Seventeen younger athletes from Grantham Athletic Club competed in the Youth DevelopmentLeague at The Grantham Meres track on Saturday.
The day began with the track events where we saw the U13 boys Harry Denton gain first place in the 100m (14.5 sec) closely followed by team mate Ewan Rodell in second place (14.8 sec) In a separate 100m race, George Whinney, ran a respectable time of 14.9 sec putting him in first place. New to competing Mathew Dunstan had a fantastic competition, despite the inevitable nerves and represented the club in three events, Long Jump, 800m and 200m with his best result coming from the 200m where he came fourth with a time of 31 sec.
Three of GAC U15 boys had a great competition, competing in a seven different events. The best results coming from Alfie Buckley in the Javelin where he came first with an impressive throw of 33.72 mtrs, and this was only his second athletics competition! Gareth Lee comfortably finished first in the 100m (13.5) and Rory Rodell gained second place in the 1500m with a time of 4.45.
Ten female athletes took part in the competition with some fantastic results too. Isabel Hobday represented the U15 girls winning her 1500m (5.30) and came 4 th in the 300m (53.9) The remaining nine athletes in the U13 age group took part in ten events, with four of them competing for the first time. Nerves where high for these girls but they kept focused and did themselves proud. Alexia Johnson came home in 4 th place in the 70m Hurdles (13.6) and First in the B 100m race (22.0). Lottie Geary competed in the 75m and gained a 4 th place (12.3) and jumped 1.10m in the high jump. The Crook sisters also new to competing, Amy and Erin took part in three track events. Older sister Amy came home 4 th in the 1200m event, narrowly missing 3 rd place but judging by the determination on her face she will be improving this result, she also represented GAC in the 4 x 100 m rely where the team came home fourth. With just as much determination Younger sister Erin Crook competed in the 75m and gained a time of 13.2 and fifth place.
The remaining more experienced athletes had a great competition with Sophie Hamilton achieving 3rd place and a personal best in the Javelin with a throw of 24.21m, relatively new to track events she gave it her all in the 800m and gained fourth place in a time of 2.45, improving her PB by 33 seconds, she then followed this up with the 4 x 100m event where the team came home 5 th (62.7) In a separate 800m race, two other athletes competed, with Ella Rose Hobday coming home in first place (3.12) and Rachel Justice close behind in 2 nd (3.14) Sister, Mary Justice competed in three track events and one field, with her best results in the 150m where she came home second in a time of 21.6 and was just pipped at the line in the 75m gaining her a third place, in a time of 11 seconds.
U13 Athlete Holly Hunt took part in three events and achieved personal bests in them all! In the 75m event she came home 3 rd (11.9) she threw 12.71m in the Javelin, improving her PB by 1.46m and jumped 3.20m gaining her 8 th Place.
The highlight of the event was the Under 13 Boys 4 x100 relay where four teams competed hard for first place. It was evident from the start that GAC where focused on winning when Mathew Dunstan took off like a rocket, determined to give his other three team mates George Whinney, Ewan Rodell and Harry Denton the best chance of winning and that’s exactly what they achieved, first place in a time of 57.7. A fantastic achievement considering this was the first time they had ever competed together in a relay!
A brilliant way finish to a fantastic athletics event and the end of my first YDL series as Team Manager. It has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience and that’s down to all of the athletes that have supported these events, your grit and determination and team spirit is inspirational. So a huge thankyou to you all and of course to your parents for supporting these events and your coaches and track and field judges who enable this all to happen. Have a lovely summer, keep training and I look forward to seeing you at the Lincs League in September and for the mud lovers see you at cross country!
Joanna Mcgrath.
