It has been a busy weekend for athletes from Yate & District AC. The club had a host of young people – and some not so young people – at big meetings on both Saturday and Sunday.

8th JUNE

Schools championships are important because they lead up to the biggest meeting of the year – English Schools, the national championships. With the Yate track still not quite finished, the Avon Championships had to move to the Kip Keino stadium in Bradley Stoke. The weather was not kind, but nearly twenty Yate athletes came out winners.

Notable among them were Dan Brooks winning both 100m and 200m with Isaac Cory coming second in both races. Dan’s time of 10.8 secs emphasised just how good he has become in the last twelve months.

Club-mate Nathaniel Mitchell came home a clear winner in the Inter Boys400m with a time 0f 52.1 secs. And Abdi Hasan romped home in the 800m. His time of 1:57.3 secs will not have pleased him, being still three seconds short of the English Schools qualifying time.

Seamus Robinson was streets clear of the next boy home in Junior Boys 1500m with a atime of 4:28.1 secs. Luke Ball’s winning jump in the high jump was modest by his standard but still a good 30 centimetres better than his nearest rival.

In the Inter Boys hammer competition there could only be one winner. Toby Conibear hurled the hammer out three times farther than the only other boy in the competition – once again well clear of 60 metres. Toby also won the discus.

The Inter Girls middle distance events were sewn up by Yate athletes, with Kate Howard winning the 800m, Dalis Jones the 1500m and Rosie Hamilton-Jones the 3000m. Dalis was particularly impressive, coming home nearly 20 seconds ahead of the competition.

But not all Yate athletes go to school in Avon. At the Wiltshire championships, Owen Merrett and James Viner had the Inter Boys throws sorted. Owen won both hammer and javelin, while James was second in hammer and discus. In the Junior Boys, Theo Spurrell won the javelin with a terrific throw of 44.55m.

There were wins for Yate girls in Gloucestershire. Jodie Dale won the Senior Girls javelin and Fiona Barkley the Junior Girls high jump.

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9th JUNE

The Avon Track and Field League, which got under way on Sunday at Gloucester, is a chance for all club members to have a go, including some parents competing at the same event as their children possibly for the first time since the three-legged race at infants school sports day. There were Yate winners from both male and female sides, and in all age groups. Despite the meeting being away from home, the Yate team won the overall match with 1123 points ahead of the North Somerset with 961. Yate men were convincing winners, while the women were pipped by the North Somerset ladies.

Several Yate athletes were competing for the second day running, but still managed to win their events. In the pole vault, Liam Hillier in the under-17 men and Adam Nolan in the under-15 boys were both winners. Adam apparently well recovered from an incident with a broken pole in mid-week. Seamus Robinson dropped down a distance to win the under-15 boys 800m. Luke Ball also turned out for the second day in the weekend, winning both long jump and 80m hurdles, and then taking part in the successful 4x100m relay.

On the girls’s side, Fiona Barkley won her second high jump competition of the weekend with a jump of 1.63m, backed up by Eva Purse who took second place. There were wins too for Naomi Dawson in the under-15 girls 75m hurdles; for Grace Horswell and Hannah Lewis in the pole vault; Lucy Durham in the triple jump, and Katie Robbins in the 400m.

Josh Snook, back from university in America, won the senior men’s 200m in 22.1 secs – clearly benefitting from the expert US coaching.

All in all a fine start to the Avon Track and Field campaign, promising a great deal for the rest of the summer.

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At the Midlands Championships the previous weekend, there was success for Yvette Westwood who took the gold medal in the 100m with a time of 11.90 secs and silver in the 200m in 24.95 secs. Ben Wells also ran well, recording a personal best time of 24.95 secs in the 200m.