Local athletes representing Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow AC celebrated a huge victory in the Final match of the UK Youth Development League at Allianz Park, Barnet on Sunday. A strong win on the day, 48 points ahead of second placed Shaftesbury Barnet, not only secured the Southern Premier League title but ensured WSEH AC qualified once again for the National Finals in Birmingham in September.
There they will seek to retain their UK title before embarking on their greatest ever team challenge: representing the UK in the European Junior Clubs Championships in Castellon, Spain on September 20th.
Leading the way for Bucks based WSEH athletes was U20 athlete Becca Croft who recorded a double to win both the 200m and 400m, dropping down from her more accustomed role in the middle distance events. She opened with a 25.66 secs Personal Best in the 200m. Later she added a victory by a full two seconds in the 400m clocking 57.18 secs, only a fraction outside of her lifetime best.
Other athletes recording wins were Freya See and Katherine Skipper. See took a modest leap of 1.45m in the High Jump to secure the B string points. Later she also added to this with a third placing in the Triple Jump with a best on the day of 9.75m.
Katherine Skipper, in only her second ever meet, won the B string U20 3000m in 11 mins 57 secs while also notching up good points in the 800m.
Alana Fagan also had a very productive day, gaining a new PB by 20 cm in the Long Jump for new best figures of 4.39m. Later she improved her hurdles best by a full second to finish third in that event in 14.24 secs.
She was joined in the U17 300m Hurdles by Anya Wood where they finished fifth and fourth respectively.
Kaoyime Stewart also played her part in the win with a third placing in the U17 Discus.
For the male athletes, Steve O’Hara only just missed out on a PB in the 100m recording 11.32 secs but managed to really smash his best in the 200m. His previous best was 22.92 secs but at Hendon he managed to reduce this substantially to a very impressive 22.64 secs.
Also having busy days were Kieran Wye and Russell Waterson, Wye contributing points in the 800m and 1500m.Waterson completed four events: 11o m Hurdles, Long Jump, High Jump and Pole Vault.
In the relays Liv Caesar passed to Freya See on the second and third legs of the 4 x100m to bring the team through to a very good second placed while in the 4 x 400m Becca Croft ran the fastest leg of the WSEH team by a large margin in 57.9 secs.
Steve O’Hara anchored the U20 Mens Team to runners-ip spot in their race.
The winning team result was all the more remarkable as so many athletes were unavailable due to holidays and so to complete the full list of Bucks athletes who achieved this huge accolade of Southern Champions:
Stephanie Clitheroe, Sophie Street, Charlotte Williams, Eloise Davison, Tobi Ojora, Amy Hoskings, Grace Wilkinson, Matt Hinde, Kieran Wye, Will Brennan, Nkoli Atuanya, Lauren Smith, Nicole Smith, Ellie Bilsland, Ellie Jackson, Mattie O’Callaghan, and Alice Botting,
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