A hectic weekend of competition with the squad well represented at Leeds and Sheffield for two of the majors in the athletics calendar
CROSS-COUNTRY
Phoebe Anderson has been in superb form all year with National and Regional medals and County titles won over the mud. And at Leeds, she ran the race of her life to finish seventh in the English National Cross-Country Champs. She was also the second scoring member of her Herne Hill team who were clear winners of the U17 Team Gold.
INDOORS
The squad achieved its highest ever number of qualifying standards for the National Indoor Champs at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield on Sat 23 and Sun 24 February. Sadly many of these were unale to take part because of the clash with the Half Term and several of those who did had to contend with "ski-legs" while competing in explosive events.
Day One
Finn Hobson produced a cracking new Personal Best in his heat of the U17 60m. Still only first year in the age group, he achived one of his best evr starts to knock .14 secs off his previous best to record an improved 7.43 secs.
Chrissy Murray made her National Championship debut qualifying for the semi-fianls in a PB equalling 8.06 secs. Chrissy, who competes for Watford and is a member of Pete Griffth's group, recorded 8.10 secs in the second round.
Kitt Jones has made great strides to qualify for these Champs in the U20 age group. And in her first ever competition at this level she was only just outside of her best witha clocking of 8.27 secs. The really good news for Kitty is that her July birthday means she has another two years in this age group.
Day Two
Lots more positives to report on the second day of the Champs.
Zoe Allanson (Cookham Runners) was one of several athletes overcoming tired legs from a week on the snows to come close to her lifetime best in the U17 High Jump.
She opened with a first time clearance at 1.50m Her second attempt at 1.55 really shook up the bar but on this occasion it was ki nd to her and remained in place. It took three attempts to clear 1.60m but the final effort was extreemely effective thriving under pressure. Her tenth finishing spot was quite impressive but it is even more so when you note that this was equal height with the fourth placed athlete.
In the U15 60m Hurdles Isla Brown really impressed with back to back PBs. Her first round time was clocked at 9.81 secs enough to see her through to the semi-finals as a fastest loser. But then she really found something extra to reduce it even further to 9.74 secs.
Alexia Martin also set a lifetime best of 9.96 secs and was most unfortunate not to qualify for the next round by a mere three hundreths of a second.
Aby Masquelier has had a few injury issues to deal with recently and only competed following a late clarance from the physio. In her opening race she almost equalled her best in a quality race allowing her to nudge her way into the semi-finals.
Both of the other U17s Sophia Martin and Laurie Sutcliffe were making their National debuts and perfromed very close to their lifetime bests.
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