Woking’s athletes were in action this weekend at Kingsmeadow at the Surrey County Championships with a history as being widely regarded as one of the best quality championships in the country and this weekend proved no different. There were many high quality performances with many times and distances ranking athletes very high in the country including Olympian Jessie Knight in the women’s 400 metre hurdles. Woking athletes were amongst these picking up many medals with some outstanding performances putting them highly ranked in the country.
On the Saturday the first gold medal was picked up in the under 13 boys 200 metres with Desimi Akinyanju winning a very close race only taking the lead in the final 20 metres showing great relaxation and determination to overhaul the leader to win in a time of 27.01 seconds ranking him 6th in the UK and is a national grade 2 standard. On the Sunday he narrowly missed out on a medal in the 100 metres finishing just 4 100th’s off bronze and just 7 100ths behind silver in a time of 13.37 seconds. In the older age group sprints Tyler Panton continued his fine start to the season with a comfortable win in the under 20 100 metres in a time of 10.74 following up his bronze medal from a fortnight ago in the British University Championships where his time of 10.57 seconds currently ranks him 2nd in the UK.
In the longer sprint Theo Cheshire knocked a huge chunk off his personal best time winning a silver medal in a very good time of 52.11 seconds
The actual first medal was picked up by Alice Clark in the under 15 girls long jump where she achieved a personal best distance of 4.75 metres. Alice improved on her distance in every round and after being pipped into 2nd place by 1 cm in the last round she leapt to her new best distance to take the silver medal. She followed this up on the Sunday with another silver in the discus with a distance of 25.02 metres, just shy of her personal best.
Elsewhere in the long jump Woking picked up a hat-trick of bronze medals with Fara Jasani jumping 4.87 metres in the under 20 women’s competition, Lucy Tribe was third in the senior women’s competition with Laura Kersley 3rd in the under 17 women’s competition. Earlier Laura had a very good run in the 80 metre hurdles with a new personal best time of 12.70 seconds with the winner of the race running a time ranking her number one in the UK.
In the throws on the Saturday Jack Dormer threw a huge personal best in the under 15 boys javelin adding over 5 metres to his previous best winning a silver medal with a throw of 36.02 metres. Jack Harel was just shy of his personal best winning the silver medal in the under 15 boys shot putt with a throw of 9.75 metres. In the senior women’s throws Eleanor Gatrell was 2nd in the discus and Florence Baulk was third in the javelin. Eleanor then went onto win her specialist event the shot putt on the Sunday.
Early Sunday produced a glut of medals with Ella Barker winning silver in the under 20 400 metre hurdles and newcomer Nerys Tullett winning the under 17 women’s 300 metre hurdles in a time of 49.03 seconds. Emelia Wazydrag then won the under 15 girls hammer with a personal best throw of 21.04 metres, adding 3 metres to her previous best. The under 15 girls high jump produced an exciting competition with 3 athletes contesting 1.53 metres with 2 being Woking athletes in Olivia Heming and Milla Hadley. Both narrowly missed clearing the height but both produced personal bests in clearing 1.50 metres with Olivia winning silver and Milla winning bronze ranking them currently in the top 25 in the UK. In the under 13 girls long jump Evie Wiltshire was another to produce a personal best performance with a leap of 4.27 metres to win the bronze medal, just missing out on silver.
The performance of the day from a Woking perspective came in the under 15 girls 1500 metres with Lola Roake having a superb run showing her normal strong sprint finish to win a silver medal in a fantastic new personal best time of 4 minutes 47.25 seconds which currently ranks her 16th in the country and is a national grade 1 performance. Imogen Freeman also qualified for the final running a personal best time and showing great promise.
There were a further 2 medals later in the day in the throws with Matthew Smith not having the best of the weather conditions in the shot putt but still winning the bronze medal with a throw of 12.05 metres which is just shy of his personal best but still a national grade 3 performance. He went one better in the discus by winning the silver medal to complete a fine weekend for the Woking athletes in all disciplines.
Woking athletes are next in action this weekend at the Youth development League Lower match in Bournemouth on the Saturday and the Seniors have their first Southern Athletic League fixture on Sunday in Gillingham.