At last some good weather reached us In time for The Midland AA championships at Alexander stadium last weekend (May 23/24).
There were seventeen competitors from the club, in the two age groups – under 17 and under 15 – and these young athletes did Wolves & Bilston proud with 20 personal best performances being set over the weekend, which is what it is all about. Add to that 9 medals being taken, it was noticeable how many W&B vests where on show raising the clubs profile.
As expected Feron Sawyers and Tannika Burgess took championships titles and showed fantastic form, although it was the head to head clash over 300m between our own Ann Ika Oqua and Doncaster’s Chloe Bradley that caused great excitement, as both qualified through the heats with just a tenth of a second between them. The race these two youngsters put on was one of the highlight of the weekend and a great demonstration of what our sport is all about, as neither gave an inch as they fought neck and neck for the last 170m of the race. Only on the line did Chloe prevail. Congratulations to Ann – it was a fantastic performance – and to Chloe; we look forward to the rematch.
Jodie Harrison produced her best ever performance setting a huge PB in the same race and qualified for the nationals. Becky Oakley broke through to the 46 second area of the 300m hurdles taking a bronze medal, again a PB. Her sister Kay, not to be out done, produced two excellent PB’s in the 800m and 1500m finals. Lucy Turvey took on the 3000m in what was turned out to be tough competition, while the Douras twins Emma and Sarah jumped and hurdled over the two days both just missing out on a medal, finishing in 4th place in their finals.
Our young sprinters just missed out on medals in blanket finishes, Shalleice Benjamin twice breaking 13 seconds, but still just hundredths away from the medals. Sophie Klair and Sarah Brookes both ran good times over the 200m, with Ellie Johnson setting a PB in the same event.
Imanuel Gardener took silver in the triple jump and set a PB in the 100m. Heptathlete Megan Dixon hurdled, jumped and sprinted well over the weekend setting a very good personal best time in the 200m of 26.8, which looks promising for her English schools heptathlon in June. Okot Ika Oqua took on her very first quadrathlon event in the championships finishing in 6th place. Last but by no means least, the vastly improving Georgia Gallant set three PB performances in long jump, hurdles and 200m and as an U15 at the bottom end of the age scale, reaching the final of the long jump was a great achievement.
Medal and regional selection for Georgia Gallant in first pentathlon
Georgia made her combined events debut in the pentathlon county trials at Telford athletics stadium last Tuesday, and this debut saw her taking a silver medal with a score of over 2300 points which is an exceptional score at this stage. That performance saw her selected for the inter counties pentathlon in Blackpool in June. Well done Georgia.
Howard Court
Download Saturday 23.05 results | Download Sunday 24.05 results
