Athletics: WSAC make it a golden day at county event championships
WEST Suffolk Athletics Club members were on fine form at the weekend, winning a total of 73 medals at the Suffolk County Championships.
The medal haul included 36 golds, spread throughout the age groups.
Under-13 girl Chelsea Wade took gold in both hurdles and shot put and finished second behind clubmate Sarah Smith in the long jump.
Sarah also took bronze in both 100 and 200 metres.
The other medallist in this age group was Sam Carson, who took a very good silver medal in 1500m.
The U-15 girls won seven gold medals. Montana Jackson led the way, winning both 100m and long jump. A leap of 4.96m equalled her personal best from last year, but was achieved without the aid of any backwind.
This puts her in a very good position to represent Suffolk at the English Schools Championships in July.
A certain inclusion in that team is Holly Archer, who impressed in winning both the 300 and 1500m – the latter in a new championship record of 4 mins 48.1, which is well inside the ES qualification time.
Bethany Yapp won the high jump with 1.45m, where Abi Harrington set a new pb to take the silver medal.
Rachael Arbon was narrowly beaten into fourth to miss out on a medal, but she went on to win the hurdles, with Abi again in second place.
Beth Wade was the clear winner of the discus, and the other medallist was the ever-improving Emily Rogers, who was a close third in both 100 and 200m before going one better for a silver medal behind Montana in the long jump.
The most prolific squad in terms of medals were the U-17 women, who took a total of 16, including seven gold.
Sam Milner was as dominant as ever in the throws, taking gold in shot put, discus and javelin.
In each of these, West Suffolk athletes also picked up the silver medal, Sarah Ayling-Bate in shot and discus and Evie Castle in javelin.
Amy Donegan won gold in both 300m, where she beat her pb by a full second, and in triple jump, which she won by almost a metre.
In 300m, Emily Barker took the bronze having already taken silver in the 1500m after a storming final 80m.
Abi Marriott set a new championship record in winning the 800m. She clocked 2 mins 17.5 (another ES standard) and was 16 secs ahead of silver medallist Kelly Barnard.
In high jump, Lizzy Harrison continued her early season form winning the gold medal with 1.60m. Lizzy, too, has qualified for English Schools and her selection, along with Sam Milner, Montana Jackson, Holly Archer and Abi Marriott has been verbally confirmed.
Other U-17 medallists were Ashlea Smith (third in 100m) and Evie Castle with two further silver medals in hurdles and long jump.
Four junior women picked up five medals between them. Zara McLoone took gold in the 3000m, as did Melisa Castle in 100m.
There were silver medals for Emily Wenman in 800m and Helen Waters in both long jump and 400m.
Entries for the Senior women's age group were very low all-round and only Tania Spurling and Sarah Colson represented West Suffolk AC.
They both came home with 00 percent records, Sarah taking gold in 800m while Tania collected gold medals in hurdles, high jump, long jump, triple jump and javelin.
Ross Forder was the club's only U-13 boy medallist, winning a good gold medal in the hurdles.
For the U-15s, Jake Hughes and Calum Rutter came in first and second in 400m, and Jake also won gold in the 800m, where Jack Anthony took the bronze.
Simon Dawson was runner-up in a hard fought 1500m, finishing just a second behind the winner while Thomas Bedford-Carrick took second in long jump.
Eugene Mandaza was one of the stars of the U-17 squad, winning impressively in both 100 and 200m. He took the silver medal in long jump, losing out on the gold by just 12 cms.
Jack Chrisman continued his improvement in high jump which he won with a fine new pb of 1.72m.
Alex Dunbar was the easy winner of the 2000m steeplechase, if indeed any such race can be considered "easy" in the heat of Sunday. He also took bronze in the 1500m, ahead of Charlie Fry and Dominic Thackeray.
Asa Burnett won bronze in the 3000m.
The U-20 men took 11 medals, Luke Allen coming home with five of them.
Luke took gold in triple jump and long jump and silver in shot put, discus and 100m, recording the same time as the winner in that event.
Charlie Trafford won the high jump and took silver and bronze in long jump and discus.
In the endurance events, Michael Cripps – like Alex Dunbar before him – was an easy winner of the steeplechase.
In 1500m, he had to be content with third place, Andy Ridley heading him home for the silver medal.
Finally, it was left to Colin Ridley to represent West Suffolk's senior men – taking silver medals in both 800 and 1500m.
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Last Updated:
15 May 2008 2:57 PM
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Source:
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Location:
Bury St Edmunds