Twelve of Herts Phoenix U17s donned their county vests to represent Hertfordshire at the Inter-Counties match this weekend at Basildon.

Taking on the counties of Essex, Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey, Kent and Middlesex was always going to be a tough call but those athletes selected, following their fine performances at the county Championships in May this year, all acquitted themselves well.  Indeed there were a number of excellent performances and personal bests to light up the damp and overcast afternoon.

First up for the boys was Richard Humphries in the hammer circle.  Richard had been throwing well of late and set a new personal best of 48.98m with his first throw.  He then went on to pepper the 49m mark with a series of good efforts and with his 5th throw improved his personal best to a massive 52.45m which also broke the club record.  This gave him second place in the match and shows that he is coming into form at the perfect time with the National AAAs next weekend and pushes him back up to 13th in the national rankings.

In the 800m both Joe Gaynor, A string and Thomas Barfoot, B string, were up against some high quality opposition and both ran well to finish 6th with times of 2:04.49 and 2:07.20s respectively, collecting good points for the team.

Andrew Walshe – running up an age group – performed with his usual composure also finishing in 6th place in a good time of 53.14s.  This shows that he will be a force to be reckoned with and has nothing to fear in the U17s next summer.

In the girls match there were a number of excellent performances and personal bests.
Katie Caulfield, fresh from her England international call up, comfortably won the long jump with 5.77m, a jump close to her best and went on to run a solid 200m – an event she rarely runs – in a personal best time of 26.68s, taking 3rd place.

Claire Humphries showed a welcome return to form in winning a very close and exciting 80mH race in a season’s best time of 11.50s which will take her back up to 7th in the national rankings.  Claire also took 6th in the A string 100m with 12.85s and was partnered by Lottie Cullen who, having just returned from holiday, took 5th in the B string.

In the 300m Deborah Willis, recently selected to represent the East of England at the UK School Games at the end of August, took 3rd with a time of 43.19s and
Chloe-Anne Currie came 4th in the B string Triple Jump with 9.24m.

Hannah Lloyd, also selected for the UK Schools Games and up against some top opposition, finished 3rd in the 300mHurdles and recorded a new personal best of 45.75s, another athlete showing that she is peaking at the right time of the season with the national championships at Birmingham next weekend.

Eloise Meakins won the Javelin A string with a fine throw of 36.63m and Millie Phelan recorded good performances in both the High Jump 1.55m and Shot Putt 8.03m B strings.

Finally, the 4x100m relay team of Humphries, Holman (St Albans), Phelan and Caulfield, finished in 5th place to round off a good day for the Herts Phoenix contingent and to help the girls team finish in 4th place in the match.

 

Jon Humphries