Vale’s second appearance at the Southern Athletics League was deemed a ‘very positive day’ by one of the team who travelled to Sandy. There still weren’t as many athletes as there should have been, but more than in the first event. The weather was described as ‘iffy’, however, everyone stepped up to the mark.
Although no first places in sprints, there were personal best times for Sam Akpabio, Bartosz Sikora and Florence Lawlor in the 100m and congratulations to Julia Austin who improved on her V50 100m Club Record. Florence and Bartosz completed a positive day with PBs in the 200m too. There was great teamwork from all of the sprinters in the relays where the men finished 2nd and the women 3rd.
In the middle distance events, James Davis again took on a large handful of events but had a lot more support this time. He completed well in the 400m hurdles, 800m, 3k and the 3k steeplechase. Despite being in the middle of exams at school, Will Ralston ran strong 800m and 1500m races ably supported by Alan Roberts in the 1500. Julia Austin was 2nd in the ladies 800m and won the 1500m with Vicky Sheldon supporting her as the B string.
In the field events, Hannah Welsh finished 2nd in the Triple Jump and Dan Barber achieved a PB in the Shot Putt and Javelin as did Alan Roberts in the Discus and Kai Baldock in the Javelin. Brenda Russell was as always our A string for the ladies throws and performed consistently throughout.
A positive for the day was that with more athletes it was possible to have A and B string competitors in far more events and therefore more points. Unfortunately the next SAL event on Saturday 20th June, the same weekend as the Nationals but hopefully there will be a good turnout from those not running at Bedford. Full results from Sandy can be found at: http://www.thepowerof10.info/results/results.aspx?meetingid=129887