‘City of York’ Summer League
York University – Saturday 1st September 2018
Five Kingston athletes were in competition at the City of York AC’s ‘Summer League’ meeting, which was held on Saturday 1st of September at the clubs home track. On the York university campus.
Middle distance runner Thomas Smales, was the under 15 boys silver medallist at this Januarys County cross country championships. He backed that up with finishes in the top third of the field, at both the Northern Counties and the English Schools cross country championship meetings. The track & field season saw him running middle distance for the junior team in their UK Youth Development league campaign. He also turned his hand to throwing both the hammer and javelin in league meetings. This year he has knocked 9.4 seconds off his PB in the 1500 metres and 9.35 seconds off his 800 metre time. He ran in the first race of the 1500 metre series at York, taking 7th place and clocking a time of 4:46.73 sec. His attention now is on the fast approaching cross country and road running seasons, which will keep him occupied throughout the autumn and winter months.
Thrower Antony Mould has been making steady progress throughout this year, in the hammer, discus and shot. He won the hammer silver medal at the county championships in May and took the hammer bronze, for the second consecutive year, at the northern championships, which were held this year at Liverpool’s Wavertree Stadium. He is a first year under 17 and has been competing with the youth team in the UK YDL fixtures. 2018 has seen him improve his hammer PB by 10 metres, the discus by 8.09 metres. This was his first season with the heavier 5 kg shot and he established a PB of 8.11 metres. He was in action in the hammer and discus events in York. He threw a new PB of 42.45 metres, an improvement of 1.17 metres, to win the win the hammer competition. He also took 2nd place in the discus event, throwing another new PB of 29.92 metres, an improvement of 3 metres.
Heptathlete Venus Morgan continued her build up to the English Schools under 20’s combined events championships, which take place on the weekend of 15th and 16th of September. Venus picked up her first medal of 2018 In January this year, a Northern bronze at the combined England and Northern indoor championships. She also placed 11th at the England event. At Mays combined England and Northern track & field championships, she won another Northern bronze. She also took 5th place in the England event, achieving her highest placing at the National, championships. Her points total was also a new Kingston club record. She was in action in three events at the York meeting. Running in race 1 of the 200 metres, she took a 6th place finish recording a time of 26.71 sec. The senior women’s high jump saw Venus take 2nd place, going clear at a height of 1.55 metres, one centimetre outside of her season’s best. She was the winner of the senior women’s long jump with her leap of 5.51 metres.
High jumper Ellie Townsend is a good all round athlete. She is a member of the youth team, where she covers sprints, jumps and throws. Her main focus is the high jump, where she has made good progress this year, adding 8 centimetres to her PB. She won her first County title at this Mays championship meeting, winning the high jump gold medal. She was in competition in the high jump and long jump at the York meeting. She took 3rd place in the high jump going clear at a height of 1.50 metres. In the long jump competition Ellie leapt to a new PB of 4.54 metres, an improvement of 13 cm, to take 3rd place in the event.
Jess Townsend like her twin sister, is a good all round athlete. Her main focus however is in the discus circle. She won the discus title at the 2018 County championships. Jess covers the throws for the youth team. She made her debut for the senior team throwing the discus, in the North of England track & field league fixture in Sheffield this June. Her training partner Faye Oliver made her debut alongside her, both girls were nervous but they competed very well. During the course of this year Jess has added 1.07 metres to her PB in the event. She was in action in the discus circle at York, taking 2nd place with her throw of 24.85 metres.
