English Schools Championships - Gateshead Friday 7th & Saturday 8th July 2006  

Georgie Bean and Chloe van Wulven returned from Gateshead with silver medals in the English Schools Championships. 

Their podium places came at either end of the two-day meeting and marked the start and end respectively of their careers at this annual sporting festival.

Georgie's medal came in the junior boys javelin, one of the opening field events that started the proceedings, but which like several field events took place away from the main arena.  But the lack of audience did not affect Southern Champion Georgie, who threw 48.15m to take silver behind Leicestershire's Harry Hollis whose PB effort of 49.27m took gold, while UK Number 1 Michael Friend of Lancashire finished out of the medals in fourth. 

For Chloe the senior girls' 100m hurdles silver late on Saturday afternoon was her third and final medal to add to her previous gold & silver hurdles medals as an intermediate girl.  It was an unexpected end to her five-year career at these championships, as she was not ranked in the top three nationally. But her chances improved dramatically after Friday's heats when top prospects Kylie Robilliard, the South of England champion and another former Schools' hurdles champion, was disqualified for trailing her rear leg into the next lane, after coming home ahead of Chloe in her heat while Devon's hope Karla Drew crashed into the first hurdle in heat two and exited the proceedings. That left Chloe and Oxfordshire's Lucy Boggis as firm medal favourites, and the final proved to be a close battle between the two - and the fierce headwind which badly affected times. The two were locked together well clear until the ninth barrier of ten when Chloe lost her stride pattern, taking five strides not three to the last barrier. It seemed a medal would slip away but Chloe's momentum kept her ahead of the chasing pack for a well-earned silver as Boggis maintained her form for gold.  

Eugene Ayanful came within a whisker of a medal in the inter boys 200m, finishing fourth after fast heat & semi finals PB times. He won his heat on Friday in an impressive wind-aided sub-22 seconds clocking and on Saturday morning set a new PB of 22.14s with legal wind to go second on the club U17 all-time list.  In the final, in cold and blustery conditions, Eugene ran a fantastic race and was one of four sprinters who battled neck and neck down the straight for the three medals positions. But it was Cheshire's Tony Corrigan, winner of the junior boys' title last year  who edged ahead to win in 22.27s, while Hampshire's Chris Tandi's last surge earned silver in 22.35s, 1-100th ahead of Kent's James Alaka, with Eugene a fraction behind in 22.38s, and out of the medals. His misery deepened later when he strained a hamstring anchoring the Essex relay team and failed to finish.

Katie Richardson only qualified for the senior girls 800m as one of the fastest losers but ran a positive race in the final, taking the pace on early on.  Although she was left for speed over the last 200m she was rewarded with a PB of 2m 11.52s, a half-second improvement. 

Bonne Buwembo was unable to reproduce his 60m form from last week ending up 6th in the inter javelin. He cited a tight back, rather than his finger injury for his performance. 

But there were no final places for Nicola Hill, despite a new PB in the inter girls 80m hurdles and Frankie Calder, who beat girls with faster PBs and was close to her best in the 300m: both have another year in the age group.

There was disappointment too for Vince Lazaro had run up problems in the inter long jump which restricted him to a token measured effort when a repeat of his recent form would have earned a top-6 place while Matt Bloy's blistered foot made for a painful exit in the inter 1500m heats as he finished well short of his usual times.

Inter Girls:

300m 5h2 Frankie Calder - 41.05s

80m Hurdles 4h2 Nicola Hill - 11.89s (PB)

Senior Girls

800m 5th  Katie Richardson - 2m 11.52s (PB - Heat: 6h2 2:15.71s)

100m Hurdles  2nd  Chloe van Wulven - 15.25s (Heat: 1h1 - 14.71s) 

Junior Boy:

Javelin 2nd  Georgie Bean 48.15m 

Intermediate Boy:

200m 4th Eugene Ayanful 22.38s (Semi: 2s1 - 22.14s PB, 1h5 - 21.97s w/a)

1500m 8h1 Matt Bloy - 4m 14.28s

Long Jump 16th - Vince Lazaro - 5.96m

Javelin 6th Bonne Buwembo 53.00m

Full results - http://www.esaa.net 

 

Full results - http://www.esaa.net