UYDL - 25/7/21

29 July 2021

Our U20/U17 athletes finished a solid 3rd in the third round of the Youth Development League held in Yate. All athletes who attended worked hard and demonstrated true team spirit, which inevitably led to some truly brilliant individual performances.

Ciara Thornley and Kiya Dee shone brightly on an overcast day to both run U17 Club records in an emphatic fashion. Taking on the 3000m with a recent PB at the English Schools Championships of 10:05.59 it was clear that Thornley was in brilliant form. She looked in control from start to finish, almost making the performance look easy, and crossed the line in a huge PB of 9:53.60. This time jumps Thornley up to 10th in the UK U17 rankings and beats the previous Club record by 4 seconds. Thornley’s performance is even more impressive when you consider that the previous record was set by GB Olympian Vicky Holland, who competed in the Tokyo Olympic Triathlon just a few days after her record was broken; here's hoping Thornley follows in her path. Dee and Thornley competed in the same event at English Schools, but Dee was tackling a brand new event at the weekend, the 1500m steeplechase. A challenging event, it often takes many attempts for athletes to get to grips with it. Dee, however, demonstrated her natural talent, running a solo for the entire race and breaking the Club record by around 40 seconds. Dee finished 1st in 5:10.41, putting her 4th in the UK U17 rankings, all this after having already won the flat 1500m earlier the same day in a time of 4:49.40. An amazing day's work and we look forward to seeing how quick Dee can go as she learns the event more. 

Taya Dee and Molly Dibden competed in the U17W B 3000m and 1500m races respectively. Dee battled hard and ran strongly to finish in 11:36.01, whilst Dibden ran well to finish her event first in a SB of 5:30.80. The 800m saw Charlie Boulton and Freya Howell both finish 4th in the U17M and U17W A races respectively in 2:19.51 and 2:36.58. Hetty McCartney won the U17W B race in 2:41.89.

In the field, Sulaiman Ouiles was jumping head and shoulders above everybody else in Pole Vault, winning in a big PB of 3.70m. Ouiles had set his previous PB earlier the same week, so in just one week managed to improve by a massive 20cm. Ouiles has been incredibly patient this season, jumping consistently in each competition, so this big breakthrough week is very well deserved and places him in the UK U17 top 10. The conditions on the day were not optimal for Pole Vault with strong winds, therefore we are sure there is even more to come. 

U17M Oliver Spencer was 3rd in the A Long Jump with a best of 5.24m and, just 1cm behind, William Andrews-Flint won the B event with 5.23m. Competing in the U17W Long Jump, Rosie Wood jumped 3.80m, her third longest jump ever. Andrews-Flint returned for the Triple Jump where, despite the winds, produced his second best jump ever to finish 1st in the A event with 11.19m. Billy Buxton took the win in the B event in 10.27m and also competed in the Discus, where he produced a 3.08m PB to win in 39.08m, a big achievement for Buxton who is another athlete whose patience has been rewarded. Ouiles was our B Discus thrower and finished 2nd with a PB of 24.32m. In only her second competition ever, Thea Vine came 4th in the A U20W discus with 19.31m. Jorja Webb threw a PB of 13.47m for 2nd in the B competition. In the U17W event, Anya Bolton was 3rd with a best of 18.94m. Mimi Davis improved her PB set one week prior in the U17 javelin, throwing 36.32m to improve by 35cm and move to 21st in the UK rankings. Luco Colombini, 2nd in the U17M competition with 41.95m, has impressively thrown over 41m in all six competitions this year. The final throwing event, the Shot Put, featured Jessica Duncton and Tamsin Hatton. Duncton was 2nd in the U17W A event, throwing 10.30m, just 1cm shy of her PB and Hatton was 1st in the B competition with a PB of 7.68m.

Back on the track, Tom Pritchard, Oliver Spencer, Emily Spencer and Lily Marchant completed a 100/200m double. Pritchard was 3rd in both U20M events running 11.69 in the 100m and 23.68 in the 200m. Oliver Spencer was 2nd in the A U17M 100m in 11.97 and stormed home to a great 1st place in the 200m in 23.54. Max Lancett competed in the B U17M race, finishing 4th in 12.81. U20W Emily Spencer was 2nd in the B race for both events, running 14.50 for the 100m and a SB of 29.78 in the 200m. Grace Pitman took 2nd in the U20W A race in 13.20 and U17W Jessica Duncton flew to 25.57 and 1st in the U20W A 200m. Marchant was our final athlete completing the double and ran well to 3rd in the U17W A 100m in 13.67 and 4th in the U17W A 200m in 28.27. The U17W B 200m saw Lulu Skurek run a solid 29.75 for 2nd. All our sprinters battled tough headwinds, making fast times tough, but all produced brilliant performances close to their best.  

Moving up to the 300m, Skurek finished 4th in the A race in 45.92. In the B race, Tamsin Hatton ran a PB of 47.24 for 2nd. Jorja Webb is showing real consistency over 400m this season and continued this in Yate finishing 2nd in 62.09.

English Schools Silver Medallist, Jessica Duncton was strides ahead of her rivals in the 80m Hurdles. Battling into a -3.1 headwind, Duncton was still able to run an impressive 11.65.

Harriers were able to field two relay teams, the U20W 4x100m and U20W 4x400m. Both teams pulled together well to finish 2nd in SBs. The 4x100m team ran 50.98 and the 4x400m team ran 4:34.00.