Unexpected challenges at SEAA junior champs make for eventful weekend
Well, what a weekend that was! Eleven junior members of JSAC travelled to the iconic Crystal Palace Stadium to take part in the junior South of England Track & Field Championships.
For most of the athletes, it was their first time competing at this level. This is a significant step up from Hampshire and covers all Clubs south of Oxford – so we knew the competition was going to be tough. And the other athletes weren’t the only challenge!
First hurdle was check-in. With only one official and one laptop, the check-in queue soon stretched far outside the sports centre building. Luckily we had arrived in good time so this didn’t cause us any issues, expect a long wait.
Then there was the search for the call room and warm-up area. With dubious directions and no signage, we wandered around for a while, gathering other athletes as we went, until we realised we did have to go through the fire exit and down a very dodgy looking back alley.
Then we had to get to the track and stand – a very long walk round to the far end of the stand to get our hand stamped and get into the stadium. It was a fair walk for a cup of tea!
Then came the timetable issues. The decision had been made to use the back straight as the stand opposite the home straight was derelict and was out of bounds. However, a repair to the 3 outside lanes had be vandalised half way through – you can see the foot prints in the grey sections of track in the pictures. This meant that only 5 lanes were available for races in lanes – everything up to 400m – rather than the normal 8. So all sprint races needed extra heats, and some races had semi-finals put in to get the finalists down to only 5 athletes. This meant delays in the timetable that just stretched throughout the day and made it really difficult to manage when to warm up and when to go to call room.
But all of these challenges didn’t dampen the enthusiasm and performances of the athletes.
First up was Ella Duarte in the U15G Long Jump qualifying. Ella jumped a PB of 5.05m with her first jump and easily made it to the final. She then had the High Jump final where she jumped very close to her PB with 1.60m to gain equal second and our first medal of the weekend. Ella then had her Long Jump final where she finished 7th with a best jump of 4.95m. Great consistent jumping.
While Ella started in the jumps, Victoria Pinel (U17W) opened the action in the throws with 23.91m in the Hammer final, a little way behind her PB set this year. Victoria also had the Javelin later in the day. Her she threw
Some U13 athletes had been brought to the competition by their parents. Tiffany Robinson and Bobbi Billington competed in the 800m. Both girls were 5th in their respective heats with Tiffany finishing in 2:38.65 and Bobbi in 2:47.57. Tiffany then went on to compete in the 200m where she finished 2nd in her heat in 28.76s. Aleksandra Pinel achieved a PB of 7.44m in the Shot Put to come in 6th place. Tiffany’s final event of the day was the Long Jump where she jumped 3.84m to finish 13th. An excellent first day for the U13s.
Cole Selby was next up in the U15B 300m. Cole ran very respectable 38.56s and came second to qualify for the next round. That should have been the final, but due to the reduced number of lanes, an extra round had to be put into the schedule and Cole had a semi-final later in the day. He ran 39.03s to come 5th in his race and unfortunately didn’t get into the 5-man final.
This was most notable for Thea Thompson and Teddy Wilson who were due to run their 1500m races at about 6:30pm, but ended up being nearer 9pm, and by then it was wet and getting dark.
Bibiana Riva and Florence (U15G) was next on the track in the 800m heats. Both girls ended up in the same heat. Florence ran a good race, coming in 8th with 2:41.67. Bibi ran a solid race and finished 3rd in 2:25.11, looking very comfortable. This wasn’t quite fast enough to get her into the final. On reflection Bibi thought she could have gone out faster, and it’s why these off island trips are really important for the athletes to race against high quality competition.
Hurdles was on the track next for Autumn Carro (U15G). Autumn was third in her heat, not quite fast enough for the final, but with a great time of 12.54s, a seasons best and only 0.01 outside her PB.
Very last in the day – over 2 hours late, when it was getting dark and the rain was coming down – were the U15 1500m heats for Thea Thompson and Teddy Wilson. Both athletes coped really well with the long delay. Thea put in a very controlled race to finish 2nd in her heat with 4:46.77 to easily qualify for the final – and celebrated with a long awaited Cornish pastie! Teddy ran a very competitive race to finish 10th is his heat in 4:50.97. Both athletes and coaches were very grateful to finally get dinner at 9:30pm!
On Sunday, action started with the U17W Shot Put. Victoria threw 9.74m to come 6th in the final. She then had the Discus final where she threw as seasons best of 24.98m to come in 10th.
Our U13s were in action in the throws and sprints. All three girls were throwing the javelin – Bobbi came in 7th (24.06m), Aleksandra came in 8th (22.86m) and Tiffany in 10th with 10.68m.
On the track the 100m races were on – with a move back to the home straight so that all 8 lanes could be used. However that meant we weren’t able watch from that stand on that side of the track! Cole, Ella and Tiffany were taking part in these sprints, where the quality of competition was extremely high. Tiffany was 5th in her heat with 14.74s. Ella was 6th in her heat in 13.80s. Cole was 5th in his heat with 12.50s and qualified for the semi-final, where he also ran 12.50 to come in 6th.
Thea was then on the track for her 1500m final. This was a real learning experience as the athletes ran a very tactical race and the first 2 laps were at a pedestrian pace. Thea sat up front in quite windy conditions for the majority. The first three athletes pulled well away from the field, but Thea didn’t have enough in her legs to stick with them, and came home in third in 4:50.97.
This was an excellent competition with a great group of athletes who all relished the opportunity to compete at this level. Thanks to Matt, Cat and Andrew for their support over the weekend, and to Jersey Sport for Travel Grant assistance.
