England Athletics Under15 & Under 17 Championships
Bedford International Stadium
Saturday 27th & Sunday 28th August 2016
Six of Kingston’s outstanding young athletes made the journey south to Bedford to compete in the 2016 England Championships meeting which was held over the weekend of the 27th and 28th of August.
On Saturday’s opening day of competition it was the throwers taking centre stage, the club is immensely strong across all age ranges in the throwing disciplines, hammer, discus, shot and javelin and the 2016 track & field season has been a most successful one for the clubs throwers.
Three Kingston athletes made it on to the medals podium, which saw Ollie Stevenson being crowned the England under 17’s hammer champion and Shaun Kerry and Ben Copley respectively picking up a silver medal each in the under 15’s hammer and discus events.
Saturday 27th August – Day One
14 year old Shaun Kerry is the holder of four 2016 hammer titles having won gold at the English Schools Championships and the Northern Championships as well as taking both the County and County Schools titles. He was looking for a 5th title here and was involved in a two way battle with his big rival Jack Lambert of Kidderminster & Stourport for the gold and silver medals, with the other eight finalists all scrapping for the bronze. Shaun put out a big throw of 60.51m but had to settle for the silver medal this time, with Jack coming through for the gold.
2016 has also been a big year for 16 year old discus thrower Josh Tranmer who has picked up three titles this season, at the Northern Championships as well as the both the County and County Schools events, plus a bronze medal at the English Schools championships in Gateshead. He put in a huge effort at Bedford but as hard as he tried he couldn’t find his best form and his biggest throw of the day was three metres down on his usual standard and he had to settle for 8th place in the national final.
Sunday 28th August – Day Two
Two times England International Ollie Stevenson has picked up silver medals at both the English Schools and the Northern Championship meetings this year and gold medals at the County and County Schools Championships. The UK No. 2 was looking to win here after the disappointment of being narrowly beaten to the gold medal at the previous weekends Northern Championships by Carlisle Aspatria’s Tara Simpson-Sullivan. It was another very tight and close contest with Ollie, Tara and Wrexham’s Jade Williams battling for the three medals. This time however the gold medal went to Ollie Stevenson with her throw of 57.14m with Jade 64 centimetres behind her in the silver medal position and Tara another 30 centimetres back winning the bronze.
14 year old Ben Copley is yet another thrower who has enjoyed a superb track & field season this year, gold medals have been earned at the Northern’s, the County and County Schools Championships, plus an excellent silver medal at the English Schools Championships. He is another great competitor and he too was involved in a close contest for the medals. He threw a big new PB of 41.90m more than a metre ahead of his previous best to win the silver medal, with Finbarr Dunne of Inverness taking the gold and Joshua Wise of Southampton the bronze.
Two Kingston upon Hull hurdlers were among the top athletes from all around the United Kingdom competing in the England Athletics Championships at the Bedford International Stadium.
Heptathlete Venus Morgan continued her busy competition programme when contesting the under 17 women’s 80m hurdles. The English Schools Championship finalist and Northern Counties bronze medallist was disappointed with her performance which saw her eliminated in the heats, recording a time of 12.10 sec to finish 5th in her race. Next target for Venus will be the UK Schools Games where she will represent England – North East in the sprint hurdles where she will be keen to find her mid-season form again in what is sure to be a high class event.
14 year old Sam Croney contested his first England Athletics Championship as he continued a highly successful season over the 80m hurdles event for under 15 boys. Having taken a bronze medal in the recent Northern Championships Sam was ready for the step-up in quality for the national event and gained further valuable experience when recording a time of 12.23 sec to finish 5th in his heat. The quality of the field was highlighted by the winning time of 10.98 sec by Enfield & Haringey’s Daniel Knight placing him in the United Kingdom all-time top 10 for the event – ahead of former world record holder Colin Jackson on the list.
Shaun Kerry returned to action on the Sunday in one of his other events, this time he was contesting the shot competition, an event where he holds the County title and was the silver medallist at the Northern Championships. There were some very good throwers in this final and he was unable to get among the medals but he put in a good performance and his throw of 13.82m saw him finish in 5th place in the ten man field.
