Hammer Squad up date

YATE AC HAMMER SQUAD 2017 PRE-SEASON REVIEW

With the summer track and field season fast approaching, most of the YHS members have been out and about looking for some early competitive experience at local Open Meetings.

Already we have seen lots of performances that indicate we could have a great summer ahead and are certainly worthy of a mention:

With the early successes of Eugene Lawlor’s double gold and Karen Jones double gold, with a Championship Best Performance, at the British Indoor Masters, the younger members of the squad had a lot to live up to.  They haven’t disappointed;

Toby Conibear has already twice surpassed this years Junior Boys English Schools Qualification Standard of 38m.

Improving on his best from last season by almost 6m, he has set a new personal best performance of 45.02m, which also happens to be a National Standard.

Competing in the same U15 age category as Toby for their first season, we also have Owen Merrett and James Viner.  Ranked Second and Eighth respectively in last years British U13 rankings, both boys are admirably dealing with the 1kg increase in hammer weight that a new age category brings.  Owen has already broken the 30m barrier with a new Personal Best of 30.15.  Snapping at his heels, James has set a Personal Best distance of 24.42m.

In the U17 Girls category both Chloe Pitts and Leah Hale have already exceeded the 40m barrier.  Chloe has increased her last seasons Personal Best by 20cm, with a distance of 42.82m.

Competing for the first year as an U17, Leah has set a Personal Best of 41.68m.  This is an impressive 5m improvement on her best from last season.

Finally, Karen Jones has now twice beaten her Personal Best this year.  Having already set it at the British Indoor Masters in March, she nudged it up by a further 11cm, to 35.80m at the recent Bath Field Festival.

So, seven Personal Bests, four Championship gold medals, a Championship Best Performance a National Standard and an English Schools Qualifying distance…  And it’s only early April!

Bring on 2017, I can’t wait.

Matt Spicer