GOLD! GOLD! GOLD!
24 of the best athletes in Oxfordshire started their quest for gold in the newly appointed Commonwealth Stadium in Birmingham. The 18000-seater stadium was never going to be filled but the atmosphere from day one was electric.
Hopes of a bumper year abounded as we arrived at the stadium with 2 athletes in the UK number one position and a handful of others in top five places. Could we possibly do better than 2022 when we took home 6 medals?
After the long covid years it was heartening to see the squad was bolstered with 9 under 15 athletes – this bodes well for the future as attaining a qualification time/distance at this age is supremely difficult. I’m sure confidence will grow in these young athletes and the experience of being ‘processed’ through a major event such as this is invaluable.
FRIDAY
Friday was to prove very eventful – 19 of the 23 athletes were involved with heats and some finals on the first day. This year ESAA had decided to go straight to Finals from Heats so qualification was very tough and basically each athlete had to treat the heat as a final if they wanted to progress.
The day had a perfect start with Mathew Ajayi (Watford) winning his 100mt Inter Boys heat – in a new PB and he led the event and was therefore favourite for the final. Annie Jonkers (reading) was up next but sadly she had to pull out of the 80 mt hdls due to illness. Iona Irvine would start her final year in school athletics with an event she hadn’t entered for several years. She raised her game and duly got through the heat in the 100 mt hdls to secure a place in the final. A transferee from Berkshire – due to a school move – was Kaya Slater (she was a finalist in the Inter Girls 100mt in 2022) a welcome addition to the team. Kaya duly registered a qualifying time in the heat and once more achieved a place – this time in the Senior Girls 100mt final. The much-awaited arrival of Divine Iheme (Radley) would not disappoint. Divine had led the country as an under 13 boy for two years and as he entered the arena as a first year under 15, he was also UK number one! In the blink of an eye, he blasted to victory in his heat of the under 15 boys 100mts and was favourite for the title being the fastest qualifier – in a new PB! A surfeit of riches in the 100 mts meant we had two more boys, Lincoln Jones (Radley) and Joel Nga (Abingdon) in the other heats – both boys performed well but at this level they found the opposition too strong and failed to progress from the heat. Yet another 100mt runner was Annabelle Van Heldsingen (Reading) in the under 15 girls – Annabelle gave a great account of herself but yet again was unable to reach the final – however more was to come from Annabelle as we shall see later!
The first race in the afternoon program saw Aidan Williams (Radley) fresh from his success at the Midland Regional combined events, Aidan was in the 300 mts (as if he didn’t have enough other events!) A massive PB of over a second was regrettably still not enough to secure a place in the final but he was very pleased with his effort and again we would see more of Aidan (the bend) on Saturday. In the female version we again had a new comer in the shape of Bisan Musa (Reading). Bisan had a qualification in the 100, 200 and 300 and chose the latter – a wise choice as she breezed into the final with a huge PB. She is still only a first year under 15. Another newbie, Charlotte Campbell (OCAC) also took a chunk off her pb in the 1500 mts but as it was a very tough qualification she did not progress to the final.
It had been sometime since we had, had 3 athletes in a single event. We had 3 in the u15 boys as above and now we had 3 in the Inter Girls 1500mts. Hopes for all 3 making the final were high. Isla McGowan (Banbury) had been tearing up tracks countrywide with huge PBs in 800, 1500 and 3000 mts. No surprise then as she took control of heat one of this 1500 mts to qualify in the top 4. Heat 2 saw our other two competitors and they had a mixed result with Evey Powell (Abing) (on the road to full fitness after a winter of injuries) ensuring she qualified with a PB, but sadly Flo Williams (Radley)found the going tough as she failed to make the final. Flo would get a chance for redemption however in the mixed relay.
Another ‘import’ from Buckinghamshire was Ryan Wells (Wycombe) yet again we saw a successful decathlete from the Midland Senior boys combined events last week chancing his arm in a single event. Sure, enough a solid run saw Ryan progress to the final of the 110 mt hdls.
Charlie Jones (Bracknell) ran close to his best in the senior boys 1500 mts but it wasn’t enough to progress. The final track event on day one saw Oscar Oweka (Abing) take on a strong 200 mt inter boy’s field. Despite missing out on a final slot Oscar was overjoyed to have taken part and vowed to come back next year and take the gold! We love ambition!
