Over 40 PBs for Spartans Athletes at 2021 Hampshire Champs

What a weekend!  Clearly a little bit of travel and some different opposition brings out the best in JSAC athletes.  The Club team was made up of 42 members who brought back 45 medals and achieved an amazing 48 PBs.

The event was quieter than usual due to it being held on a bank holiday weekend and clashing with other events as the competition calendar has been squeezed due to Covid restrictions.  And the large JSAC team took advantage.  There was some great racing over the weekend – and a wee bit of drama too!

Some of the highlights were:

  • Head Coach Peter Irving (SnrM) achieved double gold in the hurdles, holding on in the 400mH despite a stumble in the home straight
  • Casper Whitewood (U17) took a good chunk off his previous 3000m best to get silver in 9:23.8
  • The race of the day on Sunday was an exciting 800m, combined for U20 and U17 men, where Jem Gurner tracked Guernseys Gian-Luca Robilliard until the last 50m where he sprinted past to win the race in a PB of 1:57.5
  • JSAC dominated the Senior mens sprints with 6 medals out of the 9 available
  • Matthew Brown (U17) qualified for the 200m final in 23.8s and then bettered that in the final with an excellent attacking run to get 4th in 23.6s in his first attempt at the distance.  He followed that up by another PB in the 400m to take gold.
  • The U13s performed very well considering it was a first County champs for most of them – Isla Hall had a definitive win in the 1500m (5:04.8) 15 seconds in front of the second placed athlete, Isabella Gibson got bronze in the high jump with 1.30m, Archie Fisher got gold in the long jump (4.53m) and bronze in the shot (5.59m) and Zane Simpson got bronze in the 15oom (5:07.7)
  • Lucy Woodward came away with the best silverware of the day in winning the U20W 200m in 26.8s.
  • Eva Hall achieved 2 PBs when she won the U15 300m and came second in the 800m.  She was on the podium with Belle Duffel who came in third.

Very well done to all the athletes who completed so well and managed their disappointments when things didn’t go as planned – we are so proud of you all.  There are so many medalists please see the full JSAC medal and PB list here and full Hampshire Champs results here.

Thanks to all coaches and parents who helped make the trip happen and the continued support of our sponsor, FCM.  Extra special thanks to Judy Andrews-Callec’s superb organisation made the trip

Hopefully we have captured all the medal winners and team atmosphere in our pictures below.

Also read