Wessex League Match 1, Sunday 22nd April
Published: 24 April 2018
On a sunny breezy day, conditions were good for athletics, and Oxford’s juniors were in action in a successful day of competition against strong teams from Slough, Aldershot, Marlborough, Dorchester and Newbury.
Once again the U13 girls were out in force to see off stiff competition from Slough and Newbury, emerging as match winners. Everyone was willing to try new events, there were many good PB’s and wonderful team spirit. Special mention goes to first time competitor Ellen Bruce, who won the B string 800m, achieving a Grade 3, and promising time of 14.5 in the 100m. Not to be outdone, Charlotte Ashby also ran a Grade 3 in the 800m A string. Maisee Simms and Bronte Bennett both threw PB’s in javelin, each achieving Grade 4, while Olivia Jones took B string victory in both discus and shot.
For the under 15 girls there were a string of strong performances – from Eugenia Mutero and Georgie Bristow in the sprints, Emily Haines-Gray and Amy Shayler in the 300m, Grace Whitty and Beth Hunter in the 800m, Holly Hunter and Margot Ward in the 1500m, and Georgie Bristow and Annie Sutcliffe, who not for the first time took A and B string 75m hurdles wins. In high jump Maisie Westbrook sprang to 1.55m to win A string, while Annie Sutcliffe took the B string with 1.30m. Lily Peach won the A string javelin and got second in the shot, and there were more second places in javelin, discus and shot B strings. For the under 17s, Chloe Taylor and Thea Diment took good seconds in the 100m A and B and Thea repeated that in the 200m. In the field events Jess Walter won the A string long jump with 4.64m, Harriet Kimber-Nicholson won the A string discus, Grace Buchanan the B string, and Grace took 2nd place in the A string javelin with 26.45m.
This was enough for all three age groups to win their matches – a great start to the Wessex League season for the girls, who will feature strongly in the league this season if they can keep this up.
The boys showed a big improvement on their first outing in the Oxfordshire League, with competition appearing for places in the under 15 and under 17 teams. For the under 13 boys Freddie Jones ran superbly to win his 1500m A string by more than 30s from the Aldershot runner, Sidie Turay won the A string shot with 6.64m, while performance of the day went to Jonathan Davies with another big PB in the discus, winning the A string and throwing beyond 20m for the first time (20.68m). Sidie won the A string javelin with 17.81 and Jonathan won the B string. Moses Sadler returned to the u15 team to win the B string 100m in 12.7s, Louis Enskat ran impressively to win the A string 800m in 2:13,70, more than 7 seconds ahead of the Aldershot athlete, and Drew Hogger backed up with a second place in the B string. Henry Channon was 2nd in the A string 1500m. Roshan Mowat won the A string high jump and long jump, Moses took the B string long jump, and Roshan was 40cm off winning the A string shot. Noah Palmer won the A string discus. For the under 17 boys Tom Wood again stormed to victory in the 100m and 200m A string, with times of 11.7s and 23.7s, while Willem Walker-Smith also ran well for second place in the B string 100m (12.3s) and B string 200m (25.8s).Ben Davies was second in the 1500m A string. Despite having little coverage in the field events – the exception being Adam Byles and Ben Davies winning A and B string discus – the under 17 boys did enough to secure second place on the day, matching the seconds earned by the under 13s and under 15s. The boys have improved strongly over two matches and with strong commitment in the coming weeks will be well placed to challenge for honours in the league this season.
