U13’s & U15’s in historic league win

The U13 and U15 young athletes made a little piece of history for the club by winning premier 1 of the Southern structure of the youth development league in Eton on Saturday.  Never before has the club won the highest league possible for lower age group young athletes. The league win secures a place in the UK final for the 3rd year running with the final taking place at Beford's international stadium on Saturday the 3rd of September. Southern premier 1 is by far the strongest of all the lower age group leagues in the YDL and this year the standard has been higher than ever and the competition fierce so to top the table is an amazing achievement for the club. Going into Saturday, we knew we had to finish no lower than 2nd and no more than 23 points behind 2nd place Blackheath & Bromley Harriers to secure the league title and with the club finishing 2nd just 7 points behind Blackheath, the league victory was confirmed. It was however touch and go all the way to the very last event and the day was not without drama but this is how the day unfolded. The throwers starting the team off superbly and their contribution throughout the day was amazing with so many points being generated from shot, discus, hammer and javelin.  In this league, if you are scoring more than 10 points in each age group event, you are doing very well. In the U15 boys hammer, english schools discus champion Josh Douglas threw a new pb to come 2nd in the a string with Bradley Jenvety just short of his pb to be 3rd in the b string.  10 points to the club.  Next up the U15 girls long jump where Jasmyn Allen & Ettie Hammond were 2nd in a & b string respectively another 12 points in the bag.  Then came the sprint hurdles races.  Jess Higgins ran a new pb of 12.0 to be 2nd in the a string U13 girls race with Grace Colmer unfortunately dq'd in the b string race after a stumble led to Grace pushing a hurdle over.  Harry Crosby and Adie Purse both equalled their pb's to be 2nd and 4th respectively in U13 boys a & b string races and Ettie Hammond and Grace Griffiths were both 3rd in the U15 girls a & b string races.  Callum Gregson's injury prevents him from hurdling just now but Wilf McKenzie stepped up to the a string to finish a superb 2nd in the a string race & Oliver Thatcher equalled his pb to gain valuable points by a 3rd place finish in the b string.  37 more points gained in the hurdles. Next up U15 girls hammer where Anna Merritt & Jess Bennett threw close to their pb's to be 2nd and 1st respectively in a & b string and provide another 14 points to the club.  The U13 boys shot next where Nathan Travers was 3rd in a string and Tommy Brammer taking part in his first shot putt competition won the b string with a very respectible putt of 6.94m.  12 more points in the bag.  Next up the U13 girls high jump which has been a very profitable event all season and Maisie Jeger and Lara Scott delivered as normal to secure double a & b string victory and a maximum possible 16 points.  Back to the track for the series of 150m/200m races.  First up the U13 girls 150m, who again delivered 2 a & b string victories with Emily Eades Scott running bravely with sore shins to take the a string race & Tabitha Proudley smashing her lifetime best to break 20 seconds for the first time and win the b string.  In the U13 boys 200m race, Nolan Holloway put in one of the performances of the meeting to break his pb and finish 3rd in the a string race but in doing so injured his leg and spent the rest of the day in the medical tent.  Lewis Drake making his YDL debut for the club was 5th in the b string.  For the U15 girls 200m, Hannah Childs equalled her pb to get 2nd in the a string race & Grace Griffiths also took a fine 2nd place in the b string.  For the U15 boys, both Finley Ryves and Jack MacDonald ran superbly to break their pb's with Fin coming 2nd in the a string race and such was the standard of competition that Jack finished 6th in the b string despite a time of 24.8 secs.  The 150/200m races bagged the club a further 43 points. Next up the U15 boys discus, a really strong event for the club and the well matched Josh's Wise & Douglas won the a & b string respectively both throwing just short of 40m for a further 16 points.  Then came the pole vault which for the first time this season and courtesy of Sam Bass-Cooper's training group the club fielded all 4 places in the U15 boys & girls events.  