The first YDL meeting of the season took place at Horspath Road Oxford on 25 April and there was a good turnout from our athletes in the U17 and U20 age groups. A lot of competitors achieved new personal best times and distances following a hard winter’s training.
In the sprint events, there were personal bests for Campbell Williams, Aaron Fenty, Bronwyn Reed, Sam Philip, Bartosz Sikora, also for Harry Thurkettle in both 100 and 200m. Sophie Dickerson took 3rd place in the U20 100m women’s event and Sarah Ireland, who began the season well with a Club Record, was 2nd in the 200m with a PB. Alice Rolfe had a great day winning both the 200m and 300m in the U17 category, both were new personal best times; Holly Brown was 2nd in the U17 B string 300m, also with a PB. At 400m Christian von Eitzen was 3rd in the A string U20 race and Conor Richardson 4th with a PB for the U17s.
At middle distance our U20 men dominated the 800m with Christian von Eitzen winning the U20 A string and Ethan Luck the B string. For the U17s, Harri Kane and Eliza Taswell-Fryer were both 3rd in the 800m with personal best times. In the 1500m Harri Kane achieved his second PB of the day and Alice Wright (U20) was 3rd in her event. Bronwyn Reed was 4th in the U17 B race with a PB.
In both age groups Rosanna Evans and Leonie Glasson ran new personal best times at 3k; Leonie was 2nd in her race and was happy with her second PB of the day in the 1500m Steeple Chase.
Despite feeling unwell, Jess Hunter dominated the 100m hurdles event winning by over a second.
The field events were strong disciplines for us, and the hard work by Simon Dickerson and his athletes during the winter is certainly paying off. Charlie King, Thomas Hale and Charlotte Armitage all won their Pole Vault events.
We also dominated in the U20 Long Jump; TJ Bartley won the men’s event and Jess Hunter the women’s. Well done to Campbell Williams who was 2nd in the U17 men’s event with a PB, TJ Bartley also won the U20 Triple Jump with a PB of 13.89m a huge improvement from his previous best of 13.46! Donelle Arulanandam was 2nd in the women’s event.
There were PBs from Harry Thurkettle, Aaron Fenty and Bronwyn Reed in the Shot Putt with Gianni Aquilino winning the U20 B string competition. He also won the Discus with a PB throw. Eleanor Taylor-Newman was 2nd in the U20 women’s competition and Leonie Glasson PB’d in the U17 event.
Finally the Javelin where there were more PBs for Conor Richardson and Eliza Taswell-Fryer. Gianni Aquilino had his third win of the day in the U20 B string event and Sarah Ireland and Donelle Arulanandam were 2nd and 3rd for the U20 women.
The next meeting will be on the 16th of May at Little Marlow.