THERE were a number of strong performances by William Edwards students at the Essex Track and Field champs in Chelmsford on Saturday.
Leading the charge was James Pearson who took gold in the junior boys shot. Brian Kasanda triumphed in the 200 metres and Joe Winn leapt to 1.72 to take silver in the High Jump.
THERE ARE Thurrock-based athletes competing for a whole host of clubs across the region. It looks like a very promising year as they continue to make a great impression as many climb up the national rankings. Borough athlete Alex Houghton was a comfortable winner of the Orsett Three mile Run on Sunday. Frustratingly he recorded the same time as his record run last year 15m 49s, but this was a welcome show of form from the Grays athlete.
THE STABLE of athletes sponsored by the Cedar Hall clinic brought home a hatful of medals at both the Essex Champs and the Bedford International Games.
THE NINE man team battled hard to secure 3rd place in the 2nd round of the Southern Mens' League Division 1 on Saturday at Gillingham, Kent.
The foundation of the team was an heroic nine event performance from 47 year old Mark Jenkins. The former County decathlon champion took on the heavy workload after some last minute withdrawals.
DAVID Johnson turned in a great performance in the May Crown to Crown run. He was 3rd in a time of 18m21s, both time and position were his best. There were 2 more much improved performances in the top 10 of the 180 strong field. Antony Tobin was 6th in 19m14s, also a personal best. John Russell 19m 52s in 8th place indicates a welcome return to his best
form.
A HOST of Thurrock athletes performed very well at the recent Essex Club Club champs held at Blackshots, the home of Thurrock Harriers. Tom Richardson running for Basildon AC won the U-20 3000 metres in 8.58.34.
STANFORD'S Hayley MacLean smashed her personal best for the 400m hurdles in one of her first outings of the season in Belgium. Hayley had been quite low-key in her assessment of the coming season but she let her work on the track do the talking.
ONLY a few weeks ago, Thurrock's Khai Riley-Laborde told YT that he was struggling to get to grips with moving up from 100 metre hurdles to 110 metres.
However, the Purfleet teenager recorded an amazing 14.3 in his first race of the season in Basildon.
Khai competes for Enfield & Haringey. Many other Thurrock athletes who compete for a number of clubs are the county were in action.
THURROCK made its debut in the Southern Athletics League, which caters for mixed teams of senior men and senior women, at Dartford on Saturday and were pleased with their 2nd place in the 5 team match.
They were neck and neck with Dartford for most of the match but the home club pulled away over the last hour of the 6 hour competition to win by 282 to 232.
RUNNERS from across the borough gave their all to complete the 26 miles and 385 yards of the London Marathon. Before the race started, they respectfully observed a minutes silence for those who suffered at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
THE CALIBRE of athletes sponsored by Cedar Hall Clinic is quite astonishing. Poppy is a 17 year old high jumper who is a member of Chelmsford Athletic Club & coached by Phillip Sergeant. She has represented both Essex and GB at a number of events including, the Schools International competition of 2012, where she won the title with a new PB of 1.75.
THURROCK Harriers kicked off the Eastern Young Athletics League in cracking style. Middle distance runner Tyler Chu was to have his debut outing for Pole vault but this was cancelled due to windy conditions. Keeping the team spirit he then slotted into the only event left for U15 boys - High jump, something he has never done in competition or practiced much, came away with a PB of 1.50.
Alice is a middle distance runner and member of Basildon Athletics Club coached by Jacqui Childs. Following a broken ankle during training, Alice worked hard, through rehabilitation, and was rewarded at the end of the 2012 season by achieving a PB in her 1500m of 4min 56secs, knocking almost 30 seconds from the start of her season.
TILBURY legend, Charlie Lawrence is gearing up for his first ever marathon, just a few day short of this seventieth birthday. The final long runs are in the locker and now Charlie is set to take on all 26 miles and 285 yards of the London Marathon course.
IF YOU ever want to know how seriously these young athletes take their sport then you just need to go back to last year, when Hayley MacLean was disqualified from the National Under-20's 400m hurdles.
But such disappointment just make junior international athletes such as Hayley even more determined. And Hayley has a whole set of ambitions for 2013.
