Wilson podiums in U20 SEAA long jump

Star performer this weekend was Jacob Wilson with a bronze medal-winning long jump in the South of England U20 Champs at Crystal Palace, although with a first place age group finish for Jackie Wastell in the Bournemouth tri, LICC PBs, and more great running by Elspeth the good news doesn’t end there.

Heathsiders were a lot busier than I (Sue) expected this weekend, so many thanks to Gabi, Gavin, Leigh and Zac for supplying write-ups of individual events that they were involved in in one way or another this weekend. Zac delivered the good news about Jacob’s long jump in the U20 South of England champs – 6.54m isn’t a PB but it was a clear third place jump and only one centimetre short of equalling the silver medal distance on the day, and he was presented his medal by Olympian sprinter Donna Fraser (pictured). Jordan competed in the 100m and ran a season’s best of 11.33s to place 6th in the second heat. With the fastest two qualifiers running in Jordan’s race so that the fifth placed runner also made it through, Jordan only narrowly missed out.

Moving to a quite different competitive setting, five Heathsiders braved the Bournemouth International Triathlon. The non-stop rain miraculously stopped at 6.30 am, just in time for the start, and resumed minutes after we finished, and the sea was stilled, so we had far better conditions than anticipated. Marcus measured the run at 6.5 miles on his Garmin (that’s 10.4km) so our running times were slower than usual, but otherwise it was perfect. Heathside star of the show was Jackie Wastell who won the prize for the 1st 50-54 vet. Jas Bolla, in her maiden Olympic tri, came third in the 40-44 category (although I should mention that she’s only 39 – in triathlons age categories start in the year of your birthday).  There were 232 starters and 222 finishers.

Meanwhile the Run the River 5 on Sunday was proof that runners are a tough bunch willing to endure all conditions to pursue their sport. For this they were rewarded with an especially green route around the beautiful Lee Valley Park running along the River Lee and around the adjacent marshes. This 5 mile race was a new addition to the road race champs this year and well attended by our road runners. 

(We interrupt this report for an important message: this weekend is the second to last Southern Athletics League, in the convenient location that is Walthamstow. We're currently in 12th position (out of 16), tied with Highgate, and on the lookout for competitors and officials – for the men’s team contact Bill and for the women’s side of things contact Sue, details below).
 
On Saturday a group of Heathsiders ventured to Woodford for the pen-ultimate LICC. As on Sunday the weather conditions weren’t favourable. Whether throwing, running or jumping the stop-start rain and wind didn’t aid us, but against the odds the group turned out some sterling performances (you can see some thrilling footage of the day's events on Heathside's YouTube channel - not quite the BBC, but we're working on it). Sue won her 800m heat in a season’s best followed by another SB in the 1500m to wrap up the day.  Adrian was on winning form earlier in the day in his 400m heat, in a new personal best, and went home with a second PB in the javelin.  In a debut 400m Alex notched up a sub 60s clocking, whilst Johnny missed a 1500m PB by the smallest of margins – just 0.05 seconds! Izaiah threw the shot to a new best, and in the 100m Angelica took a chunk (0.39s) off her best, too.

Talented newcomer young athletes Jessica and Djanira were also in action, with U17 Djanira bravely stepping up to the 100m hurdles but put off by confusing instructions from a race official, including forgetting the ‘Set’ in between On Your Marks and the gun so that the race had to be restarted. Leigh was also in action, tackling the 5000m with help from Tony, who gets a special thank you for pacing. She also raced a 400m before getting involved in a 1500m that came with a bit of a twist. Being asked to pace a potential Paralympian doesn’t happen every day, but it did this Saturday – to Sue’s and Leigh’s surprise. Monique Davis of Herne Hill Harriers was chasing a 4:45 clocking (a time that would be considered as a medal winning chance by selectors in the T20 category, and earn her a place on Team GB).  It was a last gasp effort before selections are made early this week. With only two entrants in the race it was left to Sue to help Monique achieve the time she needed, with Leigh kindly stepping in as a last minute additional pacer (on the understanding she’d only run 400m).  Aiming for a 77 first lap, Leigh led them through in a swift 75 seconds leaving Sue the unenviable task of maintaining the fast pace – this she did ably with a 2:34 800m split. Monique then took up the running, finishing in 4:52 with Sue hitting 5 minutes. We’ll be keeping a keen eye out to see if Monique impressed the selectors enough – fingers crossed!

