English Schools Athletics Championships Gateshead 2016 Report
Herts Phoenix athletes, representing both Hertfordshire and Essex Schools, were again amongst the medallists at this year’s English Schools Track and Field Athletics Championships, which were held at the Gateshead International Stadium on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th July.
After having won her heat in the fastest time, Hannah Williams then set a new Championship Best Performance of 53.90 seconds to easily win the Senior Girls 400 metres final by just over 1 ½ seconds. Ben Lloyd also ran the fastest time in the heats of the Intermediate Boys 400m Hurdles but had a much closer race in final which he won in 54.61 seconds, which puts him second fastest in the 2016 UK rankings for his age goup. Eden Davis won both his heat and semi-final before collecting the bronze medal for 3rd place in the very closely contested final of the Senior Boys 100 metres competition in a time of 11.06 seconds. Although he didn’t progress beyond the heats of the Senior Boys’ 200 metres Luke Smith won a silver medal as part of the Herts team in the 4 x 100 metres relay final. In the Junior Girls events Shaka Egbo set a new personal best clearance of 1.69 metresto finish in fourth place in the High Jump and Christa Hetherington also finished fourth in 11.39 seconds in the 75m Hurdles final, having placed 2nd in heat before winning her semi-final to progress to the final.
The only Herts Phoenix athlete representing Essex Schools was Laura Armorgie, who had an outstanding performance in the Senior Girls’ High Jump competition, when she cleared 1.78 metres, to set a new personal best performance and finish in second place on count back to win the silver medal. This was the fifth time that Laura had represented Essex in the English Schools Championships and the third time she had won a medal. In recognition of her performances when representing Essex Laura had the honour of being made Team Captain and so was delighted to collect the cup for new overall English Schools County Champions. A lovely article by the Herts and Essex Observer of Laura's achievements can be found here
Individual results
Senior Girls
400m
Hannah Williams heat 3 1st 55.77, Final 1st 53.90 CBP
Emily Hack heat 1 2nd 57.08, Final 7th 57.65
High Jump
Laura Armorgie 2nd 1.78
Pole Vault
Erin Breen 8th 3.20
Junior Girls
75m Hurdles
Christa Hetherington heat 2 2nd 11.33, Semi-final 1st 11.48, Final 4th 11.39
High Jump
Merechie “Shaka” Egbo 4th 1.69pb
Senior Boys
100 metres
Eden Davis heat 2 1st 10.81, Semi-final 2 1st 10.80, Final 3rd 11.06
200 metres
Luke Smith heat 2 4th 23.09
400m Hurdles
Robert Green heat 2 5th 57.03
Intermediate Boys
400m Hurdles
Ben Lloyd heat 1 1st 55.71, Final 1st 54.61