Despite clearing the opening height in practice jumps, nerves got the better of Shannon McCosh ands Poppy Wright in the main competition and they no heighted but they are determined to contribute points in the final. In the boys event, Oliver Thatcher jumped a magnificent 2.10m in his first ever pole vault competition to come 4th in the a string and Ben Vaughan cleared 1.90m to finish 2nd in b string.  8 more really valuable points to the club.  Then came the 800m races beginning with the U13 girls where Maisie Jeger once more delivered a convincing a string victory and Abigail Warrington was 5th in the b string.  Tommy Brammer also ran his usual fine race in the U13 boys a string race to come 2nd but with Nolan now injured we had nobody to run the b string.  Only 2 boys were in Eton that wern't already taken on the maximum 3 individual events and therefore Ruben and Aidie played rock, paper, scissors with the loser taking on the b string 800m to get a point for the team.  Aidie lost and bravely ran the 2 laps someway behind the rest of the field to get the team a valuable point.  We were also missing two of our middle distance U15 girls because of injury and holiday and whilst Elizabeth Adamson ran her usual a string race finishing 6th against high quality opposition, sprinter Elisha Parham picked the short straw to take on 2 laps but despite finishing, Elisha was dq's because of a technical track infringement.  Despite a niggle James Jerram stepped up and won the U15 boys a string race and Ben Vaughan was a further athlete to step in when the team really needed him to gain 6th place in the b string and another point.  30 more points to the team. Next up was the U15 girls discus where english schools champion Samantha Callaway finished 2nd in a string and Anna Merritt won the b string for 14 more throwing points.  Then came the U13 boys high jump and yet anothe ra string win this time for Harry Crosby with Nathan Travers taking 3rd in the b string for 13 more points.  U13 girls shot next and huge pb's for both Emily Eades-Scott (a string 2nd) and Charlotte Dunkley (b string 1st) on her YDL debut for the club saw another 14 points in the bag.  Then came U15 boys long jump where Riley Woodman and Liam Higgins both had 5m jumps for a string 5th and b string 3rd respectively and 6 more points.  U15 boys javelin next where Josh Wise was 2nd in a string and Bradley Jenvey won b string for yet another 14 point throws haul.  Back to the track for the 75m/100m races which started with another double a & b string victory for Emily & Tabitha in the U13 girls 75m with Tabitha breaking her pb to go 3rd on the clubs all-time age group lists.  The U13 boys were once more missing a string sprinter Nolan but Ruben moved up to a string to finish 5th and Lewis Drake moved into the b string slot to come home 4th in the 100m.  The U15 girls of Elisha (a string) and Jasmyn (b string) always perform close to their pb's and today was no different as they came home 4th and 5th respectively in their 100m races.  The U15 boys 100m saw Finley Ryves run the race of his life to win in a new pb of 11.7 despite being bottom of the U15 age group and Wilf McKenzie also bottom of the age group came 4th in b string.  38 more points gained and at this stage we were well in the lead of the match. Next was the U15 boys high jump where Callum Gregson equalled his pb of 1.68m and performed what can only be described as a dodgy celebration in coming 3rd in the a string and Ben Vaughan was 4th in b string.  8 more points.  The ever reliable U15 girls throwers next this time for shot putt.  Samantha Callaway recorded yet another 9 point haul in winning the a string with Anna Merritt 3rd in b string 13 more points to the total.   U13 boys javelin next with Tommy Brammer once more filling in an unfamilier event to pick up 4th place in the b string and Nathan Travers was 5th in a string for 5 more points.  U13 girls long jump next where Maisie Jeger leapt to a seasons best for 3rd place in the a string and Tabitha Proudley completed her 3rd b string win of the day for 12 more points from the event,  Onto the track for the U15 300m races where Hannah Childs ran a lifetime best to go under 42 secs for the first time to finish 3rd in a high quality a string race.  Grace Griffiths was 5th in the b string.  