Page 15 - Summer2014Gazette

Athletics Report
season by gaining selection
for the Commonwealth Youth
Games in Samoa, the limit on
2nd claim members means
we aren’t able to include
Charmont in the team, Kerri
has begun her studies in
the States and a number of
others are unavailable through
injury at the end of a long
season. Add to that that our
Schools Games competitors
are required to be up at the
crack of dawn to travel down
from Manchester and one
can almost be forgiven for
thinking the odds are being
stacked against us. But we’ve
coped with worse (haven’t
we?). The other challenge in
the run up to the event has
been the sudden unavailability
of the external throwing area
due to subsidence! At one
stage, there has been talk of
cancelling a number of the
long throws, including the
javelin, which would have
been more than a bit of a blow
for our Guernsey girls. In the
end, all events survive, though Meanwhile, in the vault,
with all athletes limited to
four throws.
However, the sun is shining
when we arrive at Alexander
Stadium and who needs
omens? The U20 javelin is
in fact the first event on the
amended programme and Ali
and Zoe get us off to a strong
13
start with 3rd and 1st in the A
and B strings, respectively. We
go one better in the U20 LJ,
with Holly winning the A and
Toyin 2nd in the B. Nor are
we slow out of the blocks in
the first track events, the long over the distance, continues
hurdles, with Leah 3rd and
Kate Purser, in her first outing meeting’s half-way point.
over the full lap, a highly
commendable 2nd in the
400H and Isabella and Annie
(by a whisker) completing our
first double win of the day in
the 300H. A win by Niamh
in the U20 A 1500 and a 3rd
from Georgina in the U17
B maintain the momentum
going into what has been our
strongest event all season:
the 100m. But we haven’t
factored in the omens! Viv
gets us under way nicely with
a comfortable win in the first
race and Molly repeats this
in the U17 A, but false starts
in both the B strings have us
beginning to think about what
might have been. We can’t
come back from that, can we?
the competitors are doing
their best to shred the TM’s
nerves again, but all emerge
with medals and good points
(Helena 3rd, Sonia 1st and
Shaye 3rd). The throws
aren’t going quite so well, it
being a hard task to try to
compensate for the missing
Divine. Jamiyla produces a
silver lining to this passing
cloud in the U17 LJ and then,
again, in the U20 B HJ and
the clouds part with Isabella
taking another gold in the
300, before Holly and Annie
produce our second double
of the afternoon in the 80H.
Another silver, in the 100H,
from Molly Scott in her debut
the fightback as we near the
Better news then arrives from
the throws, with Victoria and
Emma both taking 3rd in
the U20 hammer and Toyin
adding a 2nd in the U17 TJ.
Another winning double –
from Jess and Amy in the U17
3000 – and two silvers (from
Annie and Nicole) in the U20
TJ, and perhaps we aren’t
out of it after all? And that’s
before Viv, Magda, Parris and
Olivia come away from the
200s with two more wins and
two 2nd places. With Niamh
and Jess both back to winning
ways in the 800s and three
medals in the steeplechases
(1st for Yasmin and 2nd places
for Charlotte and Lottie,
despite full immersion in the
water jump!) it’s beginning to
look more promising!