2024 Review July
The month began with the 3rd of the WADAC open meetings on Wednesday the 3rd and this also doubled as our 2nd BMC meeting at the club.
The first weekend of July saw the 3rd of our Wessex League matches on the Sunday where the club were 2nd in the main match but won the Quadkids match in Salisbury. The following day the last of the vets Hampshire league matches took place in Aldershot and featured wins for Kathryn Miles (coach Dave Sherry) and Sian Lewis & Owen Watts (both coached by David Vosser).
The second weekend was the English Schools Champs in Birmingham which proved a magnificent weekend for the club. In unprecedented scenes, the first two track finals of day two were won by Lucia Bertacchini (coach Andy Fisher) in the U17W 300mH and then Arabella Wilson (coach Andy Fisher) in the U20W 400mH, Bella’s 3rd English schools title in a row. Further medals followed for Elsie Brindle (coach Mark Upton) who was 3rd in the U17W 300m, Jess Howells (coach Andy Fisher) who was 2nd in the U17W javelin, Gracie Osman (coach Andy Fisher) who was 2nd in the U17W LJ, Darcey Thorne-Henderson (coach Martin McBriar) who was 3rd in the U15W discus, Zac Reynolds (coach Mark Upton) was 3rd in the U17M 400m & Mia Judd (coach James Hind) who was 2nd in the U20W high jump. This gave the club 8 medals in total and also earned the club’s athletes 3 England Schools vests with Lucia, Jess & Gracie selected to compete for England Schools at the SIAB match in Wales the following weekend.
The 3rd SAL match of the season took place in Eltham on Sunday and despite a depleted team the club managed 5th place out of 6 teams and finishing ahead of Southampton that day was to prove crucial at the end of the season. This was largely down to Calum Upton (coach David Vosser) who single handedly took on as many events as he could.
On Thursday the 18th July Elsie Brindle ran the 300m leg of the medley relay (100m,200m,300m,400m) for GB in the European U18 champs in Slovakia and helped the team qualify for the final where they earned 3rd place winning Elsie a bronze medal.
At the weekend of the 20th & 21st Lucia won the SIAB title in Carmathen with Jess coming 2nd & Gracie 3rd. The National Senior, U20 & U23 champs also took place in Birmingham with Alex Beck (coach Mark Upton) making a fabulous comeback by coming 2nd in the U20M 400m. Charlie Elford-Pond (coach Eric Davison) also won silver in the U20M Hammer and Bella was disqualified after recording a magnificent time in winning the U20W 400mH. Mia Judd was 4th in the U20W HJ, Sam Clifton (coach Jeremy Clifton) 4th in the U23M Hammer and Erin McBriar (coach Martin McBriar) 7th in the U20W discus. Also on the Sunday the U13 & U15’s took in their last LAG YDL match of the campaign in Tonbridge finishing 5th in the Southern premier league match to seal their relegation but not without all time top 3 performances from Poppy Crook (coach Andy Fisher) in U15G HJ, Seni Purnell (coach Andy Fisher) in the U15G 300m, Declan Dew (coach Andy Fisher) in the U13B LJ, and the U15G, U13B & U13G 4 x 100m teams.
The last weekend of July saw the British Masters champs take place in Derby with Moira West (coach Dave Sherry) winning 100m & 200m V55 gold medals and breaking the british age group records at the same time, a bronze medal was also won by Kathryn Miles (coach Dave Sherry) in V50 LJ. The National U15 & U17 champs were the same weekend and resulted in yet another gold medal in the 300mH for Lucia with medals also won by Elsie Brindle taking bronze in the U17W 300m, Gracie Osman taking bronze in the U17W LJ, Poppy Crook taking bronze in the U15G HJ and Jess Howells taking silver in the U17W javelin.