With James Jerram injured, Jack MacDonald ran the a string 300m for the boys recording a lifetime best of 38.7 to come 3rd in the a string and Liam Higgins also ran a lifetime best to be 5th in b string.  14 more points from the 300m races and we were now down into 2nd place on the day behind a really strong Blackheath and Bromley team and with just 23 points seperating the teams in the overall league standings, nerves were fraying. Onto the U15 girls javelin where Samantha Callaway & Poppy Wright delivered exactly what the club needed with an a string win and b string 2nd for 14 invaluable points.  The last track races before the relays now with the 1200m/1500m races.  Meg Hulbert ran her usual gutsy race in the U13 girls 1200m to run 4 min flat and 3rd place in the a string and with another year to come in the age group, Meg will be going onto the clubs all time lists next year if not before and Issy Robinson also came 3rd in the b string in yet another high quality race.  Another year 6 youngster, Ben Brown ran superbly to come 2nd in the a string U13 boys 1500m and Jamie Norton on his YDL debut was 5th in the b string.  Izzy Richardson is enjoying a well earned holiday so Phoebe Moriarty-Palios stepped into her a string shoes and ran her usual conistent race to finish a string 5th in a quality field of U15 1500m girls and Poppy Wright bravely hobbled round despite sore knees to gain a  string point in 6th.  Ben Williams finished 6th in the U15 boys a string 1500m with yet another athlete to step in when a middle distance runner was required Oliver Thatcher was 5th in the b string.  24 more points to the team. Last field events before the closing relays and ther club were 20 or so points behind Blackheath and needed some big points if they were to win the league title.  Harry Crosby & Ruben Ormsher took 3rd places in a & b string U13 boys long jump respectively to get 8 of them, Hannah Childs and Elizabeth Adamson took a & b string 5th place in the U15 girls high jump for another 4 points but crucially each of the girls beat their Blackheath & Bromley counterpart.  The last 2 field events were throws and in keeping with the theme of the match, they delivered, completely.  Josh Wise putted an enormous 13.73m to equal the U15 boys club record and take the a string win with Josh Douglas also recording a lifetime best to come 2nd in the b string and 14 precious points.  Even better to come where bottom of the age group Jasmine Larsen & Gracie Jenvey won an a & b string double victory in the U13 girls javelin, Gracie with a lifetime best and with 16 more points in the bag the scores were now really close at the top and we had one hand on the league title trophy. Finally the relays.  Who better to rely on than the U13 girls 4 x 100m team who duly delivered another victory courtesy of Jeger, Proudley, Higgins and Eades-Scott and 9 more points.  Next up the makeshift 4 x 100m U13 boys team of Crosby, Ormesher, Drake & Brammer who exceeded expectations in 5th, 2 more points.  The sprint relay quartet of Jones, Hammond, Allen and Parham next who again exceeded expectations for a 3rd place finish and 5 more points.  The final sprint relay was the U15 boys and what a race it was with Prince, Wise (on his relay debut), McKenzie and Ryves going 3rd on the all-time list with a 47.7 sec clocking for 2nd place on the day after an amazing last leg by Fin who was only in first in front of the 3rd place athlete 10cm  from the line.  7 more points and barring batton dropping disaster we knew the league title was now ours.  The ever present 4 x 300m U15 girls quartet of Griffiths, Adamson, Parham & Childs were 3rd with a superb last leg by Hannah giving the team 5 more points and it was left to the U15 boys 4 x 300m quartet of Prince, Higgins, Ryves & MacDonald to finish 3rd for 5 more points. Shortly afterwards the scores were read out with Blackhath & Bromley winning on the day but with the margin of victory just 7 points the league title was ours. A special mention to Richie and Alan as track officials, Neil as timekeeper, Paul Kirkpatrick & Zoe as field officials without whom we simply wouldn't have won the league, all our parent helpers, the Team Managers who have done an amazing job, the clubs fantastic young athlete coaches but most of all the young athletes themselves who have done the red & white stripes proud. Bedford here we come. Full results below. 20160716 ydll southern_premier 1 results