WADAC achieves unprecedented success at South of England indoor age group champs
If ever the club made a statement of its recent track & field transformation, this took place at Lee Valley over the weekend as it achieved a record medal haul at the South of England indoor age group (U13/U15/U17) champs. Particularly pleasing was seeeing the medals evenly distributed over hurdle, run, jump & throw.
nSaturday was a relatively quiet day with just the 60m spring & sprint hurdles taking place. Rosa May Sprake (coach Gary Sprake) and Carys Jeffries (coach Andy Fisher) both ran well in their U17W 60m sprint & 60m hurdles respectively. Arabella Wilson (coach Andy Fisher) just missed out on a spot in the U17W 60m final but smashed the club age group record in doing so recording a time of 7.90 secs. U13G Lily Flute (coach Andy Fisher) was 5th in the 60m final after breaking her own indoor age group record earlier in the day but the highlight of the day though was a bronze medal for Poppy Shroff (coach Andy Fisher) in the U17W 60m hurdles in a time of 9.01 secs, a real breakthrough performance for Poppy.
nSunday was anything but quiet and started with good runs from Chloe Poore (coach Andy Fisher) and Rosa May Sprake & Abi Belward (coach Andy Fisher) in their U15G & U17W 200m heats respectively. Then the medals started with Ethan Imhofe (coach Andy Fisher) beginning the rush with silver in the U15B SP. This was followed by a fine performance Bethany Mballa (coach Heather Sheffield) who was 5th in the U15G SP. Abi Belward then took silver in the U17W SP in a new pb of 10.84m and Rosa-May Sprake was unluckly to just miss the medals in 4th but putted a huge pb in doing so. Carys Jeffries also putted well. Carys quickly followed this with a fine run in her 200m semi-final and Abi Belward jumped 1.50m in the HJ.
nThe U15 300m races saw the club win two medals. Zac Reynolds (coach Andy Fisher) took the bronze in the boys race and training partner Lucia Bertacchini (coach Andy Fisher) took silver in the girls race in a blanket finish. Remarkably both Zac and Lucia are bottom year of the age group. The club then took its first gold of the champs as U13G Lily Flute won LJ gold. In the U15G LJ Nyima Sanyang (coach Andy Fisher) made the final in her first championship event with Lucia Bertacchini just missing out on the final. The U17 womens long jump saw the club win both gold and silver with Arabella Wilson claiming gold with a leap of 5.58m the furthest ever recorded by a WADAC female and Amy Wall (coach Andy Fisher) took a remarkable silver medal less than 2 years after a serious knee injury that forced a change in Amy's take off foot. Carys Jeffries also jumped a pb.
nThe medal rush didn't stop there with Ruben Price (coach Nick Anderson) winning silver in the U15B 800m and Esme Buchanan (coach Andy Fisher) taking gold in the U13G HJ breaking the club’s indoor age group record in doing so. The day finished in remarkable fashion as Arabella Wilson took U17W 400m gold in a time of 57.50 secs the fastest ever recorded indoors by a WADAC female and currently good enough for 10th place in the world U18 indoor lists.