Something else wonderful was happening in LBAC world when the London Marathon was on but we kept it a secret until VLM fever had (almost) blown over…

Yes, while you were all soaking up the atmosphere (and all of our sun) on the banks of the Thames, the rest of us were in the car praying the rain clouds were pacing themselves much slower than us up the M1…

 

East Anglian Athletics League – Peterborough – Track and Field – Junior Results

Well at least the day didn’t start with the rain. In fact we had some glorious spring sunshine at 11.45am when our Under 13 girls led us off to a terrific start with an ‘A’ team 2^nd place by Matilda Maglio and a ‘B’ team first place by Jade Lindars in the Under 13’s Shot Putt.

Yet more glorious sunshine fuelled Billy Mead to a tremendous PB performance of 2.12.94 in the senior mens  800m, racing to the line to a very fine second place.

Parent support was the best we’ve ever seen at a meet and huge thanks go out to all who helped in every way and in particular with assisting us to honour our officiating duties.

Mandy usually does three jobs PLUS mum support (Admin, Mentor and Assistant Coach) but in the absence of Nick  running the  London Marathon, today she stepped up to the mark superbly as LBAC COO; and with the help of Jon, Mark, Fiona and the aforementioned marvellous mums and dads, the day went swimmingly…

…literally – after one particular deluge a later high jump performance landed with a bit of a backstroke!

Despite the rain, spirits remained high right through to the finishing relays where  the under 13 girls ran well after a hard day of competing in three other events each.

LBAC Junior Girls made what can only be described as a fabulous debut in both turnout and performance.  It was great to see so many athletes entering multiple events, and given that our athletes do not have track and field training facilities over the winter their results are even more remarkable. Esme Saunders represented Under 15 girls in Shot Putt, Sarah Plummer  ran a blitzing 200m and Zarah Taylor, Emma Evans and Grace Cross all put in terrific performances in the 100m, 200m and 800m along with Izzi Bidlake-Hull, Becca Mead, Matilda and Jade. A number of the girls trying a field event for the first time a fantastic effort earned the team 4^th place overall for the meeting.

We had a record turnout in the Under 11 Girls with Melissa Chapman, McKenna Keefe, Chloe May and Sadie Towell competing in a variety of events including Long Jump that Sadie won.  80 Metres,  600 Metres and Shot Putt  which is new to this age category this year and saw Melissa and Chloe take 2^nd and 3^rd place respectively. Mckenna representing the club for  the first time had encouraging performances in the 80m and Longjump.  We even had enough under 11’s for a relay team – shame the Under 11’s don’t do relay – but a very encouraging turnout in this age group looking to the future.

We had a brilliant win by Jordan Clay in the 800m with Charlie Mead 2^nd taking maximum points for this event in the under 17 age category.  Tom Boozer and Joe Mcgarry both gained PBs in the High Jump with Tom clearing 1.50m and Joe 1.45m to take all the points in this competition between them bar 1.   This awesome foursome went on the compete in 2 other events each completing the match in 4^th position and setting a number of PBs along the way,  which is a great start to their season as they have all moved up into the older age group this year.

Despite Sam Nicholas being given strict instructions to run a 75% effort 300 metres a new event this season in the Under 15’s he still achieved a 52.08 time and went on to a  5.35.38 performance in the 1500 metres only minutes later. Patrick was our only other under 15 boy out this week who backed Sam in the 1500 and although disappointed with not achieving any PBs at the meeting competed in three events, helping the teams points tally. Our only under 13 boy competing this week was Henry Mead who had a great javelin throw up against strong competition his Longjump and 200m that he ran for the first time gaining PBs in all events whilst earning valuable points for the team.

Adding to the overall LBAC score Ben Corfield came a respectable distance in front of his peers in the Senior Mens 3000 Metres after his invaluable officiating input with the junior Shot Putt.  (And can we have More Senior Men (and women) in the other 13 track and field events next meeting please!?!)

T’was indeed a challenge without Nick there to guide us all but he’d have been proud of everyone’s efforts in contributing towards the team result. Never before have I known that tent go up (or down) so quickly with so many hands on deck to help out. And despite our lagging track facilities in Leighton Buzzard, the athletes yet again, did the club proud.

Who needs an athletics track to train on?

We do!

Imagine what we could achieve WITH one.

If you have a minute we’d be most grateful if you could write a little letter (doesn’t have to be a long one) to our MP, he’s a very nice man:  Andrew Selous M.P. and tell him we’d like one at Astral Park please (there’s plenty of space and funding – we’ve checked) to help train Olympic Champions of the future here in our home town.