‘Tom Pinks’ Relays and Field Events Challenge

EIS Stadium, Sheffield

Saturday 12^th March 2016

A team consisting of twelve of Kingston’s under 13 year’s girl athletes, travelled over to Sheffield, under the supervision of coach Jo Townsend, to compete at the annual ‘Tom Pinks’ relays and field events challenge, which was held as usual at the English Institute of Sports indoor stadium, and the excellent facilities which it offers.

Most of the girls had been to this competition previously and some of them on more than one occasion. It is an extremely popular event and venue.

In the track events the Kingston ‘A’ team were in competition in the ‘Chasing Kelly’ relay, with each of the clubs fielding a team of five runners. Thirteen teams took part in the races which were split into three heats, with the six fastest teams progressing to the final.

The girl’s team went in the second of the three heats, and the athletes in action were Lauren McClean, Evie Watson, Ellie Townsend, Rosie Shepherd and Lucy Whittaker. The girls put on a great display, taking 2^nd place in their heat and posting a time of 3:50.7s, which qualified them for the final.

Unfortunately Ellie Townsend picked up an injury in the heat and was unable to run in the final and she was replaced by Alanah Thoresby.

The five girls performed magnificently in the final, where they stormed to victory, winning the gold medals and finishing in a time of 3:47.6s, more than 4 seconds ahead of the 2^nd placed team from Amber Valley & Erewash AC.

In the field events Ciara Andrews, back to fitness after a spell on the sidelines with injury, won the silver medal in the shot event, with a throw of 8.57m, and Alanah Thoresby took 8^th place with a throw of 5.85m.

The standing long jump event saw three of the girls in action. Evie Watson took 4^th place with a jump of 2.06m, with Rosie Shepherd in 7^th with 2.00m, and Emily Dye 9^th with 1.96m.

Sophie Reed took 6^th place in the highland steps competition, registering a total of 65, and Lauren McClean was 7^th with 52.

In the weight for distance event Katie Smith finished in 6^th place with an effort of 11.75m, and Faye Oliver was placed 9^th with 10.25m.

In the weight for height event Lucy Whittaker took 7^th place with 4 metres with a 4kg weight, with Amy Huntington in 13^th and Alanah Thoresby 14^th both with 4 metres with 2kg.

The standing triple jump saw Niamh Derbyshire take 9^th place with a jump of 5.32m. Ellie Townsend was 12^th with 5.10m, and twin sister Jess Townsend was 13^th with 4.98m.