On Saturday the club’s youngest athletes travelled to Lee Valley for the invitation only Tom Pink Relays and Field Events. It is an annual fixture on the U11 & U13 competition list and is an intriguing mixture of standard indoor Sportshall events such as shot put and standing long jump alongside obstacle relays and the challenge to beat the race times of Dame Kelly Holmes, Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe. Alongside weight for distance and height events, where a medicine ball is thrown as far or high as possible. It is always a great day out at the superb North London indoor facility. Unfortunately the clash with Halloween and half term meant that the team was smaller than usual but there were, nevertheless, some fantastic performances.
U11’s – Kofi Obeng won the Standing Long Jump with 1.94m and Patrick Conneely took silver in the Weight for Distance. Rudy Jones won bronze in the Highland Steps with 59, as did Amber Purcell in the girls with 66 – just two below the winner. Eadie Yelling was third in the Caber and her brother Henry won silver in the Soft Javelin.
U13’s – In the girls 500m relay Astrid Blackledge, Roxy Jones and Tatum Walker won their race and the gold medal in fine style. In the field events Lacey Fowler jumped well to gain the bronze medal in the Highland Steps.
In the boys 500m relay – Patrick Connelly, Haiden May and Adam Firsht won their time trial, only to find that the winners of the first race, Herts Phoenix, had run four seconds quicker. In the continuous relay Joshua Hartnett, Connor Fairhall, Adam, Haiden and Alex Pert won their heat easily and were just beaten in the final by Herts Phoenix in what was possibly the best race of the day. On the field Joshua was a clear winner in the Standing Triple Jump and Alex gained third place in the Weight for Height on countback.
Thanks to the B&H Supporters Club who paid for the coach journey, to all the parents who travelled and the Team managers Pete Witcomb (U13) and Richard Carter (U11) for all their hard work and support on the day.