SUPER SATURDAY!
It had been over 44 years since the Oxfordshire Schools team had won more than 6 medals at a single championship – however that was all to change in the blink of an eye on SUPER SATURDAY!
The small team (we had been cut down to just 24 athletes after our performance in 2019) set off to Manchester with high hopes and a very realistic chance of accumulating some silverware as 6 of the 24 were ranked in the UK top 5 – with two of them at number 1!
Along with the seasoned athletes a number of first timers joined the team and we would look to see how they developed throughout the weekend and how the whole experience might inspire them to greater success in future.
FRIDAY
Friday is traditionally ‘Heats Day’, with few medals being awarded in just a few finals. However, a great fillip for the team came from almost the last event of the day the Inter Girls Discus, when Lily Martin (OCAC) came away with the Bronze. In order to get to a final obviously you have to get through the heats and so it was that many of our athletes had to prepare to perform on the Friday and hopefully the Saturday.
Jessica Simons Inter Girl (Radley AC) on her first time at ESAA excelled in the Triple jump with a new PB and a 13th place finish. Isla McGowan (Banbury AC) was our only Junior Girl but with a stunning cross-country season behind her she showed her steel in qualifying first in the 1500mts – a real prospect for Saturday. Matthew Ajayi (Burford and Watford AC) Inter Boy 100mts had to manoeuvre his way through both the heats and later the semi-final. He did both with great success and as a first year inter was the only one of 8 finalists to so do. In the Inter girls 80 mt hurdles Annie Jonkers (Reading AC) proved her selection was a worthy one as she ran to a new PB – not quite good enough to progress to the final but after a number of years of injury this was a great comeback and she repaid the trust the team managers had put in her.
Dylan Hughes (Radley and Kingston & Poly) our only Junior boy, was a late selection but lived up to his reputation by qualifying for the semi final of the 300 mts in a new PB. Dylan’s race was covered in controversy and the photo finish system firstly missed an athlete – meaning Dylan would not make it through to the semi then later a correction had him back in as a compensatory error had been made and another athlete – who hadn’t run !! was included in the photo finish of another heat! A day of ups and downs for Dylan which I’m sure did not help his preparation for his semi where if he had managed to match his heat time, that would have put him into the final.
Alice Millar (Radley AC) - Inter Girls Javelin threw within 30 cm s of her PB to finish a very creditable 12 in the final. Clearly one to watch out for in the years ahead. Charlotte Bigmore (Reading AC) in the Inter Girls Long Jump closed out the morning session for the Oxon team by finishing 13th. Charlotte, who had recovered from a broken ankle which meant she had missed the combined events finals last September, showed she had wintered well and the grit and determination to succeed was back!!
Ben Ince (OCAC) Senior Boy 110 mt hds (and TEAM CAPTAIN) was somewhat disappointed with his 4th place in his heat as he had been in great form and his PB would have put him in the final however he had to settle for 13th overall in this his final appearance at these championships. Ben has been an exemplary athlete in both hurdles and high jump representing Oxon schools over the past 5 years after his initial outing in 2018 as an under 15 high jumper.
Rowan Miell-Ingram was one of the two athletes who started the championships already leading the country in both the 1500 and 3000 mts (of those athletes attending the champs) and so with due aplomb he took on the semi final lead most of the way and finished first looking fresh as a daisy after his recent recovery from COVID. A good rest overnight would ensure he was ready for any challengers in the final. Charlie Evans (Banbury AC) Senior Boys Javelin went into his final ranked 5th in the country and had great hopes he would our first medal. A late arrival from a school trip from Hungary meant Charlie had, had a late night and I’m sure that contributed to him not reaching his potential. As a first year senior Charlie will have 2023 to look forward too and after finishing 4th here, he should be eyeing a medal next year.
Henry Channon (OCAC) Senior Boys 400mts – Henry had an electronic time of 51.33 – a time that would be soon forgotten after a heat which saw him produce the finish of the day to make the final of the 400 mts in the 4th fastest time of 48.69 secs. Almost 3 seconds faster than his previous electric recording. It was the nature of his finish however which was astonishing as he was way back in 6th place at the 300 mt point but ran through the field to finish 2nd – he insists he is a 800/1500mt runner but something tells me he may re-think his career path after this!
Fionn Leaney (OCAC) Senior Boy and Nulam Hang Kambang (Radley AC) Inter Boy would complete the track program on day one with their 400 mt hurdles heats. Unbeknown to Nulam the soon to be new British Record holder was just on his inside in his heat!! Nulam was somewhat overawed to say the least as he finished 6th in his heat but the experience has only served to stiffen his resolve to succeed. Meanwhile Fionn was somewhat off his best – a time that would have given him a final place – also finishing 6th in his heat. So, onto what would soon be called SUPER SATURDAY!!
All the events on the Saturday are finals and four of our athletes had made it through from the Friday heats/semis, which meant they joined the 10 athletes who just had finals to contend. The first combatants to enter the fray on Saturday were Annie Sutcliffe (OCAC) and Erin Waters (Radley AC) in the Senior Girls javelin. This was the only event in which we had two competitors and both excelled – Annie finished 4th and Annie 5th both with new PBs and Annie in particular adding almost 3 mts to her PB. This meant that the girls finished the weekend in 6th and 9th place respectively on the UK rankings.
