Record equalling WADAC Weekend at the South of England indoor age group champs

10 medals won by athletes in black & gold.

Well that was quite a weekend just gone as WADAC young athletes turned out in force at Lee Valley in North London to win no fewer than 10 medals at the South of England indoor age group (U13,U15,U17) Champs. This is the same number as the record breaking championships of 2022.

Saturday was the turn of the 60m sprints, the 60m hurdles and the U13 age groups. Rebekah Smith (coach Dave McManus) had a weekend to remember becoming the first WADAC U17 athlete to go under 9 secs by running 8.96 secs in her semi-final breaking the clubs age group indoor club record. Rebekah was 6th in her final but her semi-final time will be some consolation to her. Jess Howells (coach Andy Fisher) ran a pb of 9.27 secs to come 5th in her semi-final. In the U15 girls hurdles, Lily Flute (coach Andy Fisher) ran a superb final to claim the bronze medal with a fast finish off the last hurdle. Her pb time of 9.33 secs good enough for 2nd place in the clubs all time age group indoor lists.

In the 60m sprints, in the U17W age group Gracie Osman (coach Andy Fisher) & Isobel Jordan (coach Andy Fisher) both ran pb’s. For the U15’s Holly Poore (coach Dave Sherry) was 6th in her heat and for the U13’s Holly Crook (U13 academy) was 5th in her heat and Mia Gligorovski (coach Andy Fisher) made the semi-finals going to 2nd on the clubs all time age group lists in doing so. For the boys, in the U13 age group Toby Gardner (coach Andy Fisher) made the final with his time of 8.28 secs going 2nd on the clubs all time age group lists with Declan Dew (coach Andy Fisher) making the semi-finals and his time of 8.54 secs was good enough for 3rd place on the clubs all time indoor age group lists. Remarkably, Declan will be back in the same age group next year.

In Saturday’s U13G 800m semi-finals both Hallie Eldridge (coach Andy Fisher) & Frankie Bertacchini (coach Andy Fisher) qualified for the final but needed to come back the next day to run it.

In Saturday’s U13 field events, the club had amazing sucess. Declan broke the clubs age group indoor club record by putting the shot 6.77m to take the bronze medal. It was even better in the shot in the U13 girls age group with the club recording a podium 1-2-3 and completing rewriting the clubs age group indoor records with Hallie taking gold, Mia Silver and Clarice Thorne-Henderson (coach Martin McBriar) taking bronze. For good measure, Franie was 4th and Holly Crook 6th. In the boys long jump, once more the clubs age group indoor club records were rewritten with Leo Davies Pratt (coach Andy Fisher) leaping 4.47m for 4th place, Declan jumping the same distance for 5th and Toby jumping 4.28m for 7th. Toby then took on the HJ which he won with a magnificent leap of 1.48m which was no less than a new championship best performance. Leo was 5th with a jump of 1.30m. For the girls, Hallie won HJ silver with a pb jump of 1.35m to go 2nd equal on the clubs age group indoor lists and Bo Hatchett (coach Andy Fisher) jumped 1.30m to win bronze. In the LJ, Frankie was 5th going 2nd on the clubs all time age group list with a leap of 4.13m. Lottie Osman (U13 academy) was 9th but will be back in the same age group next year, Bo was 11th and Holly Crook was 13th.

Medals were obviously going to be harder to come by in the older age groups yesterday and so it proved but there were some amazing performances.

Isobel Jordan ran a new indoor pb in her U17W 200m heat where Eldie Trott (coach Elias Mtshweni) did the same in the U15G age group.

Lily Flute suffered heatbreak as she was beaten to the U15G 300m title in the last stride but had the consolation of a new pb of 41.93 secs and going 2nd on the clubs all time age group indoor lists.

Zac Reynolds (coach Andy Fisher) won his U17M 400m semi-final in a new pb of 52.65 secs but the effort meant he couldn’t take his place in the final. Zac improves his time as 2nd on the clubs all time age group indoor lists. Chloe Poore (coach Andy Fisher) ran sub 60 secs to make the semi-finals of the U17W 400m and her time was good enough to 2nd on the clubs all time indoor lists

Thomas Jacobs (coach James Mann) just missed out on qualification for the U17M 800m final but absolutely smashed his pb with a time of 2 mins 3.99 secs and goes 2nd on the clubs all time age group indoor lists. Hallie won silver in the U13G 800m final (her 3rd medal of the champs) with Frankie in 5th and the girls went 1st & 2nd respectively in the clubs all time 800m age group lists.

In the field events, the everr reliable Gracie won another championship medal, this time taking silver in the U17W long jump with training partner Jess just missing out on the medals in 4th. In the U15 girls long jump Lily won her 3rd medal of the champs taking bronze with a new pb of 5.09m which was also good enough to go 3rd on the clubs all time age group lists, Poppy Crook (coach Andy Fisher) was 14th in her pool. Esme Buchanan (coach Andy Fisher) just missed out on a medal in the U15G HJ finshing 5th on countback although recording the same height (1.55m) as the girls in joint 2nd. Poppy was 13th with Anais Andrews (coach Andy Fisher) unfortunately no heighting.

In the U15 girls SP, Darcey Thorne-Henderson (coach Martin McBriar) was 5th going 2nd on the clubs all time age group lists, with Anais in 8th. In the U17W equivilent, Jess putted a new indoor pb of 10.71m for 5th and Gracie was 8th also with a new pb. Lexie Trott (coach Elias Mtshweni) broke the clubs female pole vault record going over 3m for the first time to finish 4th in the U17W age group.

All of this added up to 2 golds (Hallie & Toby), 4 silvers (Lily, Gracie, Hallie x 2) and 4 bronze (Clarice, Lily x 2, Dec)