashed Kelly Holmes time of 3m:57.9s and took the record previously held by North Cheshire of 3m40.4s with a much deserved gold in 3m:38.6s.
Showing the depth of talent in this age group the boys' team of Gerard McGahey, Ryan Williams, Kyran Wilson, James Webb and Harry Dominy also qualified for the finals finishing a very creditable 5th.
Between runs of the 1500m heats and finals the boys' team of Luke Bromley, Kyran Wilson and Adam Wright again stormed round the longer version of the 1500m relay this time as time trials, with each runner completing 500m each to take gold by 10 seconds with a time of 4m.16.0s.
Relay gold also came for the girls in the younger age group with the Under 11 team of Constantia Liburd, Emily Cutler, Milan Clues and Ella Bromley winning the fast and exciting 1000m over / under relay, whilst still managing to clutch onto their bean bag baton.
The boys, with three teams from R&N making the finals, all had good runs with the team of Charlie Whiteside, Ben Downing, Thomas Haynes and Sam Lockley taking bronze.
First on were the three Under 11 girls teams of five in their 1000m relay. With great runs all round from the girls, the team of Charlotte Vessey, Emily Cutler, Kai Hussain, Constantia Liburd and Brittany Wood flew out to the lead in the first leg which they maintained all the way to the finish. With a trickier run in the finals the girls did well to come in 4th. Two boys' teams took finals positions in the 1000m with the team of Charlie Whiteside, Sam Lockley, Thomas Haynes, Wesley Walcott and Mikey Atkinson just being edged out by the Birchfield boys in their heat took a good 4th spot in the final. The boys were hotly pursued in the finals by their team mates coming in 5th.
Field competitions were a mix of Sportshall events and the unusual including tossing the caber and the tricky highland steps. Again the R&N team took a good haul of medals and produced some incredible performances all round.
The throwers were out in force with two gold medals going to Matthew Tildesley in the U11 Weight for Distance throwing a great 11.75m and Kirsty Dickinson winning the U13 Girls Weight for Height by launching a 5kg medicine ball over a pole vault bar at 5m equalling the winning boys throw! Silver went to Luke Bromley in U13 shot with a fine throw of 9.71m just 1cm off the winning putt. Luke also took bronze in the weight for height and Kai Hussain Javelin bronze with 14.5m. Conor Henry took silver tossing the caber which I doubt he had ever done before with a great score of 28.
The only other gold in the field came to the very springy Mikey Atkinson in the U11 Highland Steps which is like a four way speed bounce and only for the totally co-ordinated! Mikey bounced his way to gold with a great score of 62.
Silvers also came in Under 11 Girls Highland Steps with Brittany Wood - 72 bounces and bronze to Lauryn Peters - 64.
U13 Boy jumpers Timothy Kerr-Chin and Adam Wright took silvers in Standing Long Jump with 2.32m in Triple Jump with 6.64m.
Fourth spot was a popular position in the Jumps with Charlotte Vessey and Charlie Whiteside taking 4th in the U11 Standing Triple Jump with 5.60m and 5.75m, Katie Dixon 4th in Standing Long Jump with 1.94m, Imogen Downing 4th twice in U13 girls triple jump with a great leap of 6.42m and 4th again in long jump with 2.15m. Gemma Scales also narrowly missed out on a medal in the U13G Weight for Distance with an 11m throw.
All in all a great but crazy day for the young team! Thanks and well done to all of our competitors for trying so hard. You all deserve a mention! Special thanks to our team of mums Jenny, Jayne, Sandra and Claire for a hard day's work getting you all to the right place at the right time in the right shirt!
Email to a friend
Print this page- BREAKING NEWS: woman dies following A5 accident near Clifton upon Dunsmore and Lilbourne
- Ex-fireman and and Rugby father of three locked up after dealing heroin
- Street lights to switch to part-night operation in various Rugby and other parts of Warwickshire
- OPERATION LASER: Judge hands out a total of 160 years of prison sentences to some of the biggest drug dealers in Rugby
- Police close A5 after serious accident near Clifton upon Dunsmore
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Rugby
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
