Welcome fine weather conditions produced a glut of personal bests at the young athletes team were runaway winners at Thurrock on Sunday.  All three boys’ teams and the U15 girls came out on top in their categories as the squad recorded their highest league tally of the summer.

The U17 Men won by almost 50 points with five A wins and four B. There was a clean sweep in the A throws as Laurence Goodacre travelled back from the English Schools to win shot & discus, the latter with the third longest ever throw by an U17 man. Another Schools competitor Brad Burr had a hat-trick of wins with his javelin speciality plus hurdles & discus B. Andy Lewis was a comfortable victor in the 400m and also improved his 200m PB. Lewis Williams’ hammer PB brought victory and Kieran Nelson (long jump) and Jack Edgar Hill (triple jump) completed the winning tally.  

A strong all round showing and good B string results brought victory to the U15 Boys.  Andrew Kerr’s pole vault success was the only A string individual maximum and the relay squad also came home first. There were no fewer than six B string s wins as Danny Wilson won hurdles & discus, as well as improving his discus best, Michael Lewis won the 200m on his debut, and Adam Wileman (800m PB), Rhys Stevenson (high jump) and James Perkins (long jump).

The U13 boys won their section thanks to fine track performances.  Finbar Smyth and Freddy Keefe doubled up for 800m victory and Nicholas Shade and Nick Duffey won both 1500m strings – with Duffey winning the A discus for good measure.  George Perkins won both B string sprints and combined with Jordan Fox, Alex Law and Duffey again for relay victory. 

The U15 Girls narrowly won their age group. Rebecca O’Neill and Amanda Blaxland both set PBs on their way to 1500 victories and Rachel Sadler added another middle distance career best as she won the 800m B race. Sophie Baggs at last broke the 30m barrier in club competition to rank seventh on the all time discus list – her 30.81m throw would have placed fourth at the English Schools. She also won B shot. Deborah Knight & Laura Drew won javelin A & B and Shelley Wilson won the B discus. Nicola Peachey (hurdles A) and Sophie Reynolds (300m B) added more wins.

The U17 girls worked hard to cover as many events as possible. Angela James was a double winner in the high jump & hurdles, and added a 200m PB. Michelle Lovell set a PB to take the 800m B honours and U15 patsy McWeeney did likewise to clinch 1500B first place and also improved her javelin best – in which Jennifer Holland won the B.

There were four wins from the U13 girls. Avril Loynes and Lydia Hallam both set new marks for 1500m victory and Georgie Taylor had a shot & discus B string double.