Southampton AC continued their gold medal rush on day 2 of the county track and field championships at the Mountbatten Centre in Portsmouth yesterday but the weather had been transformed into glorious sunshine.

The club won 48 more medals with 18 of them golds to take their total medal count to the championships to 92 which is 30 medals more than any other club.

The Hampshire champions were spread across men and women and across the breadth of age groups and came in run, jump and throw.

In the senior women, Izzy Bryant completed the sprint double by adding the 200m title to the 100m she won on Saturday and Emily Jenkinson also doubled up adding the 800m crown to the 400m title she won on Saturday.  Jen Elkins won the 3000m and Laura Edwards won the women’s pole vault in a new championship best performance of 3.45m. There were no winners in the U20 women’s age group but at U17 Hannah Childs won the 200m and Samantha Callaway won the discus.

In the U15 girls’ age group, Olivia Austin won the discus and Jasmine Larsen was javelin champion For the U13 girls Katie Youp pulled clear of the field to win the 800m, the club carried out a clean sweep of medals in the 1500m with Annie Mann winning gold and did exactly the same in the long jump with Amy Wall taking gold.

For the senior men, Daniel Offiah won the 100m and Tom Cully took the steeplechase crown whilst in the U20 age group Jack Higgins was 400m champion and for the U17 men the club completed yet another clean sweep of medals in the shot putt with Josh Wise taking gold in an enthralling competition.

Thomas Hockley added the 300m title to the 200m crown he won on Saturday for the U15 boys and Rhys Allen won the shot putt.  Joshua Vaughan also took the shot putt title in the U13 boys’ age group.

Southampton AC dominated the first day of the Hampshire Athletics track and field championships at a chilly and wet Mountbatten stadium in Portsmouth yesterday.

The club won 44 of the 194 medals on offer and took 20 gold medals, 8 more than any other club.

The Hampshire champions were spread across men and women and across the breadth of age groups and came in run, jump and throw.

For the senior women, Brunel University student and former Mountbatten school pupil Izzy Bryant won the 100m crown with Emily Jenkinson taking the 400m title and Anna Sharp the 1500m.  All 3 women being long term members of the club progressing through the various age groups.  The same can be said of U20 gold medallists Hollie Garrathy and Amaya Scott, the latter taking the scalp of England youth International Gaia in winning the shot putt in her first event with the 4kg shot and the former winning the triple jump.

For the U17 women Jasmyn Allen won the 100m title and Anna Merritt won the Hammer in one of the performances of the day beating the championship best performance with a huge throw of 53.69m In the U15 girls age group, Tabitha Proudley won the sprint hurdles crown and Lara Scott made it double gold in the Scott household by sealing the high jump crown.  In the youngest of the age groups the U13’s, in the girls age group Amy Wall also won high jump gold with Milly Hulbert taking the javelin title.

For the senior men, the 5000m was a highlight with Southampton AC taking all 3 podium places, Steven Phillips being the gold medal winner.  Sam Bass-Cooper took yet another pole vault title and Matthew Callaway won the discus crown.  In the U20’s Sam Tyas won the 3000m gold and Kieran Apps made it double pole vault success for the men.

In the U17 mens age group, Callum Gregson won the first event of the day by taking victory in the 400m hurdles and Josh Douglas won the discus in the 2^nd clean sweep of the day for the club as they took all 3 podium places.  For the U15 boys Thomas Hockley won the 200m sprint and Harry Crosby returned after a long time out with injury to take the long jump title.  The U13 boys age group was the only one not to produce a gold medal on the day although Travis Scottow did pick up a silver and bronze in 200m and long jump respectively.

Southampton AC’s multi-eventers had a fine day in glorious sunshine at the Mountbatten stadium in Portsmouth on Bank holiday Monday, the 7^th May.

The championships are split across the various age groups who all take part in a 5 event pentathlon competition with the U11 age groups taking part in a 4 event quad kids competition.  The day also sees the traditional May Day mile and 3000m running races.

The closest event was the U15 girls pentathlon with 4 girls pulling clear of the field with just the final event, the 800m to go.  Bitterne Park schoolgirl Grace Colmer was in 2^nd place behind Basingstoke’s Iona Irvine but the favourite was 3^rd place Aldershot’s Ella Manning who had by far the fastest 800m pb.  Mountbatten school’s Lara Scott was in 4^th place.  Grace needed to stay within 4 seconds of Ella and ran the perfect race to run a huge personal best finishing just 3 seconds behind Ella and take the title.  Lara also ran a fine 800m to overtake Iona in the standings and take the bronze medal.

Further gold medal success was achieved by Amy Wall who dominated the U13 girls’ pentathlon to win by 600 points with Millie Cutts completing a fine combined event debut by taking the bronze medal.  Ellie Thatcher finished 7^th.

Lucy O’Dell took a bronze medal in the U17 women’s pentathlon ensuring the club took home 2 gold and 3 bronze medals from the female combined events competitions.

The men also had a good day with Oliver Thatcher sealing the U17 men’s title with a clutch of personal best performances to finish with 2824 points.  Teammates and training partners Callum Gregson and Bradley Jenvey took the silver and bronze medals respectively with Southampton AC’s Ben Vaughan in 4^th.

Travis Scottow made it a U13 double by taking the boys title.  Travis was equally dominant as Amy in the girls’ equivalent and finished 500 points clear of his nearest rival.

In the U20 men’s pentathlon Ben Upfold was 4^th with Luke O’Brien in 6^th.

The club won a further 4 medals in the quadkids competition which are split into 2 age groups.  In the U10 age group, Gracie Osman took the girls title with 195 points and Nathan Bell won the boys title with a massive score of 256 points.  In the U11 age group for the girls Pippa Sproul took Silver and Isabelle Wardle won bronze.  In the boys U11 age group Isaac Claisse was 6^th.

