Derek Redmond's achievements are all the more remarkable because his Olympic career was dogged by serious injury. In fact, no less than 13 operations on his Achilles tendons
Khai from William Edwards School, had already had a good series of events in the Intermediate Boys Octathlon, but the 1.88m high jump was several centimetres better than other competitors, scoring him massive points. Khai, better known for his UK Ranked performances in the 100m Hurdles and Shot Putt, has added an extra event to his repertoire. Khai’s dreaded event, the 1500m, will need some work before the final in Exeter in September.
Star of the show was Emmanuel Stephens. He ran a fine 10.7 100 metres to take silver and also took a bronze in the 200 m. Another Grays based sprinter 17 year old Lennox Thompson took bronze in the under 20 400 m. Chris Travis just missed out on a medal in the senior men's 200 m finishing in 4th place. As always Michael Shortall took medals in both 110 m hurdles and the 400 m hurdles.
Man of the match for Thurrock was Aveley's Patrick Halcrow. He won the discus with an outstanding throw of 44.97 metres, the 3rd best in the club's history only Commonweath shot putt champions Billy Cole and Matt Simson have thrown further. He also won the shot with 13.35 metres and the B high jump (1.75) and was 4th in the hammer.
YOU MUST have watched the London Marathon recently and thought "I could do that" Well every journey begins with a single step and so where better to begin the journey than at the beginners class at Thurrock Harriers.
As he has done in the last 30 marathons, Pat Dobbs completed his 31st London with a great performance. He was third in the 70+ age group with a time of 3.49.06. This was 18 minutes faster than last year when he was recovering from a serious health set back. As he has passed through the various veteran age bands Pat has collected an array of medals but this one has given him a great amount of satisfaction.
Kai Riley Laborde successfully managed to juggle three events in a tight schedule, winning gold in his strongest event, the Shot Putt, silver in the High Jump and bronze in the Hurdles.
When I got my silver medal, I particularly disliked losing to another Welshman. The Americans are the guys to beat – which is why I have an American coach that gives me more technical experience.” But he later made known that: “I like doing stuff on my own back. If I lose, it’s my own fault.” When asked how he knew if he could be number one, he replied: “It was always in the back of my mind.
TODAY, European 400 metre hurdles silver medalist Rhys Williams found out the timetable for the events at the London 2012 Olympics. Nothing focusses the mind more than the date: 0900 August 3rd 2012. Rhys was at William Edwards school to talk to the up and coming athletes at the school and then take them through their paces.
The athletes from William Edwards School & Sports College excelled themselves again on Tuesday 14th at Blackshot Park in the borough cross country championships winning 4 gold’s from the 6 available race categories. Both boys and girls teams ran superbly and in a display of grit and determination secured top spot retaining the overall borough championship title 2010.
The intermediate girls claimed top spot for the second year running and Thurrock Harrier, Rebecca Barnard won the gold by a country mile!
Georgia Fraser claimed the bronze finishing 3rd and little sister Courtney was close behind taking the 4th spot. Lauren Landy finished strong to take the 6th spot and last minute recruitment Rheann Randall displayed grit and determination to finish in 11th place who was closely followed by Kirsty Highwood in 12th position. With the first 4 scoring for the team the overall total was a measly but mighty impressive 14 points to take gold, beating St Clere's who took silver with 53 and the Convent who took the bronze with 71 points.
The weather has wiped out the two games involving teams from the borough. Indeed even Thurrock schools cross-country championships at Blackshots scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled.
