THE DOLPHIN SPORT - ATHLETICS
Athletics Alex Ireland recognises the benefits of increased training time due to the fewer numbers of athletics meets and the positive impact this had on performances later on in the term.
jump, with Jenna Coverdale jumping a personal best in the triple jump to finish 2nd. Skyla Cannon competed in both the high jump and long jump gaining huge personal bests in both events.
With an uncertain season ahead for the athletes, training began in the sunshine, and allowed us plenty of time to establish good baseline fitness and techniques. With the promise of more relaxing of lockdowns, we prepared to have our first meeting at Dauntsey’s. We had a fabulous afternoon of athletics. With lots of very promising performances, including hurdles by Emily Weeks and Benji Pugh, Long Jump. Personal bests from Skyla Cannon and Emily, as well as triple jump personal bests from Emily and Jenna Coverdale. On the track Felix Mornement ran a great 200m, Araminta Wakelin a fast 800m and Anya Evans a very fast 1500m. In the throwing events there were great performances by Millie Venner-Coombes, Hayley George, Tom Jones and Toby Phillips.
The midweek competition saw the 3rd and 4th Form combining for the English Schools Cup Team event at Millfield. This is a different event whereby places are not relevant but times, distances and heights result in points gained for your team. The afternoon began with some fantastic performances from Leo Cao, throwing 10.85m in shot, and Hayley George a personal best of 23.09m in discus. Louis jumped an incredible 11.61m in triple jump, another personal best after Saturday’s county performance and Emily Weeks jumped 4.56m in long jump.
This inspired some positive training back at school leading up to the county championships. These were held over two weekends this year, with the Seniors and Inters on the first weekend. With a much lower number of athletes competing, the standard was very high across all of the events. We took 21 athletes in 26 events, most of whom recorded either a personal or season’s best performance. There were 3 county champions - Oliver Luck in the triple jump, Toby Phillips in shot and Tom Jones in the discus, all of them in their last year of school athletics. On the track there were very strong performances by Anya Evans in the 1500 steeple chase, James Black with a very fast 800m race finishing 2nd, Lily Innes, Florence Carter, Felix Mornement and Hugo Walker all ran PBs in the sprint events, and Max Palmer ran his first competitive 3000m in a new personal best time. Louis Farrell entered his first ever county championships coming 2nd in both the triple and long 132
This left both the boys’ and girls’ teams in 3rd place after the field events. The track began with a bang with both Emily and Benji Pugh winning their hurdles race and Hugo Walker running really well for a third place, but with a quicker time than heat A! Both the girls and boys middle distance runners ran well, with Anouska Loveridge and Lucy Duval scoring good points in the 1500m and Charlie Galpin and Max Palmer having a fantastic race to finish with good points. The sprinters performed very well scoring in mid to high teens. Araminta Wakelin and Harriet Vallings had a very competitive 800m race between them finishing on equal points, with Henry Heggarty running very well for 19 points in his 800m. The relays, which are not necessarily the fastest 4 sprinters, but those who hadn’t competed in a second event, performed their changeovers very well, to score good points. Overall, the Inter girls scored 338 points finishing 4th and the boys a fantastic 344 points finishing 3rd. The athletes really enjoyed this event and the team effort and encouragement of their teammates was very pleasing to see.
