Medals galore as Newbury AC and Team Kennet impress at Berkshire County Championship
Both Newbury Athletic Club and Team Kennet produced stellar performances in last week’s Berkshire Athletics Track and Field County Championship.
Newbury’s Jacob Woods ran his first competitive sub-two minute 800m to scoop the gold medal in the under-17 final with a time of 1:59.29, while teammate Matt Carter was unfortunate to finish just outside the medal places in fourth after running a big personal best.
There were spectacular successes for the middle distance runners, with Dave Bennet winning the senior 5000m title and Josh Norton claiming the under-15 3000m crown, clocking a time of 9:50.13 and in doing so breaking a club record that had stood for 30 years.
Maisie Jeger won the senior 400m in a lightning fast time of 60.7s and Sophie Bhatt triumphed in the under-20 1500m steeplechase in 5:34.96, breaking her own club record in the process.
George Down dominated the under-17 long jump final, winning the gold medal with a big leap of 6.39m while up-and-coming star Daniyal Mohammed claimed silver in the sand with a jump of 4.10m in the under-13 event.
Jack Collings won silver in the under-17 3000m, Mike Robbins was runner-up in the senior 800m and Oliver Blatchford battled hard for bronze in the under-13 150m sprint.
There was a well-earned silver medal for Beth Palmer in the under-17 discus following a throw of 22.94m while Sophie Livingstone launched her hammer 33.06m to win bronze in the under-17 event.
Back on the track, Jacob Woods ran an impressive personal best to scoop silver in the under-17 400m while there were further second placed medals for Phoebe Benson-Ryder, who also set a new personal best in the under-20 800m, Rebecca Downie in the senior 3000m and Sophie Bhatt in the under-20 edition of the same distance.
Meanwhile, Kennet were no less impressive, with a strong turnout of over 30 athletes landing a haul of 13 gold medals.
The club were typically strong in the throwing events, with Luke Angell leading from the front and winning the senior javelin title he has held for 10 years.
In the under-20 age group, Oliver Ford won both the discus and shot put while teammate Seb Simpson secured a hat-trick of gold medals in the under-17 events, winning the hammer, discus and shot put.
There was lots of success at under-15s, with Will McDonald winning the javelin, Turkay Altunas landing his maiden county titles in the discus and shot put, while Evie Lewis won gold in the girls’ discus.
In the under-13 javelin, Kennet secured a superb 1-2-3-4 finish, with Noah Lauder-Clarke claiming gold, Ben Daley finished second, Euan Jones was third and Josh Ladds was fourth, while Ben Daley won the shot put.
There were a host of silver medals, with Harry Booker finishing second in the senior men’s discus, James Fenner finishing runner-up in the under-17 men’s javelin and Amber Stiles clearing 1.40m to scoop silver in the under-15 girls high jump.
Ethan Kuijten clocked a fast 10.14s to come second in the under-15 boys 3000m, while in the same age group Eliska Simpson threw 23.53 to secure silver in the discus.
Ella Cronk won silver in the under-13 high jump, clearing 1.20m, while Lottie Absolom was second in the under-20 shot put with a fine throw of 9.85m.