National Young Athletes League – Bromley – 17 May 2009
It was another early start
for Team Dorset for the second fixture in the NYAL in Bromley. Our
opponents this time were teams from, Cambridge Harriers, City of
Norfolk, and Team Southampton, and it proved to be a much closer match
than the first fixture.
During the early part of
the competition, Team Dorset had been in 4th place, though
not far behind 3rd placed Cambridge. At every announcement of
the scores throughout the day we seemed to be getting closer to that 3rd
place, but it was not until the very end of the competition that we knew
we had managed to overtake Cambridge Harriers for 3rd – all
very exciting.
We were all a little
concerned when we arrived at the venue in Bromley as it was tipping down
with rain, although at least the wind we had the previous day seemed to
be less of an issue. Fortunately for all concerned the rain abated and
we had clear blue skies for the start of the first events, though the
wind did pick up and it was very blustery along the back straight – not
an ideal day for PBs.
Team Dorset were
struggling to fill places in all the events – U17W being a particular
problem - the main reason being the proximity of GCSE examinations,
which was a shame because we could have been vying for the top spot on
the day with a full complement. It wasn’t just the athletes we were
short of either – we didn’t have many officials, dropping 11 points in
that department alone. Let’s hope that the next fixture can be better
attended all round.
From WAC we had a small
group of athletes: Hannah Winton, Abi Card, Alex Vaughan-Johncey, Sharon
Hutchings, Abbie Hine, Alwyn Harries, Matthew Curtis, and Jack Snook.
Abbie was competing for
Team Dorset in the NYAL for the first time and had a great run in the
1200m. Her time of 4:32.8 is an AAA grade 4 performance, which given it
is the first time in that event and also the prevailing weather
conditions is excellent.
Sharon also gave a good
account of herself in a sensibly run 800m, running in a PB of 2:37.0
which is an AAA grade 3 performance.
Alex, Hannah and Abi all
had a good day in the U15 age category. Whilst Alex’s performance in the
800 was not quite a PB, she managed to win the B string event. Hannah
managed to improve her discus throw by some 4 metres to 18.81m. Abi had
a good 200m, the time being spoilt by the blustery conditions, and
having the outside lane didn’t help.
The boys also had solid
performances. Matt and Jack managed a lockout in the high jump again
coming 1st in both A and B strings, and this time also did
the same in the pole vault; Alwyn managed to break the 26 second barrier
for the first time over 200m, running it in a PB performance of 25.8s.
It is not easy to perform
at your best in less than ideal conditions combined with such an early
start, so I think you will agree that our athletes did really well on
the day. Well done to all of them.
Our next fixture in this
league is on Sunday 31st May and the venue for that is
Basingstoke – not such an early start!