Unusually for Oxfordshire we had not had many field eventers making the grade this year, however the two participants on the Friday (both at widely different ends of their school’s journey) did us proud. Adam Bennett (OCAC) under 15 boy’s discus, had qualified on the last day but he was enthusiastic about his chances – sadly he could not reach the heights that had taken him to a UK top 20 spot. At the other end of the spectrum our much awaited appearance of the team captain, Charlie Evans (Banbury) would not disappoint. Charlie was fresh from his success at his much-awaited first GB outing in Mannheim last week and he knew the title was here to be grabbed. So, it was he stepped up and annihilated the field with his first throw. A 9 mt victory ensued in the javelin for Charlie and we had our first medal of the championships – a gold on day one!!
SATURDAY
All the events on the Saturday are finals and 8 of our athletes had made it through from the Friday heats, which meant they joined the other 5 athletes who just had finals to contend with. The first athletes returning for glory were the under 17 girls, Isla and Evey.
Isla attempted to control the race as she had in the heat however tactics clearly got the better of her and she finished outside the medals in a slower time than the previous day. As a result, all the times were down on the heat times, as was the case for Evey. No medals but huge experience gained.
Iona was up next and she acquitted herself well to finish 5th just outside the medals in the senior girls 100 mts hdls. We started to wonder if we were going to have one of those days when things don’t quite come up to expectation. Then Ryan came out to perform exceptionally well in the senior boys 110 mt hdls with a great new PB. No medal again but a good point scorer for his trip to the Combined event finals in Bedford in September.
The 3000mts was up next and having secured a bronze last year we thought Olivia Martin (Abingdon AC) Senior Girl and team Captain would know doubt improve that colour in this her last year. Olivia had given a rousing speech as captain to the team on the Thursday night and she gave herself a good talking to in her race but frustratingly her renowned sprint finish just left her short as she finished 4th
In the male version Quinn Miell-Ingram (Radley) sought to emulate his brother’s success at last year’s schools’ senior boys 3000 mts. Alas despite pursuing the whole field for 4 laps and then getting himself into 7th spot he died away on the final straight.
Could the 100 mt finalists actually live up to their billing and secure for us some much-needed medals at this point? Yes, they could. In the space of 5 minutes, we went from one gold medal to three!!
Divine started the gold rush despite a faltering start he tore down the home straight to fulfil his destiny and also add another PB to his gold medal. Very quickly after this Mathew had the closest finish of the day as he won his gold medal with a superb PB time winning by just one thousand of a second. Only Kaya and Bisan remained on the track and Kaya was determined she was going to get a medal. Frustratingly she damaged a calf muscle and so couldn’t quite get into the medals. Bisan had already exceeded expectation and yet again she came away frustrated as her new PB set in the heat would have been enough for Bronze in the final – next year she will win!!
Yet another 4th place waited for Venetia Mahoney (OCAC) as she equalled her high jump PB just missing out on a medal in the under 17 girl’s high jump. Alistair Crossley (Leamington) had started the weekend as number two on the UK list for the under 15 boys javelin but poor weather conditions in his first big competition meant he was way down on his best mark finishing in 13th position. The final field event of the day saw Archie Street (the leader from the victorious under 19 boy’s decathlon team last weekend) take on the senior boy’s high jump. No improvement on his PB meant Archie was to finish 10th.
And so, to the new events – the mixed relays. Due to a computer glitch the team had believed they had entered into the junior boy’s relay – however we belatedly found out no such race was available for us as a D level county – only A level counties could have single sex relay teams. So hastily we put together a junior relay squad of Bisan, Annabelle, Aidan and Divine. They ran astonishingly well winning their heat and gaining our fourth championship medal a silver overall!! The under 17 age group perhaps had the most exciting and eventful race of the championships as Flo set them off handing to Venetia who found herself having to leap over the head of a girl who had fallen halfway down the back straight into her lane - her high jumping skills to the fore she leapt a huge height and distance avoiding any collision and stayed in her lane. As a result, the relay team was down on its expected position but all had enjoyed the antics!
As a result of good finishing positions and especially our 3 golds and a silver we anticipate that we may have won the D county trophy again but this has yet to be ratified. The 4 medallists from the u15 relay are all newbies and to get a medal in your first year is unbelievable – and of course Divine now has two!!
Thanks to all the coaches and parents for their help and support for and from the athletes and we look forward to welcoming back 19 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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