In the May Day mile races, Rikki James won race 2 in the fastest time of the day and in the 3000m race, Isabel Richardson took the women’s title.

In another piece of history for the club, Southampton AC topped the medal table at a national championships for the first time in its history at the weekend.  The English and Welsh national U17 & U15 indoor combined events championship took place at the English institute of sport in Sheffield but with the competition being open to all athletes in the UK if effectively acts as the British age group combined event championships.

Of the 12 medals available. The club took home a gold and silver as well as winning an incredible 6 of the 22 individual events that make up the 4 age group combined events champs (U17 men & women, U15 boys and girls).

4 young athletes from the club made the long journey and all were rewarded with personal best performances and top 10 finishes.

Star of the show was Salisbury schoolgirl, Lucy-Jane Matthews who yesterday recorded the 2nd highest indoor pentathlon score of all time by an U15 girl and win the U15 girls pentathlon in a championship best performance with only Rio Olympian Morgan Lake having got a bigger points total.  Lucy-Jane began with a pb of 8.96 secs in the 60m hurdles to come 2nd and join the sub 9 second club.  LJ then produced a huge lifetime best of 5.46m to win the long jump and take the overall lead in the competition.  A further lifetime best of 11.61m in the shot putt saw her win the event and the lead extended and yet another pb of 1.61m meant LJ won the high jump and be so far in front in the pentathlon competition that she had 30 seconds to spare in the 800m over her nearest rival.  Not that this was important as LJ rattled off her 5th pb with a 2 min 32 sec 800m to finish 2nd in her heat and accumulate an enormous points total of 3649 points to set a new championship record.

Amaya Scott competed on Saturday winning 2 of the 5 events in the U17 women’s pentathlon and took overall silver with a points total of 3582 points.  The winner Pippa Early set a new British record to take gold. Amaya began with a 9.36 sec run in the 60m hurdles which put her in 13th place.  This then turned to 1st place after Amaya leapt an indoor pb of 1.70m to win the high jump and go 3rd in the UK rankings.  Amaya then tested the nerve of Mum and coach by falling out of the circle with her first 2 attempts in the shot putt before going out over 13m with her final attempt to win the event and consolidate her lead.  Amaya then leapt 5.28m in the long jump which saw her drop into 2nd place in the overall competition behind Pippa Early who won the long jump.   With Pippa being an excellent 800m runner, and it being Amaya’s weakest event, she was never going to challenge for the title and ran conservatively to take an excellent overall silver medal.

Also competing yesterday, Callum Gregson and Oliver Thatcher both set new pentathlon pb’s to finish 8th and 10th respectively in the U15 boys competition. Callum was 9th fastest in the 60m hurdles where Oli set a new pb.  Both boys leapt over 5m to record pb’s in the long jump with Oli showing nerves of steel after no jumping on his first 2 efforts.  Oli also set a new pb of 1.58m in the high jump which Callum won by equaling his pb of 1.70m.  Callum set a new pb in the shot and both boys recorded indoor pb’s in the 800m to give Callum a new pb and overall points total of 2414 points and Oli a huge personal best by over 400 points of 2301 with both boys wrapping up up top ten finishes.

In his latest blog for British Athletics, life member Dave Henson shares his journey which ended with a bronze medal in the Rio paralympics.

Read Dave’s reflections through the link below.

http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/media/news/2016-news-page/september-2016/23-09-16-dave-henson-pt-iii/

The South of England 10,000m championships took place in Aylesbury on Wednesday with father and son Pete & Max Costley running in the same race.

Max posted a lifetime best of 33 mins 49.90 secs to finish 5th with father Pete finishing 4 minutes behind in 12th place but was the first over 50 man to finish.

Full results through the link below.

SEAA 10k 2016

With its unusually late position in the season, I missed the British Masters track & Field championships from the weekend preview but the clubs masters athletes were in fine form at Birmingham over the weekend.

The story of the championships came from Ray Hall.  Most of our Masters athletes have a history in track & field dating back to when they were younger but Ray took up track & field in the spring at the age of 76!  Ray, who was born before the second world war started felt he could still run quite quickly and following a couple of conversations last Autumn was put in touch with over 70’s masters sprinter Vic Novell who became Ray’s training partner and mentor.  Following a winters training Ray took part in his first athletics event in March by competing in an open meeting in Portsmouth and also competed in a couple of the Southern Counties vets league matches over the Summer for the clubs excellent masters team.  Fast forward to the weekend and 77 year old Ray took bronze in the British over 75’s mens 100m at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham on Saturday and followed this up with 4th place in the mens over 75’s shot putt. Good on you, sir.

Elsewhere in Birmingham over the weekend, Mark Collins was 5th in the over 40’s mens 100m and 200m.  Vic Novell did the over 70’s men sprint double winning both 100m & 200m.  Becky Mulley wwas 2nd in the over 35 womens triple jump and was 4th in the long jump and 5th in the b final of the 100m in the same age group.  Jon Tilt completed the 400m flat and 400m hurdles double winning both in the mens over 50 age group and Jon was also 4th in his 200m heat in the same age group.  Tracy Bezance was another athlete completing a double winning both the over 50’s womens 200m & 400m races.  Ed Connolly was 3rd in the over 65 mens 800m.  Del Warn was 3rd in the over 50 mens long jump, leaping to a lifetime best no less, at the age of 50.    Mike Ferne was 3rd in the over 65 mens discus.

Congratulations to all our magnificent masters but especially to Ray who is living proof that it is never too late to start.

Full results below.

BMAFtfc2016 results-1