Quinn Miell-Ingram, (Radley AC) Inter Boy, younger brother of Rowan, had high hopes of emulating big bro’s efforts in his chosen event the 3000 mts. Sadly despite leading early on Quinn could not recreate his recent PB form and ended up 13th in the final. He said he would work even harder to make next years team in his first senior year.
Evey Powell (Abingdon AC) Inter Girl was another 3000 mt runner. The whole field was in awe of the young lady from Devon who ran away from the field and won by some 17 secs! Evey finished a creditable 11th and as one of the few first years in her age group has much to reflect on and to look forward to next year.
Eloise Hind (OCAC) Senior Girl (TEAM CAPTAIN) already lead the country in the high jump as well as being one of our top combined events athletes. A great PB of 1.78 mts was however not enough to secure the gold on this occasion as she was beaten on countback. Happy with a silver though and a new PB to add to her collection and a great potential point score in her upcoming ESAA Combined events final in September.
Olivia Martin (Abingdon AC) Senior Girl was the final 3000 mts runner we had this year. Olivia had suffered badly in last years event having to dropout with what would prove to be a fairly debilitating injury. Mentally prepared however and in great physical shape she set off with a plan to work through the field. The plan looked in danger with about a lap to go although she had come through the field regrettably the top 4 had run away from her group and she was effectively in no man’s land, with little hope of getting anywhere but 4 th place. As she entered the home straight, she had closed the 60mt gap and was on the shoulder of her opponent a desperate lunge for the line saw her clinch 3rd place and almost 2nd – a successful tactical plan executed to perfection with the memory of 2021 totally expunged. This was a great team lift and things just got better and better.
Amber Jeacock West (Radley AC) Senior Girls discus – Amber had been dead last twice in this event at ESAA . Her first outing at the champs in 2018 was to be an inspiration for the future – her ESAA record reads 2018 – 21st, 2019 – 13th, 2020 – no comp covid, 2021 – 9th – the resilience shown to come through these difficult times and to get our second gold says a lot about this young ladies ethic and effort. A great win and so well deserved a great example for the rest of the team and a fitting end to her schools’ career.
Roshan Mowat (OCAC) Senior boy – high jump – Unfortunately Roshan had a recurring ankle injury aggravated in warm up and he was unable to take part in the final.
A similar story emerged for newbie Matthew Ajayi, one of the 4 going forward from the heats on Friday. Regrettably he pulled an abductor muscle. Matthew was unable to take his place in the 100 mts final but will be working extra hard to return in 2023 – when he is top age for this event and should be challenging for those medals.
Returning from his win in the 1500 mt heat from Friday Rowan Miell-Ingram lead all the way to the finish holding off his challengers to win in some style upholding his position as UK number 1! Henry Channon could not possibly recover in time to reproduce his amazing heat result from Friday, could he? Of course, he could!! Better than that he reproduced his heat run with the electrifying home straight finish and unbelievably ran sub 48 sec to knock almost 3 secs off his previous electronic time.
Completing our line up was Iona Irvine (OCAC) Senior Girl in the long jump where once again we would just miss a medal with Iona pulling out a great jump to take 4th place – just off her PB but again a great indicator of her form as she also looks forward to the Combined Events finals in Bedford in September. After a couple of years of injury, it was great to see her back performing at the top of her game. And finally, in almost the last field event of the day a great performance by Billy McCauley (OCAC) in the senior boys shot. Billy was thrilled to be chosen for this event in 2021 and that experience gave him the platform to not only train harder and target these championships but to achieve our final medal – a well deserved silver with a fabulous PB over 15mts for the first time. He never reached 13 mts in 2021 at the champs so this was a noticeable improvement not just in delivering a great result but also in being able to see the hard work he has clearly put in, in the intervening months.
Traditionally relay races are run on the Friday and as heats – time constraints and a realisation that most teams don’t survive for two days has resulted in the 4 x 100 relays being run as time trials on the Saturday. As a very small county (in school pop terms) this suited our strategy as we only had 8 athletes standing – 4 Inter Girls and 4 Senior Boys – some more enthusiastic than others they all performed to the best of their abilities as the Inter girls – a javelin thrower a hurdler a 3000 mt runner and a triple jumper finished ahead of 3 other teams – sadly not gaining any valuable team points but a great experience they all relished. The more experienced senior boys – made up of a sprint and a 400 mt hurdler a javelin thrower and a 1500 mt runner (a gold medallist already!) could again not break into the point scoring positions a top 8 place would have given us but they did finish well with a good time and 10th overall.
A fantastic championship we all really enjoyed – the biggest medal haul in 44 years, 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze and a host of 4th places. We await confirmation we have won the small counties trophy to add to our haul!
Thanks to all the coaches and parents for their help and support for and from the athletes and we look forward to welcoming back 15 of the 24 next year – when they can build on their experience and maybe add to the medal haul!
The full results are tabled below.
Pete O’Keefe
Team Manager
Oxon Schools
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