Basingstoke Open Meeting 5th April 2008

"On a cold, blustery but dry afternoon the Track & Field season got under way at Down Grange when Basingstoke & Mid Hants AC held their Young Athletes Open meeting. Attracting record numbers of athletes to the Arena, there must have over a thousand athletes, supporters and spectators sitting on the grassy banks of the venue. The wind blew all afternoon and the sprinters must have been overjoyed that it was a following albeit above the limit of 2 metres per sec for the times to be considered for ranking purposes. However a fast time under ones belt is always good for the confidence and a number of athletes produced the goods.

 

Of the home contingent Rebecca Curtis-Harris was in great form winning the under 15 girls 100m in 13.11s having recorded 12.61s in her heat, then the 200m in 27.31s again a little slower than her heat time of 26.34s and also the Long Jump with a leap of 5.42m. Chris Ladhams another under 15 was a good winner of the 800m timing his sprint for home with perfection with a 2m13.90s clocking. Among those who are starting do well is Kiera Barker a very talented under 11 who picked three medals with the following performances, 3rd in the Long Jump with 3.48m, 2nd in the 70m with 10.67s and a win in the 600m with 2m3.02s. Another under 11 in the medals was Rhiannon Jenkins with 2nd in the 150m in 23.26s. Moving up the age range Jake sellwood surprised a few by winning the under 15 boys, Long Jump with 4.69m while Jonathan Bradford surged away from the field with 2 laps to go in the under 17 mens 1500m to win in 4m21.1s. In the under 20 category Robbie Kite won the 400m in 53.31s when the weather started to deteriorate while Laura Wright was 2nd in her 400m with 63.28s. Another under 20 to pick up a gold was Liam McGarrigle in the 800m with 2m8.6s.

 

With athletes coming from as far a field as Brigend, Cardiff, Bath, Bournemouth and Hastings this was indeed a good quality meeting and on the field there was good throws from Andrew Elkins of Bournemouth in the under 17 Hammer, Andrew going out to 56.56m while his brother Martyn threw 42.00m in the under 20 age group. In the under 20 Javelin James Broadey of Aldershot, Farnham & Dist AC threw 48.11m. Two athletes that train at Down Grange but run for Winchester AC also competed well, Holly Croxford with no opposition ran a solo 12.0s 100m although the electronic clock stopped originally at 11.99s but the time was round up when the photo was looked at however the 4.8metre per sec following wind did help.Later Holly from Whitchurch ran 24.83s for the 200m. In the 100m under 17 Kieran Showler-Davis ran 10.77s in his heat but withdrew from the final

 

At the express wish of Coach Billy Jewers several invitation events were put on for athletes that train at Down Grange,  Andy Blow showed good form and the Welsh Open Champion recorded wins in both the 100m in 10.63s and the 400m in 49.41s. In the other Invitation event Ben Hazell the UK Decathlon Champion won the 110m hurdles in 15.0secs to show he has benefited from a spell of warm weather training in Cyprus.  While Ben Ellis a Basingstoke British League runner and also of Winchester AC proved he had recovered from a hamstring injury by clocking 10.64s for 2nd behind Andy Blow in the 100m".

 

 

Ian Byett