The South of England U15 & U17 Championships took place at a warm and sunny Julie Rose Stadium, Ashford, Kent this weekend.  This is the first major outdoor championship of the year and a chance for athletes to mark their progress and standing against some of the top athletes in the country. A full set of results can now be found in the "Results" section of this web site.

This year there were relatively few medals to celebrate for the club but a number of youngsters were making their debuts or stepping up to new age groups and finding the experience invaluable. Excitingly there were a number of outstanding personal bests which show the huge improvements being made.

Andrew Walshe, stepping up to the U17 age group ran two consecutive personal bests in the 400m lowering his best mark from 51.8 to first 51.25 then 51.09s in the semi final and although the 8th fastest in the semi-finals just missed out on the final having come fifth in his heat.  This gives him the English Schools qualifying mark and a sub 51s run is surely just around the corner.

Ella Lloyd, at her first SEAA championships ran close to her PB with 2.25.19s but just missed out on the final.  Her times are now consistently around the 2.25 mark which is a huge improvement on last season.

Abbie Griffiths ran well in the 300m but her time of 42.72 was not quite enough to get her into the final but again lowered her PB from 43.3s in the process.

Natalie Allen, stepping up to the 75mHurdles, ran a personal best of 12.27s to show that she is coming to terms with the event and has now set personal bests in each of her last three races.

A run of 4th places on Sunday morning was frustrating for the athletes but all performed well.

First of all, Hannah Lloyd having qualified for the final the previous day, ran a season’s best of 45.15s to finish just outside the medals and moving her back up to 7th in the UK rankings.

Richard Humphries, in the Hammer, was lying in 5th place with two rounds to go and moved up to 4th with a personal best in round 5 and in the final round had to throw over 55m to get a medal. In the end he managed 54.40m which was a personal best by 2 metres but again not quite enough to make the podium.  It is, however, over the national standard for the English schools Championships and moves him up to 7th in the national rankings too.

One of the most remarkable performances of the weekend came from middle distance runner Lizzie Bird who ran superbly in the heats to qualify for Sunday’s final with a time of 4.49.67s, knocking nearly 6 seconds off her PB.  In the final Lizzie ran superbly to take 4th place and in the process lowered her PB another 6 seconds to 4.43.88s and go well inside the English Schools Championships entry standard, a quite superb performance.

Eloise Meakins also took 4th place in the Javelin, narrowly failing to add to the silver medal she won last year.  She threw 39.47m to record a personal best but missed out narrowly to the 3rd placed athlete despite having comfortable passed the English schools Championships entry standards.

Ed Rowbottom competed in the Discus and Shot put returning 6th place in the Discus with  a huge PB of 33.04m and going one better in the shot with 9.93m to finish 5th.

The real stars and medallists this weekend were Millie Phelan, Finolla Frederic and Jodie Williams.

Millie, a heptathlete, competing in the high jump against some high quality athletes, managed to clear 1.60m and equalled her PB in the process.  Despite failing narrowly at 1.65m she won the bronze medal to cap a superb performance.

Also competing for the first time since injuring her back recently was Gemma Armorgie, last year’s U15 silver medallist.  Although disappointed with only clearing 1.50m, Gemma was happy to come through unscathed having been on crutches just three weeks ago!

The previous day another of the clubs young heptathlon prospects also took a fantastic medal in the U15 girls event.  Finolla Frederick won the Silver medal with a leap of 1.55m, fractionally short of her personal best of 1.57m.  This keeps the recent Club tradition of returning medals from this event with Jenny Hutchings having won gold two years ago and Gemma Armorgie taking the silver last year.  Finolla also competed in the 200m recording 27.1s and returning a personal best in the 75mH of 12.26s, a good weekend for this very talented athlete.

In the U17 100m metres Jodie Williams was racing for the first time over the distance this year having concentrated on the 200m for the early part of the season.  In the heats she clocked 11.78s to go into the final as fastest qualifier with Annie Tagoe just behind her with a lifetime best 11.85s.  Jodie, who knew she could improve hugely on that first run, entered the final with a determined look about her.  She blasted out of the blocks to leave all behind her, equalling her personal best of 11.56s to win comfortably from Tagoe in second with 11.98s.

In the same race Frances Slater, who had qualified in second place from her heat earlier, ran 12.72s to finish 8th.  Frances had also made the final of the 200m the previous day finishing 6th, to make it a busy weekend.

So, three medals, one of each colour and a large number of personal best performances show that there are more medals and representative honours to come from this talented crop of athletes as the summer continues.

Jon Humphries