Team Manager Pat Card reports on he second YDL meeting of the season. The sun shone on our first visit to the new track at Little Marlow. Unfortunately the sun wasn’t so bright on the team which was hit by the exam season and a couple of Great Grandma Birthday parties; but the stalwarts were there flying the flag for the Vale.
With only eight boys across the two age bands they took up the challenge and covered as many events as was possible. Tijeane Bartley and Sam Akpabio, Campbell Williams and Aaron Fenty all raced to a PB in their respective sprints.
Tijeanne won both the Triple and Long jumps and Will Ralston gained a PB in the javelin of 20.5m and showed true potential in this event. Ethan Luck, normally known for his distance running, came second in the “B” string Triple jump and Bartosz Sikora covered the rest of the sprint races. In the final field event, Thomas Hale came for the pole vault and again achieved maximum points .
The girls’ team of seven included the first appearance of a new member Chelsea Cockell in the sprints.
Unfortunately she had felt a tweak in her ankle on the Wednesday and in her first event, the 100m, she aggravated it even more and had to sit out of the rest of the afternoon. (We hope she is back training soon). With the injury sustained by Chelsea there was a quick re organisation of the team but with so few athletes many events could not be covered.
Rosanna Evans made her first appearance in the 1500m SC and came home, slightly wet, in 3rd place which was very creditable as her 800m B string had been the previous race with Alice Wright running the A string .
Alice Rolfe steamed round the 300m then followed it up with a 200m with Florence Lawlor, and Holly Brown moved up and age group to run B string 200m with Sarah Ireland in A string.
Eliza Taswell-Fryer left her grandma’s birthday party to take part in the 1500m, finishing 4th in the A string.
Finally we could only get 2 relay teams together, an U17 Mens’ 4x100m :Aaron Fenty, Will Ralston, Bart Sikora and Campbell Williams and an U20 Womens 4x400m: Holly Brown, Alice Rolfe, Alice Wright and Rosanna Evans with both teams coming home in 3rd place .
Thanks to our time keeper Peter Hoare and our team of officials, Nicki Ralston, Becky Fenty, Ruban Arulanandam we got 279 points and came 6th in the match.
Well done to all the athletes, a credit to the Club.