Our U13/U15 team travelled to Swansea for the first round of the Youth Development League. What a great day we had!

The weather was ‘unique’, with sun, rain and sooo windy… with gusts of over 50mph thanks to Storm Hannah! All jumps were moved indoors; discus and hammer were cancelled due to safety concerns with the cage; and athletes coming down the home straight were buffeted with wind speeds of over -5!

Despite the weather conditions our young athletes – many competing for the first time – pulled out all the stops. We had quite a few gaps in the team for this round but many athletes stepped in to fill what they could, competing in events they had never done before and often way outside their comfort zone… Throwers were sprinting, sprinter were jumping etc!
EVERY PERFOMANCE COUNTS, whether in first or last place, all add valuable points to the overall team score. And we are so proud of each athlete that took part!
A tremendous display of team spirit, held together by our fabulous team manager Sam who encouraged and supported and cheered on the athletes for 7 hours straight (with Liam doing a fantastic job assisting the athletes too)!

Special shout outs to George for competing on his birthday, Matt (Our shot put/hammer thrower)for doing both relays, and the boys U15 4x100m team as they stepped in last minute, along with Eve, Maddy and Ruby.

Even in these conditions many athletes recorded PBs. Harry achieved THREE jumps PBs in pole vault, long jump and high jump! Amy long jumped over 4m for the first time with a 27cm PB; Laura won the U13 girls 1200m; Naomi PBd in 75m hurdles; Alex won the U15 shot with a 1m PB; Imogen PBd in javelin and long jump; Adam added 37cm to his pole vault PB and won the U15 300m with a new PB; Luke won the U15 high jump with a huge leap of 1.88m, which is a PB, a new CLUB RECORD and places him in the top spot on the UK rankings! Luke had a crack at 1.90m to equal the YDL record but didn’t quite get it this time – but fingers crossed for the next match!

Our relay teams worked hard, alternately battered by and pushed on by the wind! The U15 girls 4×300 team finished a fantastic second, and in the final nail-biting race of the day, our U15 boys 4×300 team took first place!

(With so much going on it’s hard to keep track of all the PBs, so please do add your PBs or any performances you are particularly proud of to the comments below so we can all celebrate with you! Results will also be put up on the results section of our website after they have appeared on the Power of 10. Also please add any photos that you would be happy to share and that we can put on our website.)

Special thanks to our officials who stood out in the gale force winds most of the day earning vital points for the team. At the final result we finished in 6th place overall, but only 19 points behind 5th place. With many more athletes available for the second match in May we are confident of improving on our overall score. If you are in school years 6,7,8 or 9 and would like to be part of the team please contact team manager Sam Hillier-Smith for all the details.