1 July 2018 - U17/U20 - Eton
Full
results here...
Photos start here...
On Sunday our young athletes maintained an unbeaten
record in the YDL that now extends for 13 matches. That win, by the
narrowest of margins, over a resurgent Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers required
some exceptional performances throughout the day - at the mid-afternoon
stage we were in the unusual position of being in 2nd place. Ultimately for
the junior men, a “full house” of all 4 A and B string wins in the
penultimate event, the steeplechase, enabled the club to secure the victory.
Both boys and girls squads were heavily impacted by
absences, with athletes missing through injury, involvement in the British
Champs at Bedford or warming up for international duty in the coming days.
There were many highlights for the junior men. A
sensational u17 4x100 performance saw Theo, Rico, Henry and Kyle get the
baton round in 43.14 - the fastest time by an U17 team for over 10 years and
putting us 2nd in the country this year on Power of 10.
As mentioned we were imperious in the steeplechase
winning all 4 strings - no doubt A string winners Lewis and Ben will be in
contention at the English Schools’ in two weeks.
A-string wins were hard to come by however against a
strong opposition, particularly in the form of our nemesis Shaftesbury. Rico
Cottell’s performance in the U20 110m hurdles was hugely impressive and puts
him in the top 20 in the country despite still being an U17! Ollie Briars
(400m), Matthew Francis (1500m) starred on the track as did Oscar Heaney in
the 4 hurdles - he will be competing for Gibraltar in the European Youth
Champs later this week. In the field Nana Okwesa jumped a 13.24 PB to win
the Triple Jump.
At U20 it was just as competitive. Kelechi equalled
his PB in the high jump for another A string win and he also took a big
stride forward in the triple jump with a new PB of 12.64. Angus had a busy
but productive day with PBs to win the 800 and take second in the 400, he
also took a B string win in the javelin. Keiron Sadler made it a double win
in the javelin taking the A-string with a 51m effort. It was great to see
Ollie Bright, a first year U17, holding his own against the big guns of
Shaftesbury in the U20 1500m A-string - 3rd place in a very tactical race
against athletes up to four years older shows his huge potential. In the
field Ben Hawkes won the shot with a 14.93 put but his huge 65m effort was
only enough for 2nd in the hammer against a junior international from
Windsor.
We welcomed three debutants to the squad: Harley
Sitwell impressed with a B-string win in the 400 hurdles, a good relay leg
and he can also pole vault! Another newcomer Joel Rooney took the B string
1500m win and multi-eventer Seb Burke was in action in the discus and
javelin.
All in all a great result which secures our place in
the final.
Rod
Photos from Rod Harrington
