It was a tight battle for third place at Saturday’s Youth Development League at Perivale. Our U13/U15 squads were neck-and-neck on points with Vale of Aylesbury as the afternoon drew to a close, but the turning-point came with a double win in the U15 Boys Long Jump, followed by victory in both the 4x100m relays by the club’s U15 girls and boys. There were good performances galore throughout the match, though: eighteen wins, twenty personal best performances (PBs), and eighteen debut performances.
The match started on a high note, Lucy O’Brien breaking the 10-year-old club record with 12.9 in the U13 Girls 70m hurdles. In the race which followed, Louis Clow continued to lower the club’s record for the U13 Boys 75m. His 13.0 clocking represents an improvement of 1.3 seconds on the record set back in 1992.
Maya Faulkner and Elanor Stonebridge then partnered well as A and B string runners in the U13 Girls’ sprints. Maya set a PB of 21.1 in the 150m, while Elanor won with 21.5 in her debut at that distance. In the 75m later on, both won their events: Maya in 10.5 and Elanor in 10.6.
For the Boys, Phoenix Lyon won the U15 100m in 11.9, while Aaron Phillips set a PB of 13.7 in the B race. Promising newcomer Milo Chaudhry ran 14.1 in the U13 non-scoring race. In the longer sprints, Hannah Thurston set a PB of 26.8 in winning the A string of the U15 Girls 200m, while Daniel O’Sullivan set a PB of 25.0 at the same distance.
In the middle distances, U15s Reef Hook (38.7) and Lucas Sheehan (41.7) won both strings of the 300m, Lucas making his debut at that distance. Laura Stewart set a 300m PB of 47.1. In the Boys 800m races, Maateo Vao notched up a PB of 2:25.5 in the U15 A string, while William Coutts won the B string in 2:33.7. There was also a PB for U13 Kirk Lebdiri (2:53.9). For the Girls, Lucy O’Brien set her second PB of the day with 2:29.7.
In the 1500m, the U15 Girls claimed a double win. Nicola Ravenhill’s front-running tactics claimed an easy victory in 5:16.9. After a new best in the 75m hurdles earlier in the day, Roisin Lynch matched her 1500m PB with 5:37.7 in the B string. George Kerry set another PB with 4:43.5 in the U15 Boys race, while U13s Ted Perrin and Milo Chaudry ran impressive debuts with 5:28.6 and 5:29.1 respectively.
In the throws, U15 Lucas Sheehan achieved his second victory of the day, throwing the 4kg hammer out to 21.48m. U15s Reade Owen and Reef Hook both set PBs in the shot, Reade throwing 8.86m in the A string and Reef just one centimetre behind with his winning throw in the B. U13 William Saunders also improved his best mark in the shot. Daniel O’Sullivan set a PB in the discus.
In the long jump, U15s Reade Owen and Daniel O’Sullivan won both the A and the B, sailing out to 5.45m and 5.06m respectively. Hannah Thurston won the Girls event with another 5m+ jump (5.08m), this one the first not to be wind-assisted, and Nicola Ravenhill set a PB of 3.43m in the B string. U13 Sarah Freegard set a PB of 3.54m.
There were PBs in the U15 high jump for Lucas Sheehan (1.55m) and Roisin Lynch (1.35m).
In the concluding relays, the U15 Girls produced an exciting race, with Hannah Thurston storming into the lead on leg two, while Laura Davies overtook Hillingdon on the final leg to win on the line. The U15 Boys enjoyed a more dominant victory, with a 1.5 second winning margin.
Full results can be found here.