It may have been Father’s Day, but that didn’t deter more than 50 of our young athletes turning out at the third match of the season, writes Bridie Lebdiri. The six-lane track at Finsbury Park was buzzing with nearly 400 enthusiastic young athletes.
We put in another solid performance and finished third on the day, behind Shaftesbury Barnet and London Heathside, with very few points separating the top three clubs:
Final match scores: 1 London Heathside 997; 2 Shaftesbury Barnet 993; 3 ESM 982; 4 Highgate 891; 5 Barnet & District 611; 6 Cookham 481; 7 Queens Park Harriers 290; 8 Serpentine 266; 9 Enfield & Haringey 250; 10 Trent Park 202
It is quite difficult to keep track of everyone on the day, and looking at the results we probably lost some points as a result of a few not turning up or missing their event. Nevertheless, we are very happy with all our young athletes, for their continued commitment and effort. It is great to win sometimes, but giving everyone the opportunity to compete and experience competition is the main aim.
In most age groups, we had top three placings across quite a few events. Our U15 girls are the bottom end of that age group, so although we didn’t have top three placings, they all put in very solid performances and gained valuable points.
The following athletes placed in the top three:
U11 Girls
75m: Mirabelle Steele (sister of Maxi) made her competitive debut and didn’t disappoint, placing second in the B string.
800m: Kara Larkham was third in the A string; Hana Proudmore second in the B.
Vortex: Elizabeth Boissière was third in the A string; Camille Gallichan-Todd was third in the B.
U11 Boys
75m: Phoenix Offiah was third in the A string, Kian Jordan second in the B. It was Kian’s first ever competition. He is a very bright prospect and indeed caught my eye during his first ever training session. Kian has agility, speed and natural endurance. His time in the 75m was joint fastest of the day.
Kian also competed in the non-scoring 800m, for experience. After 250m he had the whole field strung out and won convincingly in a time of 2:43.77. Kian also filled in on the long jump, where he finished second.
800m: Finlay Vadon was third in the A string.
Vortex: Finlay Vadon won the A string with an impressive throw of 35.60m. Finlay is showing much promise as a future javelin thrower. Although he probably favours the cross country, it is worth noting that Steve Backley started out as a cross country runner! Jarnail Singh was second in the B string.
U13 Girls
100m: Rakaya Adams and Tia McCootie won the A and B strings respectively.
70m hurdles: Katherine Bossière finished second.
Shot Putt: Rakaya Adams won the A string.
Discus: Katherine Bossière was second in the A string.
The 4x100m relay quartet of Rakaya, Tia, Mia and Katherine had a very convincing win over the other clubs.
U13 Boys
100m: Theo Jarrett finished second in the A string, while Tyler Offiah was third in the B.
75m hurdles: James Taylor was second in the A string. He also finished third in the high jump A.
Shot Putt: Theo Jarrett and Eden Lyons were second in the A and B strings respectively.
Discus: Ellis Kahan-Noel and Eden Lyons won the A and B strings.
U15 Boys
100m: Tristan Collins-Marsh won the A string.
200m: Tristan Collins-Marsh (A string) and Yiannis Katsos (B string) were both second.
800m: The talented Marcus West made his debut this season. Marcus has an abundance of natural ability and won the A string easily in a PB of 2:11.04. It was pleasing to hear Marcus say that he hopes to take his training a bit more seriously in the next year, at an age when many young athletes drop out. Vitaly Bender finished second in the B race.
Javelin: Marco Lamagna and Thomas Musie were third in the A and B strings.
U17 Women & Men
A big thank you to our U17s. Fresh from finishing their GCSE’s on Friday, they were in good spirits and put in some very impressive performances.
For the women, first year U17 Maya Faulkner finished second in the A strings of the 100m and first in the 200m. Feia Starkey finished second in the 80m hurdles.
For the men, we had Kai English, Kirk Lebdiri, Matteo Lamagna, Arun Manget and Amar Bhogal. Seweryn Czapka moved up an age group to compete in the 800m.
Discus: Kai English put in a very impressive performance, winning the A string in a new PB of 36.35m. Kai has been selected to represent Middlesex in the Inter County Championships. Kirk Lebdiri won the B string with a PB of 19.72m. Kirk was also second in the A string long jump., while Matteo Lamagna was second in the B string.
Seweryn Czapka was second in the shot putt.
Amar Bhogal made his competitive debut in the 100m. A bit apprehensive beforehand, he was made very welcome by the U17s, with Annick pointing out how friendly and encouraging the athletes were to him, in particular Seweryn.
Click here to see more photos on the Facebook page.
Well done to everyone and thank you again the wonderful officials, coaches, parents/carers who all helped on the day.
Full results on power of 10