To round it all off we had plenty of Heathsiders in parkruns, with three wins including one from Elspeth the day before a third place run in the Run the River 5, and Jayne Sales in the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon (although I failed to find her results). Plus a last minute find of some Heathsiders in the Self Transcendence 10k in Battersea Park, a 5th place finish for Dan Madams and PBs for Leo and David.

Results as follows:

LICC, Woodford, 07/07/2012

Long Jump
Angelica Wynter U17W 3.64

Shot
Izaiah Turner U20 7.57 (PB)

Discus
Adrian Essex M60 20.97

Javelin
Adrian Essex M60 24.94 600g (PB)

Javelin
Jessica Noque U15 10.09
Djanira Costa U17 9.87

100m
Djanira Costa U17 13.36
Angelica Wynter U17 13.69 (PB)
Jessica Noque U15 17.16

100m/H
Djanira Costa U17 17.64

400m
Alex Macaulay SM 58.54 (PB)
Adrian Essex M60 62.83 (PB)
Leigh James SW 74.96

800m
Sue Rust SW 2:25.47 (SB)

1500m (Women)
Sue Rust SW 5:00.85 (SB)

1500m (Men)
Johnny Naylor U15 4:31.90
Mike Abrahams M55 5:28.59
Izaiah Turner U20 5:48.02

5000m
Leigh James SW 19:52.80
Tony Killilea V45 19:53.16 (PACE)

South of England AA U20 Championships, Crystal Palace, 07-08/07/2012

Long jump
1st David Harvey     Windsor S.E&H             6.90m
2nd Mark Cryer       Medway & Maidstone        6.55m
3rd Jacob Wilson     London Heathside AC       6.54m

100m heat 2
6th    11.33              Jordan Glaze    SB

Self Transcendence 10k, Battersea Park, 07/07/2012
5th             34:45    Dan Madams
44th           40:45    Leo Pemberton    PB
64th           42:29    David Mitchell    PB

Run the River 5, Lee Valley Park, 08/07/12
8th Henry Andrews 32m28s
10th Mark George 32m39s
17th Elspeth Storrar 33m33s (3rd woman)
27th Ursula Wilson 35m22s
37th Gavin Parish 36m42s
42nd Jo irwin 37m17s
44th Mike Lee 37m39s
50th Emilia Vynnycky 38m24s
51st Agi Palanki 38m26s
55th Robert Bowler 38m53s
57th Norbert Read 39m18s (2nd M60)
61st Dan Williams 40m06s
62nd Claire Sliwerski 40m15s
65th Di Gardiner 40m49s
78th Alice Parish 42m49s

Bournemouth International Triathlon 08/07/2012
28th Martin Potter: 2.15.13 (10th in the run) (5th in 45-49)
68th Marcus Tillotson: 2.25.24 (31st in the run)
85th Gavin Evans: 2.29.43 (17th in the run) (4th in 50 – 54)
117th Jackie Wastell: 2.36.46 (90th in the run) (1st in 50-54 and 6th woman overall)
189th Jas Bolla: 2.54.59 (110th in the run) (3rd in 40-44 and 18th woman overall)
 
Parkruns
Ally Pally
1 Rob SHULMAN 00:19:36
19 Steve BUTTLING-SMITH 00:27:56

Brighton & Hove
43 Mark DERRY 00:20:18

Finsbury Park
10 Sean Thomas CASEY 00:20:07
13 Carl Andrew HEAP 00:20:32
17 Brian BOYLE 00:20:54
23 Karen HILLARY 00:21:48
24 Ursula WILSON 00:21:51

Hampstead Heath
14 Elspeth STORRAR 00:21:18 (1st lady)
34 Andrew SULSTON 00:24:27
72 Michiko THOMAS 00:33:05

Highbury Fields
1 Tom ALDRED 00:15:56
3 Stuart MEIKLEJOHN 00:18:50
16 Claire THORNHILL 00:22:45
19 Barbara TOMASZCZYK 00:23:31
34 Steve WOOLF 00:25:55

Wormwood Scrubs
4 Daniel MCKEOWN 00:18:16