Some of Herts Phoenix brightest young stars were making their County debuts this weekend in the U13 Inter-County match at Kingston upon Thames.  They helped Hertfordshire girls to 2nd place and the boys to 12th out of 14 counties which was a fantastic achievement.

Within that there were some excellent individual performances recorded by the Phoenix youngsters in a high quality competition.

Natalie Allen, of Monks Walk School, won her race in the 70mH equalling her personal best of 11.50s but, due to the number of counties competing and the two race format, was pipped into second place on time by the winner of the other heat.  It was a great shame that these fastest two did not get the chance to race each other but Natalie is currently ranked no.2 in the UK for her age group – remarkable in her first season.  Natalie also ran a leg in the 4x100 relay team which finished in 7th position.

Equally remarkable are the Hadley twins – Natasha and Melissa – from Presdales School.  They competed in the Shot Putt and won both A and B strings with new personal best performances. Melissa, with 9.85m moved herself up to 4th in the UK rankings, whilst Natasha leapfrogged her sister into 2nd in the UK rankings with a massive put of 10.17m. Later in the day Natasha took 3rd place in the long jump with 4.47m and Melissa took 4th in the Discus with 18.05m – a tremendous day’s work for these talented sisters.

In the 1500m Emily Ruane finished in a very creditable 5th place, recording a time of 5:22.86s. Megan Breen was the fifth member of Herts Phoenix to gain her County vest and following an excellent performance at the County Championships in May this year, Megan was selected to contest the 800m B string, running well to finish 11th in a time of 2:51.10s.

In the boys competition, Daniel Betts competed in the 75m Hurdles and came 6th in his race recording a time of 14.52s, he also ran a good 200m to finish 5th in 29.27s and finished 11th in the long jump with a jump of 4.05m to complete a very busy day.

Callum Scutt ran the 100m in 14.08s to also finish in 6th place and Sam Jones ran in the 800m recording a time of 2:33.82  to finish in 12th place. 

Herts Phoenix is very proud of these athletes and their achievements.  It is a testament to their talent, dedication and the guidance provided by their coaches that they have done so well in such a short space of time.  With talented and hard working athletes such as these, together with many others who will doubtless achieve these high standards in due course, the club and county teams have a bright future.