Sam Brown wins gold at English Schools

The weekend saw the English Schools Championships the pinnacle of Youth Athletics and the club having a record representation of 11 picked by London and Middlesex to compete returning a Gold, Bronze, 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th places. Elsewhere we had athletes representing Middlesex AA at the Inter-County Championships and Cian O’Donnell improved his Club 100m record in the National Athletics League and set a new 200m running for Middlesex. Also Rebecca and Fabio took part in the ASICS 10km.

ESAA Track and Field Championships, Manchester 8-9th July 2022

The Club had a record 11 young athletes picked to represent either London or Middlesex at the English Schools Championships at the weekend. This is the pinnacle of schools athletics spread over two days with 99 different events across 3 age groups (Junior (U15), Inter (U17) and Senior (U20). Even qualifying is a great achievement with high qualification standards and Counties' limited on how many athletes they can bring. This is also often the first experience of travelling away with a team of strangers for 3 days. However our youngsters thrived with 6 new Club records, a 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th place as well as Sam Brown winning Gold in the JB 300m. All will have learned lessons on how to deal with multiple rounds and tactics against the very best athletes in the country in front of a loud stadium.

After traveling up to Manchester on Thursday afternoon the action started early on Friday morning. The throwing events were held at Longfield Park where Elkie Baker took part in the first event of the day, throwing over 29m in her 2nd throw to sit in 5th place until Tilly Farrer (Surrey) produced a massive last throw of 36m to take gold. Elkie however broke her club record by 3.19m and is ranked the 1st U14 in the country with the chance to compete in Junior Girls again next year. Back in the stadium Imani Quamina and Montana Dennis both set new PB's in their Hurdles races but unfortunately failed to make the final. Trey Corlis finished 3rd in his heat breaking his club record and qualifying for the final. Issy Watkins went in the highly competitive IG 800m finsihed 4th in her heat just 1s outside of qualifying for the final. Martha Jolly competed in the JG Long Jump making the top 8 with 5.05m a new Club record (although she did jump 5.13m at the London Championships). We had 4 athletes competing in the Junior 300m races. Milton who is national indoor champion won his heat comfortably with Sam Brown 2nd in his while Ella Burridge made a 0.5s PB to come 2nd in her heat and Magdeline qualified as one of the fastest lesers. They had to return to the track later on friday evening to compete in the semi-finals with Ella and Magdeline just missing out on final places however Milton and Sam both finished 2nd and into the final on Saturday.

Saturday saw Manchester bathed in warm sunshine. Trey's final was at lunchtime and although he set a new PB anc club record he could only finish in 4th however he is a 1st year IB so gets the chance to improve on this next week. The JB 300m Milton went out hard from the start but despite leading as they entered the home straight started to tighten up while Sam timed his charge to perfection moving from 4th place to take 1st place on the line and the English Schools title smashing his PB and setting a new club record. Heathsides involvement finished with the last event of the whole championships with Elkie who had competed in the first running leg 3 of the Middlesex JG relay team.

A fantastic experience for all of them and I'm sure all will be desperate to make sure they qualify again next year, the hard work starts again now. Sympathy to Milly Watkins who was unable to travel due to illness. Well done to their coaches Israel, Kabir and Neville Thompson.

Results

JB 300m

H2 2nd Sam Brown (Mid) 37.42 AAA Grade 1

H4 1st Milton Cooper (Mid) 37.30 AAA Grade 1

SF1 2nd Sam Brown 37.53 AAA Grade 1

SF2 2nd Milton Cooper 37.25 AAA Grade 1

Final 1st Sam Brown 36.33 PB 🏅NCR AAA Grade 1

Final 5th Milton Cooper 37.11 AAA Grade 1

JG 300m

H1 2nd Ella Burridge (Lon) 41.49 PB by 0.58s AAA Grade 1

H4 4th Magdeline Paitoo (Lon) 42.06 AAA Grade 1

SF2 4th Magdeline Paitoo 41.95 AAA Grade 1

SF2 5th Ella Burridge 42.25 AAA Grade 1

IG 800m

H3 4th Izzy Watkins (Mid) 2:16.05 AAA Grade 2

IG 80mH

H2 7th Imani Quamina (Lon) 12.19 PB by 0.33s NCR AAA Grade 3

JB 80mH

H1 5th Montana Dennis (Lon) 11.93 PB by 0.22s AAA Grade 2

IB 100mH

H2 3rd Trey Corlis (Lon) 13.56 PB by 0.04s NCR AAA Grade 1

Final 4th Trey Corlis (Lon) 13.33 PB NCR AAA Grade 1

JG Long Jump

Final 8th Martha Jolly (Lon) 5.05m PB by 7 cm NCR AAA Grade 2

JG Discus

Final 6th Elkie Baker (Mid) 29.74m PB by 2.29m NCR AAA Grade 1

IB 4x100m

3rd London (N’Douba, Corlis, Akinlolu, Abulkarim) 43.02

JG 4x100m

8th Middlesex (Sutherland, Odiaka, Baker, McLeod) 50.47

South of England Inter-County Championships, Oxford, 9.7.22

Cian O’Donnell and Hattie Munday both turned out for Middlesex AA in the Southern Inter-County Championships in Oxford. Hattie was running up and age group as an U20 but still smashed the Club U20W 2000mSC record by 40s. Cian continued his fine run of form running 21.13 in the 200m to set a new Club Record to add to his 100m .. The Senior Men finished 2nd in the match and the U20 Women managed by Helene Keohe finished 3rd.

Results

SM 200m

1st Cian O’Donnell 21.13 PB New Club Record

U20W 800m

4th Hattie Munday (U17W) 2:20.61

U20W 2000mSC

1st Hattie Munday (U17W) 7:32.08 PB New Club Record

Lee Valley Sprints Night Double, Lee Valley, 6.7.22

100m

SX 1.4 1st Helene Kehoe (VW55) 15.03

SX 2.4 1st Helene Keohe (VW55) 15.37

Asics London 10k, Sun 10 July:

Rebecca Taylor reports:- “It was already 20 degrees before the Asics London 10km started, so runners were repeatedly advised to hydrate, wear sunscreen and take it easy. I was running for the charity Endometriosis UK, so not in a Heathside vest.

While it was blisteringly hot weather to run in, there were at least a good few stretches of the course in the shade. I found the worst bit was Westminster Bridge at the 8km mark; no shade at all!

Given the conditions, I was pleased to run 53:11. I had been aiming for 52-53 minutes, so in cooler weather, I should have achieved my target.”

Fabio Santo adds “I was run yesterday Asics London 10k time was 46:14”

National Athletics League Premiership, Woodford, 2.7.22

100m

Cian O’Donnell 10.41 A 1st PB New Club Senior Record

200m

Cian O’Donnell 21.14 A 3rd PB w +3.1

1500m

Adam Kirk Smith 4:03.05 A 3rd

Parkrun

Many Heathsiders took part in parkruns last Saturday.  Congratulations for first place finishes go to: Andy Barnes (Hackney Marshes), David Kirk (Ally Pally) and Annabel Litchfield (Old Showfield).  Full results can be found here.

Compiled by Simon with thanks to Rebecca and Fabio